Nh Cordillera Hotel Mendoza

I had the opportunity to made a very short visit to the City of Mendoza in Argentina, a small city, but with her charm.

Is a very quiet city and with a peace and tranquility environment. As this was Autumn, the colors of the season were visible in all the streets. I hadn't´t the opportunity to visit much, only part of the City Center, the "Plaza Independencia", "Plaza San Martín", the "Sarmiento" promenade and other streets.

The people from Mendoza are very hospitable, the atm...

We seem to be on a run of things not going as we planned, first we had the 3 hour delay at Punta Arenas, then we didn´t meet with the ex work colleague in Santiago, we nearly missed the bus to Mendoza, then the Hotel we had originally booked in Mendoza had no record of our booking, and we have found that we cannot fly from Mendoza to Cordoba as we had been originally advised . . . . and we have just had a huge thunder storm with torrential rain, but, it is still really hot here!! So, where to...

First rule of traveling . . . . . . . . never believe a 100% the information in whatever travel guide you choose to read, because generally its slightly wrong or out of date! My comment about the percentage of wine that Argentina export came from one such travel guide, and after todays tour, it turns out it was slightly inaccurate! No wonder it is called a rough guide . . . anyway, more on wine later! Mendoza is a charming city, and certainly somewhere that we both feel very relaxed in. It is...

Well today was our final day in Mendoza, and what better way to spend it than by visiting some more vineyards!! But firstly I must mention the meal we had last night, we went to a restaurant call Azafran (saffron in Spanish) which was recommended to us by the wine tour guide Adam (really cool guy originally from Seattle, who went traveling round South America and ended up staying here). It is no word of a lie to say that it was possibly the best meal we have had in a long long time, and possi...

Before I came to Mendoza I wasn't aware that the whole city is in a desert, and that the existense and life of the city and the wine industry (more than 1000 vineyards) depends on a sophisticated system of man made irrigation. Even throughout the city centre you see 1m deep irrigation channels at the side of every road. The "Parque San Martin" (El Parque) which I visited yesterday is an beautiful urban park, entirely man made and bigger than Central Park in New York. Its a remarkable achievem...