Bienvenidos a Argentina!

Last weekend we escaped the smoggy city to find some more good wine, meat, and sunshine across the border in Argentina.  We left Santiago at 10:30 on Friday night and arrived in Mendoza around 6:30 the following morning. Normally the trip would only take 5 or so hours but stopping with a bus load of people whose passports and bags needed to be checked and stamped made the layover at the border slightly longer.

                Upon arrival early Saturday morning we found our hostel, dropped off our bags, grabbed a bite to eat and went in search of the highly recommended wine tours via bicycle. We caught a local bus that took us about 20 minutes outside of Mendoza where we hopped on bikes with maps in hand and peddled and drank the day away.

       Our first stop was to a tiny specialty olive oil production factory. (Tiny as in about the size of a small house) There we sampled olive oil, olive spreads, specialty made jams, dulce de leche, distinctive liquors and homemade chocolates. We were in heaven and this was only the first stop. After we filled our bellies we were ready for the vino.

         From there we went to the wine museum, then peddled on further to two other small wineries and ended our tour at a little beer garden where sipped on artisan beers. It doesn’t get much better than that- a sunny day with a slight breeze at your back, riding bikes along tree lined streets outside of Mendoza with views of the snowcapped Andes in the distance – plus lots of good wine in between.

            

Yes the beer garden does look empty... we were enjoying ourselves too much to get up and take pictures while other people were there... we basically shut the place down...

    I was coming down with a cold but had no reason what-so-ever to complain. We were having a blast! Around 6:30 we caught the bus back to Mendoza to rest for a bit before a typical Argentinean dinner consisting of lots of beef. 

     The following day we only had a few hours before catching our bus at 2:00 so we decided to be uber touristy and hop on one of the buses with the roof cut out. It turned out to be great and we got to see a good deal of Mendoza in a short amount of time.

 Downtown Mendoza streets.

Admiring the interesting tree species. (Check out the thorns on that trunk!)

View from the hill 'Cerro de la Gloria'

        Though an even better ride was the first four hours of our trip back to Santiago; the landscapes crossing the Andes were incredible.  Our eyelids grew heavy from the short but full 33 hours spent in Mendoza but the beautiful panorama kept us awake and in awe until the sun set after crossing back into Chile.

We officially love Argentina.