Argentina's Wine Country: Mendoza

On Wednesday we left Chile and headed for Argentina. We took a bus from Santiago to Mendoza, Argentina. The bus was very comfortable as we splurged on first class tickets. The ride took us up into the Andes Mountains and through beautiful areas. We saw snow covered mountains with streams running down right in front of desert-like landscape. Half-way into the ride we arrived at the border crossing. We had to exit the bus and wait in line behind another bus load of passengers. We got our passports stamped out of Chile and then moved to the Argentina immigration window. The process was very easy, however it took about an hour. After our bags were scanned, we made our way to Mendoza. We checked into our hostel and headed out for dinner. Fred was excited because we found an outside cafe with a steak special. The steak was huge! Fred had been waiting for steak in Argentina and this one surpassed his expectations. After dinner we relaxed at the hostel.

On Thursday we woke up, headed to the grocery store and then explored the city. After walking around, we headed to the cities largest park. We sat near a lake and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We then stopped for ice cream and made dinner in the hostel.









Our hostel ran a promotion, if you stayed for three or more nights you got a free bike tour through the wineries region. We decided to take advantage of this on Friday. We woke up, ate and headed to the bus stop. We knew that we needed coins only for the bus and this was a problem. We tried to break bills and get one peso coins by buying gum and granola bars. However each store gave us change in bills only. After buying two granola bars and three packs of gum without any luck we decided to head to a bank. After a fifteen minute hike we arrived at a bank. The teller would only exchange two bills into two peso coins!! Luckily we already had two pesos so our bus ride was covered. Taking buses in Argentina is going to cause a big headache! After a 40 minute ride, we arrived at Mr. Hugo's bike rental. We were greeted with huge glasses of wine. After an overview of the area, the wineries and the specials we were ready with map-in-hand and we set off. We first headed to a brewery for beers and empanadas. Then we went to our first winery in Argentina, Tempus Alba. We toured the facilities and then enjoyed a glass of Malbec overlooking the vineyard. We then headed to Familia di Tommaso winery. We took a short tour and had a four wine wine tasting. After the tasting we enjoyed a fantastic platter of food for two. We had goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, fresh green and black olives, two kinds of salami, two kinds of prosciutto, bread and olive oil. It was one of the best meals we have had in South America. We then headed back to Mr. Hugo's, returned our bikes and headed back to Mendoza city. In the evening we relaxed in our room and planned out our next destination.


























Today we went out for lunch and booked our bus tickets out of Mendoza. Tomorrow evening we are going to take a 10 hour night bus to Cordoba, Argentina. Even though we just arrived in Argentina, we have really enjoyed it.
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Location:Mendoza, Argentina