Argentina

5 March 2008
Bus to Mendoza, Argentina
                The bus ride was very scenic with the Andes Mountains lush little valleys in between the peaks.  As we neared Mendoza the towering peaks gave way to beautiful vineyards until we reached the city.
                Mendoza looked like any other modern city, some high rises, well maintained streets, and lots of modern shops.  We took a cab to our hostel and checked in.  Anna was looking forward to getting some rest because of her stomach virus, so Doug went exploring. 
                The center of Mendoza is a large square, 8 blocks wide by 8 blocks long.  There are five parks within, the center block being the largest is 4 square blocks.  The remaining 4 blocks are right near the corners.  So within the center, you are never more than 2 blocks away from a park.
                The main streets were loaded with wine shops and outdoor stores renting skis and snowboards for the nearby Andes.  After getting a lay of the land Doug came back to check on Anna.
                With the promise of excellent beef, we headed out to find Doug a steak.  We settled on a Chop shop one of the nearby streets.  When the steak arrived it was completely covered in thick pepper gravy that hid a piece of beef loaded with fat.  The steak was pretty disappointing (however still better than most beef we’ve had so far).  Near the end of the meal, our outside seats began getting rained on.  We took the opportunity to leave the remains of the steak behind and started to leave.  As we looked back we were surprised to see a random lady scraping our leftovers into a bag for herself.
                Once back at the room we turned in for the evening.

6 March 2008
Mendoza, Argentina
                Today we set off for the nearby vineyards.  Our book said to catch the 170 bus to Maipu (the local wine town).  Once at the appropriate bus stop we found there was no 170 bus.  A guy at the bus stop told us to hop this other bus because they had changed the numbering system.  Once we were on that bus the conductor told us we needed a different bus.  He didn’t charge us and had a guy point us to the correct bus (the 173).
                On the 173, a girl approached with a flyer for a place that rents bicycles to tourists so they can peddle around to a bunch of different vineyards.  We did some flip flopping on whether to do it or just walk.  Eventually we stopped at an information booth and met up with an older Canadian couple that was also going to get bikes.  The first place we went to was renting bikes for $25 pesos each (a little over $8 USD).  We mentioned we were also interested in possibly renting a scooter.  They didn’t have any so they brought us down the street to another place.  They were also out of scooters but were renting bikes at $15 pesos ($5 USD) each.  We decided that was the way to go. 
                The bike ride wasn’t all that great.  Our time in Sonoma, Napa, and Temecula has probably spoiled us with what we expected to riding through.  Instead we were riding on a fairly busy road that didn’t have much of a shoulder to ride on. 
                Once we got to the first vineyard we took a little tour of the grounds and then did our tasting.  The big wine down here is the Malbec, but this first place wasn’t anything too extraordinary.  We decided to split a sandwich there and used up nearly what was left of our pesos.  The problem we faced now was we didn’t have any cash and talking with a few different people along the way, nobody accepted credit cards and the only ATM was way back in town.
                Back on the bikes we diverted back into town for cash before we could go to the next winery.  So we diverted about 2 miles off our course for cash and returned back to our route.  The second winery had a good view but unfortunately the wine couldn’t match it and we left half full glasses behind.  Our final winery finally had some decent vino.  Surprisingly their Chardonnay was quite good (considering neither of us really drink white wine), and the Malbecs and Cabs were good as well.
                On the way back we stopped in at a place that makes chocolate.  We bought some very expensive, but excellent, pieces and peddled back to the rental place.
                Back in town we got cleaned up and headed to an Irish pub for dinner.  Doug ordered a steak sandwich that also came with ham, cheese and a fried egg on it and it was excellent.  Even Anna broke her usual no beef rule and had some (minus the ham).

7 March 2008
Mendoza, Argentina
                Today we needed to get bus tickets to leave the next day.  We decided to mix this in with a little exploring.  Unfortunately Anna’s stomach bug came back up again and rest became more important.
                When we came out later in the day the city was absolutely alive for the annual harvest parade.  During their harvest festival (wine harvest) they have two parades, one in the evening (tonight) and one the next morning.  In this parade they show off all the contestants for the local “Miss Mendoza.”
                As we walked we were also surprised to see a bunch of runners doing a small race down the parade route.  We worked our way through the busy streets over to a hostel that our friends from down under (The Australians we met in La Serena), were staying at.  They offered up an invitation for us to swing by and have a couple drinks with them.
                While we were there enjoying ourselves the TV had live coverage of the parade that was literally one block away.  After Doug once again drank too much, we headed on back to the hostel.  Right before we came to our block we were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the parade.  The floats seemed to be more focused on creating a fancy platform for the pageant contestant and all her runner-ups. 
                Back at the hostel we decided pizza was definitely on the menu and Doug went next door to order one up.  While waiting a gentleman said that he wanted to practice his English.  Doug quickly found out why because this guy could barely put two words together.  In all fairness however, English was also his fourth language, a far cry from Doug’s language capability.
                Back in the room we enjoyed our pizza before turning in.

8 March 2008
Mendoza, Argentina
                The bus tickets we bought to go to Santiago, Chile were for 10:30.  We had plenty of time to get our stuff together, and have a nice walk to the bus station. 
                Arriving at the bus station everything was normal, we had about an hour before our bus was to leave.  We waited about an hour and a half and no bus.  Doug went to check with the ticket counter, and ask when the bus would arrive.  He returned with bad news.  We had missed our bus.  Chile is one hour behind Argentina, and we had forgotten to push our watch ahead.  The guy at the ticket counter had no sympathy whatsoever for our dilemma.  Anna being very irritated with the guy at the counter, we went to another bus company to buy the bus tickets to Santiago.  There was a bus leaving at 1:30pm, it was now 12:30.
                The bus arrived, and left on time.  We met a couple of young Canadian guys on the bus.  We decided to share a taxi to a hostel once arriving in Santiago. 
                The border went just as the one did entering into Argentina.  This border crossing was also just as beautiful if not more so than the last.  This crossing is in the middle of the Andes, over 9000 feet high.  The air was clean, and the mountains were capped with snow.

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