Great steak, good wine....and a Big Mac

Trip Start Jun 16, 2008
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Trip End Sep 18, 2008

Flag of Argentina  , Cuyo,
Sunday, August 17, 2008

Our hostel was a short walk from the bus station. Despite being next to the motorway, the hostel was very quiet.

The guy running the hostel was so welcoming and friendly (and the hostel itself was very warm) we felt like we were really at home. Our room was more like an apartment with a lobby and adjoining bathroom. Throw in cable tv and a gas heater and we were happy chappies.

Straight away we noticed Mendoza was a lot cooler than Tucuman.

After showers, we made our way into the city centre which was a 30 min walk away. We were used to streets being empty around siesta time but this was super quiet. We had come to Mendoza for some more wine tasting but since it was Sunday, there were not any tours operating.

The streets in Mendoza are very very wide. There was a large earthquake in 1861 which pretty much levelled the city and they rebuilt the city with wide streets in case of another earthquake. It was designed to provide a place for people to escape the buildings but also for rubble to fall without causing further damage. It was very beautiful.

We hunted around for a lunch spot and settled on a cafe with a friendly waiter. Lo and behold, we saw an english couple who had been on the bus from San Pedro to Salta. We had talked to them the first time about their travels as they were wearing Taupo (New Zealand) jerseys. We had a great lunch with them and they told us that it had been raining yesterday which apparently was the first time it had rained since March!

We both ordered steak which was absolutely delicious. Our lobby!
Our lobby!
 Couldn´t be in Mendoza (Argentina´s famous wine area) without accompanying the steak with a nice bottle of Malbec wine. Yum.

As sad and scary as this sounds, we had previously noticed a McDonald´s on the main street and we popped in for a look-see. Fortunately the bathroom was open for Taj and unfortunately Olivia persuaded Taj to share a Big Mac. Taj fed most of his half to a hungry dog outside!

We walked to the main square and then to the information centre to get some tourist maps. It was then time to buy some more wine (of course it´s all about ´tasting´) and head back to the hostel to drink vino tinto and watch some cable tv.

Since we´re talking about wine, we had forgotten to write about an interesting drink the spanish guy on our salt flat tour had shown us. Red wine and coke. Yes. Red wine and coke in the same glass. He was telling us in the north of Spain (is this true Bea?) it´s quite a common drink if you´re younger and don´t want to spend much money. He reminded us that this was only suitable for BAD wine! Never ever good wine (well of course not...)

Surprisingly, it was tasty. Tasted like a fruitless sangria to be honest. We don´t think we´ll drink this regularly however....

Since we had a late lunch (as well as Big Mac) we were not hungry for dinner and went to bed.
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