Across the Andes to Mendoza
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
251
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Mendoza,
Argentina
Saturday, January 27, 2007
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I took a minibus in the early afternoon to get from Santiago to Mendoza. That was my first close encounter with the Andes, which are quite big mountains. There was snow on some of the peaks, and we drove past a ski resort... without any snow, arghhh!
The clouds and rain were there, making the mountains even more impressive, as the peaks and valleys would only appear occasionally. Not good for pictures though.
Passing the border was quick (while usually it takes a few hours apparently), as there were not many vehicles queuing there. We were at some 3000 meters high I think, and the mountains around were still a few thousand meters higher!
In Mendoza I stayed in different places. A nice quiet town, even though it hosts a few hundred thousand inhabitants. Lots of trees, parks, large avenues with big pavements, like in most cities which have been planned before being built!
Not much to visit though. The area is a big wine producer, and one of the activities there is to take a tour of the wineries. They also offer rafting and hiking in the mountains.
I visited the town, going to the museum tracing the city history, on the area fundacional (original site of the townhall). I met up with german Simone from Easter Island, and her Italian friend Leo. We tried out a few cheap restaurants. Leo introduced us to his Argentinian friend Beatriz, a sopran who spends half of her time in Europe, the other half in Mendoza, her home town. She took us to the huge Parque San Martin, where we attended an evening of dance and music. Worth noting is the fact that Tango is mainly from Buenos Aires. In the rest of Argentina they have other folk music and dances, some of which we saw that evening.
Argentina is cool: the wine is cheapo and good, there is good bread, there is lots of cheese, and you have to eat a lot of meat.
The country is quite modern, like Chile, but in a latin-american way. The luxury shops and tourist areas and big shopping malls are the same as in western countries. In the big shopping mall they even had a huge, I say huge entertainment place to leave the kids in while shopping. All the famous brands can be found there, and local stuff can be hard to come by.
But when you get into the small shops and cafes in town, you can find that laidback, relaxed atmosphere, that makes the place so pleasant to stay in.
There are also loads of "old" cars: fiat, renault, dodge, ford, etc... Many of these would be vintage collectibles in Europe! I took a few pictures.
Comments
Bahhh
Ca vaut pas ton bon vieux break gohstbusters de chez les aussies!!!!