Mendoza
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2009
1
3
7
Trip End
Ongoing
Mendoza, Argentina
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Prior to Mendoza, we spent a few days in Bariloche after the big road trip and a few in San Martin de los Andes. Bariloche, set in the Argentinian lake district, was the perfect place for us to unwind and relax after the road trip. Highlights included celebrating Yaron's 30th birthday, our friend from the trip; swimming and intense mountain biking around the lakes; devouring my best 400g steak to date at Tony's and eating lots of tasty chocolate and ice-cream. A beautiful hike to the lookout points; swimming around an island and bumping into our first South African were the clear highlights in San Martin de los Andes. A 'not so happy' memory would definitely be turning up to the bus station thirty minutes before departure for our onward travel to Mendoza, to find out forty minutes later that we should have got on a bus that left ten minutes before. It sounds a little confusing and I won't go into further detail as to why we didn't get on the correct bus, but the company agreed to hold the bus outside the town while we took a taxi to the waiting bus, to find the on board passengers looking at us with distaste...and made worse by the fact that we were sitting with some of them earlier at the bus terminal.
But back to Mendoza...the first day's wine tasting ended a bit prematurely as we were on foot, and walking between vineyards was more taxing than we initially thought. Thus day two of wine-tasting we decided to embrace the the most popular method of transportation between wine farms and rented bikes from a recommended local family business. The previous day we had seen many people flying past us on bikes from farm to farm, and we thought the biking seemed great but made rather dangerous by the ruthless passing trucks and cars as well as the alcohol flowing through the veins on a 30 degree Celsius afternoon.
After a rather sobering two hour walk to find change for the bus ride back to Mendoza city on the first day, we decided to buy a bus swipe card the next day which would overcome our problems of coin change and give us more 'wine time'.
The theory behind our decision to rent a bike on the second day was to allow us maximum time to fit in as many winefarms as possible. Ironically, the bike we rented from the recommended company broke down after three winefarms and meant we had to walk over an hour back with a broken bike to the rental company. By the time we got back we were cranky as the alcohol had worn off and we had to skip some of the better farms. But that minor issue aside, the tasting was great and the vineyards were visually beautiful with the snow-capped Andes mountain range in the background.
I was aware that that it is not uncommon for men in Argentina to greet each other with a hug and a kiss. Knowing this, I was still taken by surprise when the owner of one of the wine farms grabbed my head and kissed me on my cheek with a lot of passion. I returned the greeting considerably less passionately. Later, while tasting his wine which was by far the best we tasted over the two days, the owner surprised me again by grabbing my head from behind and planting another passionate and this time wet kiss on my cheek. A few of the surrounding tasters exchanged amused looks as he went in for another one. He then sat down at our table and we chatted about wine and Argentinian culture. Our departure presented another opportunity for our new friend to get up close, and he took particular interest in bear hugging Jools and attending to his cheek. Make of it what you wish...
It took us a few days to warm to the city of Mendoza. This was mostly due to the fact that we arrived over the weekend when the city was rather quiet and most of the vineyards were closed to the public. But come Monday morning, the city sprang to life and stepped up a few gears and we spent time watching the city-goers. Mendoza definitely grew on us and what was supposed to be 2-3 days turned into almost a week, even more so for Jools who stayed on longer.
Realising that I had spent almost a week in Mendoza and that we had to leave for Montevideo from Buenos Aires on the 30 March, I booked a spur-of-the-moment ticket to Santiago to spend some more time in Chile before departing to Uruguay. I was relieved to leave unscathed from our bed-bug infested hostel in Mendoza. One of the girls in the hostel got bitten two hundred and eighty one times and many others in the hostel were eaten. The few in my dorm room that were not eaten by bed-bugs did not escape incident however; as severe flu and a near-fatal alcohol-related fall grounded the remainder for a few days. Having believed Jools and I to be the only ones to have avoided incident, I was proven wrong when he turned up at the bus terminal in Valparaiso with bed-bug bites on his face, arms and hands. Although I managed to avoid the physical trauma of their bites; I have however been psychologically wounded and I scratch my non-existent bites when thinking of them. Nasty little critters those bed-bugs.
Due to a drug-related incident earlier in the week, the border crossing during the bus ride from Mendoza to Santiago took over three hours and every bag on every bus was thoroughly searched. Arriving in the dark in Santiago three hours later then planned, I teamed up with two young English people to search for a hostel. A very 'friendly' man at the bus terminal agreed to arrange a taxi to a well known hostel for the three of us. Having no idea where the hostel was in relation to the station we tried to agree a price before entering the taxi, but the guy said it was metered and he had no idea. Our 'friend' jumped in the taxi with us and ten minutes later we arrived at the hostel.
Unfortunately for us the meter read 30,000 Chilean pesos, which was of course ridiculous. But having arrived in a new city in the dark after a tedious bus journey and not used to the new currency, we each handed over 10,000 pesos. Our 'friend' counted the money before handing it over to the taxi driver, then said we had only paid 10,000 in total, and thus 20,000 short. This was the start of a rather nasty twenty minute confrontation, where we refused to hand over more money and eventually we threatened to call the police. He backed down after that, and left with the taxi driver swearing and cursing at us. Speaking to the hostel owners a few minutes later, the trip should only have cost about 2,000 pesos and we were told that taxi issues are a regular problem in Santiago. Our lesson to always set the price of a taxi before getting in will not be forgotten.
Having been told by numerous travellers of the past six weeks to spent little time in Santiago if at all, I was pleasantly surprised to find the city offered more than I had been told. The spectacular bus drive through the Andes from Mendoza to Santiago was alone enough to make the trip worthwhile. Walking through the city centre and numerous plazas and occasionally stopping to chat with locals, I found the city interesting and full of life. It does however suffer from the usual 'big city' problems such as traffic and smog. The hostel were I stayed had a great social vibe and I used the opportunity to practise my Spanish. I also met a Peruvian who enlightened me on some Peruvian cultures which will come in handy for later in the trip.
This trip continues to be what it was always intended to be: 'a fantastic adventure' and each new town, port or city brings with it a host of exciting incidents and we are really looking forward to our next destination, the UNESCO heritage city of Valparaiso, Chile.
Once again, thanks for taking the time to read this blog.
Adios
Alan
