Mendoza done, heading down south!

Why, hello!

So after a few days of exploring Buenos Aires we boarded a 16 hour night bus to the city of Mendoza. We´ve spent four nights in Mendoza and today we´re killing time to catch another night bus tonight. This 20 hour ride down south will take us into Patagonia, Rio Negro province. Jon is headed to Bariloche, and Nate and I are going a few hours further south to El Bolson. El Bolson is the city nearest to the farm where we´ll be living for the next month. We´re expected at the farm on the 15th or 16th so we´ll go explore the area for a couple days before we settle in at the farm.

To recap the last few days...

Mendoza province produces 70% of Argentina´s wine and is known for its olives and honey. Our main objectives here were exploring wineries, drinking wine and visiting Aconcagua Provincial Park to hike in the vicinity of Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the world outside the Himalayas at topping out at 6962m.

Our bus ride to Mendoza from BA was totally comfortable - bus travel is the main mode of intercity travel in South America so the quality is generally excellent. We only paid about an extra $15 to get executive class...we were on the top level of a two-tier bus in the front row, and the view was fantastic. Two meals were served, wine, a nice liqueur and a movie. The seats recline to nearly flat, and you get a pillow and a blanket and we slept well.

Our hostel is comfy and it was a really nice place to stay for the 4 nights we were in Mendoza. It has a wine theme, and in addition to a free glass of malbec every day there´s been free activities we´ve enjoyed, inlcuding a proper initiation to Yerba Mate. How it´s prepared, the social customs surrounding it, the different styles. Mate is all around us, and it´s to understand it now.

Despite the fact that it´s very hot here, and it feels like summer to us, it gets much, much hotter in January and February. It´s actually only early spring. Despite knowing this we were disappointed to learn that Aconcagua park isn´t open at all until mid-December. Completely closed. So we did not get to see this famous mountain. Guided expeditions are easily hired to climb it, it´s considered a very approachable non-technical climb that usually takes 15-18 days, to the tune of $2500 or so, but people don´t go near it for a while yet. We had hoped to go on a day hike in the park to get a glimpse. This was disappointing, but we just had to roll with it and there wasn´t too much pouting because we know there will be lots of really exciting mountain fun in the months to come.

We took a trip to the township of Maipu about 45 minutes out of town to explore wineries on bikes. There´s lots of bike rental companies and it´s the best way to visit wineries and all the wineries are set up for informal tastings throughout the day. We drank a lot of nice wine that day, but the most memorable wine for me of the day was a malbec rose from Tempus Alba. Don´t get me wrong, there are countless excellent malbecs, syrahs and cab sauvs around here, but that rose just blew me away.

The city of Mendoza is really mellow for a city of 2.5 million. As with Buenos Aires it´s very green and completely walkable and we´ve spent days just meandering, eating food, reading books, visiting markets and drinking wine. To keep costs under control as best we can we´ve been cooking most meals in our hostel, which has a very pleasant airy kitchen to cook in. While transportation is not cheap, groceries aren´t bad at all and you can get a perfectly respectable bottle of wine for under $5. We also haven´t had a whole lot of time to cook for enjoyment alone in the last little while and it´s been really nice to shop in the local market and cook in the hostel.

We did splurge on a traditional Argentinean asado (BBQ). Roberto the asado chef comes to this hostel twice a week and does a huge spread of beef and chorizo sausage on a massive charcoal asado grill and we loved it. Everything is served family style. He served really simple accompaniments - empanadas to start, and potatoes, salad, chimichurri sauce (his has tomato added) and plenty of wine. I haven´t been eating a lot of red meat in the last couple years, but Argentinean grass-fed beef is delicious and it´s hard to avoid in this highly carnivourous country.

When we were in Buenos Aires we went to a traditional family parilla restaurant when we were still with Sarah and Lis. These are quintessential to eating out in this country, and we had to experience a good one together. El Desnivel was recommended by our hostel and it was everything I hoped for - bright and jolly and loud, with lots of big tables and cheerful service. We really didn´t know what to order, it was kind of baffling, but when the (completely patient) server explained that a whole beef tenderloin can be ordered for a group with salad and potatoes we had to do it. If I weren´t writing from such a painfully slow connection I would upload some photos, including this magnificent giant steak. It came to 320 pesos, so close to $80. Served uncarved on a giant platter surrounded by simple potatoes, roasted peppers and onions, and a big mess of salad. (lettuce, beets and carrots). Without question the best steak-eating experience of my life.

We´ve had our fill of Mendoza and are excited to see the mountains. El Bolson is known as the hippie enclave of Argentina, surrounded by the mountains and known for beautiful fruit and vegetable farms, trout and good local beer. The farm is 24 km from town so we´ll camp in town, get a sense of the area and then head to the farm!