Mendoza to Bariloche

Hello hello again, the period seems to be getting longer and longer between each blogs, which can only mean one thing of course! Hope all is well? I´ve been busy gathering pace on the road recently, enjoying the red wines in Mendoza and climbing and trekking in Bariloche..

Aconcagua

I arrived in Mendoza after a long journey from BA, went straight to the hostel Arida had recommended and the bloody thing was closed. I thought, here we go again, arriving in a town where no one else is here and I'm the only person in the hostel!! I opened my travel guide and found another one quite quickly and hailed a cab. I had arranged to meet Ian in Mendoza, a Canadian lad who I met in Uruguay. Ian was arriving the next day, so I let him know what the craic was with the hostels. My 1st impressions of Mendoza were great, as I was arriving into town I could see the snow capped mountain of Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the southern and Western hemisphere, standing almost 7000 metres above Mendoza, it was a sight to behold. I spent the day doing the usual wandering around the city and had a relatively early night that night. Ian arrived the next day and I had booked us on a bikes and wines tour of the local vineyards. Bikes and wines is not the greatest of combinations especially when you have had a few. Mendoza is the capital of wines in Argentina, almost all the wines exported and sold in Argentina come from here and they are some of the best in the world. Would be a shame not to try them. We headed off on our tour and after been given a quick safety demo we were off on our bikes to the nearest vineyard. We hooked up with another couple of people, John from the UK and two other girls from the states who I cant remember their names. The 1st place we went to was full of other back packers waiting with empty glasses for refills, downing the wine with their eyes before the lady had even poured it, greedy gits.. We headed off to a small liquor factory to sample chocolates and some home made liquor which was great, awesome start to the day, great kick to get us going. All of the vineyards were within a 12km radius, so it was pretty easy to find them. The next place we came across looked really posh, too posh for us we thought. Anyway we went in and were greeted by enormous stainless steel casks and the smell of red wine really got our wine buds going. We ordered the wines to try which was hilarious. One of the American girls ordered a "Cabbi Savi", we all pissed ourselves laughing and said what the hell was a Cabbi Savi?? Its a Cabernet Sauvignon Man, she replied, we were all still laughing at her and waiting for her to order a Merli next.. So we tried the Cabbi Savi and the Merli and the Malbec (real name) which was awesome. We sat overlooking the vineyards in the blazing sun and blue Sky's. We tried another couple of vineyards afterwards and towards the end we were ordering bottles rather than glasses. The bike ride back was a wee bit hairy to say the least. We had a great day, great laugh and the fun continued back at our hostel and into the early hours of the next morning. Luckily the next day was a bank holiday, so we took the "day off" from traveling stuff and just sat outside a restaurant laughing about the previous days activities. The red wine appeared again and that was it for another day. I loved Mendoza, ha ha! Myself and Ian went horse riding the day after, after a slow start the horses got going and they galloped like no tomorrow, I still have the bare patches on my legs where the hair has worn off with the pace of the horse. My ass was killing from the bikes as it was, it was now nicely sore again! We headed on a day trip to Aconcagua the next day and kicked around in the snow for a few hours. To see the mountain up close and personal was amazing. Thousands of people climb it every year and on average 15 people die attempting it. My time in Mendoza was coming to an end and I was a wee bit sad to leave, I met some great people there and overall the week was fantastic if a little over indulgent on the red wine!

Cerro Cathedral, Bariloche

I left Mendoza for Bariloche and arrived early morning. The weather is getting colder the further south I travel which is what I was preparing for. The drive into Bariloche was stunning, lakes for as far as the eye could see surrounded by snow capped mountains. Bariloche itself is surrounded by the Nahuel Huapi lake and there can be a swift cold breeze that will catch you out. I went on a day trip to Nahuel Haupi park, considered to be one of the best in Argentina and it didn't disappoint. Stunning views over the lakes, surrounding mountains and Cerro Tronador, which literally means roaring mountain in Spanish. We visited the black glacier which sits below Cerro Trandor and every couple of minutes Tronador would roar, we all looked on hoping some snow would break away into the glacier. The guide only spoke in Spanish which helped me a little to understand more. Bariloche is a big town, full of ski and snow board shops, you would be forgiven to think you were in Switzerland. Some of the best skiing in Argentina is there, and every year all the elite come down to Bariloche to show off their skills. I took a day trek to Cerro Cathedral, the most famous of all the ski resorts and the views on top were incredible. I thought I would attempt a small hike before going further south to prepare myself. It was actually quite hard, think I need to get my trainers out again. 

Mendoza

I booked a bus to Rio Gallegos for Friday but unfortunately it was canceled due to a local volcano dumping ash on the roads which made it impassable with visibility down to zero. When the ash blew into Baricloche we all thought it was snow at first and then we realized it wasn't going away, silly eijits.. I stayed in a great hostel in Bariloche, the staff were very friendly and helpful and met some people who are doing the same trip as me, so hopefully meet up with them on the way the way round. I´m now in Comodoro, on a stop over before catching a bus to Rio Gallegos and then on to Ushuaia which I´m really looking forward to. I´ll update more then.

take care,

National Park, Bariloche

Mark

View from Cerro Torro, Bariloche