Argentina Part 1: Wine country and the lake district

While taking the 8-hour bus from Santiago, Chile, to Mendoza, Argentina, we passed the highest mountain in the western hemisphere, Aconcagua, which is 6962 meters high (22,841 feet!). Unfortunately, we took a night bus, so we were unable to see it. We arrived in Mendoza around 7 am, found a hotel and went to the central market. Usually we spend our first day in a city just walking around and feeling it out, without actually looking for anything in particular. We decided that there must be a park, so we´d go to the market, get food and wine and have a pinic at lunch time. You can tell a lot about a town by visiting the central market and we made a habit of doing that. The Mendoza market was spotlessly clean - as was most of the city. We bought local sausage, cheese, home-made bread, green and black olives, grilled veggies, suckling pig, baguettes of bread, and red grapes. And don´t forget the wine- we bought a bottle of locally made Malbec (the Mendoza area produces 70% of all wine in Argentina). We found a beautiful little park, of which Mendoza has several, sat down and began our wonderful picnic. We weren´t sure if we could open the wine and drink it right there in the park, but the three policemen who came by and stood by us didn´t seem to mind. In fact, maybe they were protecting us.

Mendoza is one the most beautiful mid-sized towns I´ve ever seen. Devastated by an earthquake in the 1800s, the town decided to build wide boulevards in case the people needed a place to run from future earthquakes. The streets are all tree-lined with oaks and even maple trees, much like the east coast of the U.S. The center of town is filled with shops, restaurants, and bistros with chairs outside everywhere for serious people watching! It feels like Europe and it looks like Europe. Other attractive factors – it has many parks, and a huge one with a lake and a zoo. And of course the wine! If you want to live in Argentina, this would be the place. Prices are considerably less than in the U.S.

One strange thing about Argentina though, and we found this throughout Argentina, and something that would probably prevent me from living here..there is no indigenous culture, so there is no music. Yes, Argentina has the tango, but that is more of a show dance than a club dance. In other words - we did not hear a bit of Latin music anywhere, not in the restaurants, the clubs, the streets, the buses – nowhere! The Argentines are happier listening to American rock and country (they love Creedence Clearwater Revival!) At times, especially in the lake district, (you´ll read about that soon), I felt like I was sitting in the U.S. When we DID go to nightclubs, it was rock, rock and more rock. Even the live bands played our old rock songs. We DID hear one reggae band one night and felt fortunate about that. So…those of you who know me well and know that I go out dancing in Nicargua four nights a week to the sounds of salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia and reggaeton, well you know how disappointed I am in the music here.

The next day we took a city bus to Argentina wine country. No tours for us! We rented bicycles and had the most fabulous day riding around from one winery to another—getting the scoop on how they made their wines and of course tasting! We liked one place in particular called La Rural. We saw their wines all over Argentina, but they don´t distribute their wine to other countries. Too bad, but if you happen to be in Stacy´s presence when she opens one of her two bottles of Collector´s vintage, you will be one lucky person! We finished up our day of wine tasting at a chocolate factory. Willy Wonka wasn´t there, nor was Johnny Depp (too bad), but fabulous chocolates, liquors, and marmalades were also ours for the tasting. We even had a liqueur made of rose petals, and drank Absinthe - that famous original French poison that is illegal in the U.S., Canada, and most of Europe today. We can see why - that stuff stings all the way down! When we went back to return our bikes, the delightful owner, Mr. Hugo gave us each three water glasses full of red wine. He also gave it to our new friends, four fellows from Poland who were also staying at our hotel. After a whole day of tasting a lot of wine, we all went back home together and decided to have a party on the roof! The Polish guys were there, Stacy, me, Josue and a couple from Chile. Everyone brought something and we had a feast of bread, grilled beef, beer and wine. Josue played the guitar for us and everyone was dancing ´til 4 in the morning! What a riot...wine country was certainly a hit! And I must say that the local people were extremely nice to us.

Next we decided to go to the Lake District of Argentina. Most tourists miss this area due to lack of time, but that is too bad. (I recommend a vacation of JUST going to Mendoza and wine country, skipping Buenos Aires if there is no time and selecting a few of the tiny cities in the lake district to visit.) Each small town is next to or affiliated with a lake and/or a National Park. There are wonderful hiking opportunities here. Walking between huge mountains through gorgeous flowering meadows. The towns reminded me of towns in the Adirondacks, or those in ski country in Colorado, or around Banff. In fact, I did feel like I was in the U.S. in these places, which may be a positive or negative depending on what you are looking for. Argentina is feeling more and more like the U.S. to me. Again, the American rock and country music ruled the roost and there were NO places to dance in these little towns. So we appreciated their beauty during the day and relaxed with long dinners with lamb and Malbecs at night. Yes, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. NO DANCING! I was wondering if that was going to be the case throughout all of Argentina.

