Argentina: Mendoza and the trip over the Andes

I have to say up front that South America was absolutely amazing. It was amazing in so many ways, and there wasn’t a second of it that I would trade. It is, however, is a unique place in terms of their recent and cultural history, the separation between city centers and everywhere else, and how unbelievably (dis)similar it was to the US. There are adventures and stories that may portray some areas in a negative light, but take this with the idea that it is simply different – not better, not worse – than to what I have been accustomed. It allowed me some visibility into a world that truly has not been my own…. I believe I’ve traveled my fair share and honestly was prepared for an experience more similar to that of my trips to southern Europe than to the some of the places I was fortunate enough to see.

The flight down there was a business class red-eye. (All done with airline miles!) I highly recommend this since the flight didn’t seem close the 11 hours that it was – I slept nearly the entire way. I did learn that the “lay-flat” beds are a far cry from coach, and are flat… just not parallel to the floor. I think I had to hoist myself back up the seat a few times during the night to keep from sliding under the seat ahead of me. J I know I know… What right do I have to complain about business class?!

We landed around 9am in Buenos Aires, and were to take an overnight bus (another 11 hours or so) later that evening to Mendoza. The international airport in Buenos Aires is almost amusing. A single runway, and the airport itself appeared more like your regional airports in the US. The airport is about 40 minutes outside of the city center, so we got a remise (hired driver) to take us straight to the bus station thinking we absolutely had to get there at some point, and could wander around there a bit until our bus left. Taxis abound in the city and at the airport, but we heard (and later experienced) that the taxis in Argentina can be a scam – meters that clock in double time, drivers taking you in circles, and being given fake cash when you get change. A remise is the way to go….

At the bus station, there were stray dogs all over the place. I can’t really call it a problem since the dogs were all quite amenable and didn’t bother anyone, but they really were all over. I had to keep telling Brian not to pet the dogs (for fear of him bringing fleas back to the hotel, much less anything else!) I thought the stray dogs were perhaps a bus station issue, but they’re in every city like that – in parks, on the street, wandering down the sidewalk… Keeping Brian away was a full time extravaganza. I finally bought hand sanitizer and just made him wash his hands every 15 minutes (exaggerating! kind of...) The dogs seem smart though! They even wait at the cross walks to cross the street. Very strange…

We found a place to store our luggage for the day and went in search of lunch in the sweltering heat. We found this huge but empty place at the rail station that was air conditioned and decided anywhere with a/c was good enough for us. My first real experience in trying to communicate in Spanish happened here successfully! The food was good, but what I most remember was converting the Argentinian pesos into $ and being SO happy that our meal (a pizza and 2 liters of beer) cost all of $8. The rest of the day we wandered close by the bus station, found the hotel we’d be staying at later in the trip (not far from the bus station), and relaxed. I also had the task of keeping Brian from trying to pet every dog that entered his eyesight.

The bus that night was actually quite nice. We took a first class bus to Mendoza, which has lay flat seats (parallel to the floor!) and was quite a comfortable ride. The food wasn’t bad either! We arrived in Mendoza around 9am the next morning, took the risk and grabbed a taxi to the hotel, where we were able to check in early to our suite! We showered (for the first time in 2 days – ugh!), and got some rest before heading out to explore.

Mendoza is a very outdoorsy place. There were lots of small travel agencies that specialized in mountain treks anywhere from a day to a week, paragliding, whitewater rafting, biking, and wine tours. Wine is BIG in Mendoza – the area is the largest producer of wine in South America, and their malbecs are world-renowned. We only had 3 days in Mendoza, and then were planning to take another overnight bus to Santiago, Chile, so we quickly decided we needed to do a wine tour and go whitewater rafting. The whitewater rafting was not so long in the water (45 minutes?), but it definitely gave us a sense of Argentinian’s time. If they tell you they’ll be there in 10 minutes, they mean around 40. They’re very relaxed people. We did the whitewater rafting our second day and spent most of the afternoon hanging out above the water with some other Americans that we met and waiting for the van to take us back into the city.

That night, we were able to go to a 5-star restaurant in Mendoza called 1884. It’s a restaurant that’s been written up in the New York times, and the food and atmosphere were absolutely amazing. The entire restaurant is walled in. You have to have a reservation to enter, and its an old winery that surrounds a beautiful courtyard and grill area. Apparently the governor of Mendoza was there the same night we were, so security was very tight. The picture here is of my dessert, "burned fruits". The absolute best thing I've ever eaten...

The next day, we’d hired a driver to make reservations at 4 wineries in the area and take tours of them. Wineries in South America are not like those in Sonoma/Napa – reservations are a must, and you get a full tour of the winery in addition to the small tasting sessions. We had a beautiful lunch at one winery, were able to drink wine straight out of the barrel at another, and bought a handful of bottles to bring home with us. It was a quite intimate experience, and we met a few other people – both from the US and South America, as well as Germany and elsewhere. I think the rest of our time in Mendoza was spent eating… I love their food… And I gained about 20 lbs because of it.

In all of our chats with other people, whenever we mentioned our overnight bus that was planned for Santiago, it was heavily advised to take the bus during the day. So we did.

The trip over the Andes mountains into Chile is a beautiful 7 hour ride, and a little scary at times! The road just after the border crossing turns into an extreme version of that twisty Lombard St in San Francisco. I was completely convinced we were going off the edge of the cliff at every turn. The transition from Argentina to Chile was almost shocking to drive through though. Argentina is very poor in the rural areas. The highways we were on in Argentina were dotted with small shacks that were lucky to have windows, but all had bars over the doorways and windows (or where the windows should be). On the Chilean side, the level of living was noticeably higher. The houses rarely had bars, and were actually quite cute cabins in the mountains.

Santiago is just at the base of the Andes, and is a wonderfully clean city. Their subway system (although it closes at 10pm) was so clean and decorated so nicely, it could make you think the Manhattan subway stations were from a third world country. I have to wonder how heavily subsidized the subway system there is, or what NYC is doing wrong. Santiago may be cheaper than NYC, but its certainly not the place you should visit if you want to save cash. The exchange rate was something like 660 Chilean pesos to 1 US dollar (insanely hard to figure out how much you’re spending on the fly), but you’d spend 20,000 pesos for a taxi ride....

More to come when I have some more time to sit down and write...