We did a lot of hiking during these days. I´m not talking about a one-mile easy hike to see a view. I´m talking about 10-15 mile hikes to a lake for a picnic, or a beautiful waterfall, through a forest from one end of a peninsula to the other. We visited the following towns: Neuquen, Junin de los Andes (and Parque Nacional Lanin for two days), San Martin de los Andes (and a dusty but spectacular hike to Mirador Bandurias to get a view of Lago Lacar), Villa La Angostura (to walk the Peninsula Quetrihue in Parque Nacional Los Arrayanas), Bariloche (to hang out and eat well at the largest of the lake cities), and El Bolson (the ¨hippie¨ lake town that had cheap hotels and a unique artist´s fair on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Opinions? We were most disappointed in Bariloche, which becomes a hopping ski resort in the winter. For some reason, this city built the tourist district in town, not near the lake. In fact, you can´t even see the lake from the places where you would dine or shop. When you go to the lake itself, which is a pretty lake, you see a sad little beach, government buildings and apartments. The city of Bariloche is just a regular city, not cute and homey like the smaller towns. San Martin de los Andes however, was a tidy, upscale town with a gorgeous lake at one end. Fishing, boating, and shopping in town at pricey, but perfectly decorated upscale stores might entice you here. This town was totally out of my budget, so we didn´t stay. Got on a bus to La Angostura, which was only two hours away. Took a beautiful hike there. Next to Bariloche. After a couple of days in Bariloche, we said good-bye to Stacy, as she left for Buenos Aires to meet her friend Paul and begin her adventure to Antarctica!

Josue and I made our way to El Bolson and lucked out on a place to stay. When we got off the bus an older woman came up to us and asked if we wanted to stay in a house. We don´t usually listen to the people who come up to us at the bus stops, but the price was very cheap and we decided to take a look. We said yes to this cute A-frame cabin complete with kitchen, dining room and TV for only $23 a night! We cooked our own meals, went to the artist´s fair twice. My only purchase was a hand-made mate cup, created from a gourd. Every person in Argentina has his or her own mate cup to drink mate. We bought some mate at the supermarket, asked people what you are supposed to do and tried mate for the first time. Josue didn´t like it. I think you have to get used to it and I am going to keep trying. We stayed in El Bolson extra time because the buses to the heart of Patagonia did not run every day. But El Bolson was a nice place to be stuck.

Our next destinations were El Chalten and the Fitz Roy mountain range, El Calafate and the magnificent Perito Moreno glacier, and then Tierra del Fuego and the town of Ushuaia, the END OF THE WORLD! Our first bus took 30 hours! There were a couple of stops along the way but these long travel buses are plush semi-bed, two level buses. They show a ton of movies and some are even nice enough to put the English subtitles on when I ask. All of the movies are from the U.S. Food is included and usually hot coffee. So imagine....this 30-hour bus leaves on Thursday night and gets to El Chalten on Saturday morning! Since the bus left at night and we had to check out of our cabin, we left all of our gear at the bus station, which they suggested we do so we could walk around town all day. One thing they DIDN´T tell us though, was that the bus terminal closed at 8 pm! When we went back there at 10:30 pm to pick up our stuff for our 11:15 bus ride, the place was locked up and our things were sitting there inside! We tried banging on the windows to trip an alarm or something, hoping the police would come by and help us out. But there were no alarms. We had already paid for our tickets and knew that if we missed this bus, we would have to pay again (and not cheap tickets because the ride was so long!). There was no way we could ask them to send our things on the next bus.....too risky. We just stood there until the bus arrived so we could ask the driver what to do. The driver was nice and told us that someone had alerted him that some tourists left their things at the terminal and someone would show up at 11:15 to open the terminal! And they did. That´s just how nice people are in Argentina! Now Josue and I were on our way to Patagonia!

Things you may not know about Argentina. I didn´t. (This commentary does not include Buenos Aires).

1. OK, you know this one by now. They don´t play Latin music except the tango. And they love U.S. country and rock.
2. Everything is closed during the week between 1 and 5, when they take their siesta. Everything is closed on Sunday until 6 pm, when the cities re-open for business!
3. When people DO go out to nightclubs, they don´t go to the club until 2 a.m.! That´s right. If a live band is playing, that is when the music STARTS. And I thought Nicaragua was bad because the people don´t go out until 12:30 a.m.!
4. EVERYONE SMOKES CIGARETTES! That is one other reason for not living here. There are no smoke-free zones. I think if the government tried to do that, there would be a revolution here! Internet cafes, restaurants, of course bars, offices, etc. Smoke, smoke smoke!!!!
5. You can´t find eggs for breakfast anywhere but the hotels for North Americans. The restaurants don´t have them. People in Argentina don´t eat eggs for breakfast!
6. Nothing opens until about 9 am in the morning, so don´t rush to wake up.
7. Since people from Israel seem to be the number 1 tourists in Argentina, signs are in Spanish and Hebrew ALL OVER Argentina! (And not necessarily in English in some places!)

Click here to see the photos for this section.