Bariloche and Mendoza

We left El Chaltén behind us with a small delay. Buses in Argentina never seem to ride on schedule… The 23 hour bus ride turned into a 26 hour ride, our longest one yet. The bus got a flat tire during the night.

San Carlos de Bariloche

Near 11 PM we finally arrived in San Carlos de Bariloche, better known as Bariloche. The city is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Argentinians. Offering lots of outdoor activities during all seasons. The peak season being the winter. Part of the architecture of the city is borrowed from European countries. Some of the homes are meant to look like the alpine lodges that can be found in Austria and Switzerland.

Day 1

At our first full day in Bariloche we relaxed a bit after the long bus ride. We spent the afternoon exploring the city. The houses based on the alpine style are interspersed with high-rises to accommodate all the tourists. The city seems to have expanded quite a lot in recent years. To end our day, in the town center we got some ice cream at Jauja — the best ice cream in Argentina according to my Lonely Planet guide book. And it did live up to the expectations!

Day 2

The second day of our visit in Bariloche we did one of the most popular routes in the Lake District: Circuito Chico. Most Argentinians drive the 32km loop with a car, but we rented a couple of bicycles. Local bus 20 dropped us off in front of bicycle rental place. From there on out it was easy going for the first 5km. We took on the special promotion offered at the bike rental and went kayaking on a lake near the route. After spending hardly an hour in the kayak we continued cycling. And it was way more exhausting than we expected. Going downhill is easy, cycling uphill left us exhausted. We did a small detour to the town of Colonia Suize. Founded by a small group of Swiss immigrants many years ago. Besides the great views of the lakes and mountains, Argentina’s most famous hotel — Llao Llao — is on the circuit also.

Day 3

The third and final day of our stay in Bariloche we did something completely different. We booked a full day of horseback riding. We got onto the same bus as yesterday to get to Tom Wesley cabalgatas. With a small group of 6 we headed out for a morning ride of 3 hours. Riding through forests and over small hills, heading towards one of the nearby lakes. We had the most fun when we got the horses to go full speed. Because the horses were very trained very well, it hardly took any effort to control them. After the morning ride we returned to the ranch where we had a small asado (BBQ) as lunch. They served us some homebrew beer with the asado too. We got onto our horses again and went for a different ride that afternoon. Compared to the morning ride, this one was not as nice. We climbed a nearby hill, and saw mostly forest and vegetation on the side of the path. Five hours of horseback riding were tougher than I expected… We ended our stay in Bariloche by going out for dinner, and having a few locally brewed beers. The trout I got for dinner — a regional speciality — tasted very nice.

Mendoza

We arrived in Mendoza at 6:15 AM after a good bus ride. After a long time we finally had decent food and service. The check-in at the hostel was from midday, so we left our luggage behind and walked towards the city center for breakfast. At 8 in the morning the city of Mendoza was still fast asleep. Luckily there were a couple of cafes open that served breakfast. We went to explore the city center, and bumped into the preparations of a parade. It took us some time to figure out what was going on: the Vendimia. It is the wine harvest festival of the Mendoza region, where they pick a beauty queen in the end. The parade showcased the women for the final time, before the queen gets crowned that evening. Back at the hostel we bumped into a familiar face: one of the Englishmen we met in Puerto Madryn a couple of weeks ago. Together with a few others we met in this hostel we got out that night to watch the McGregor vs Diaz UFC fight. It was a pretty good fight to see — Diaz won in the end — but it only started at 2:30 AM. Long days, short nights of sleep in Mendoza.

Day 1

We had to get up early the next morning for the first activity that we booked at the hostel: rafting! It was a ride of about an hour to get to the base camp. They had us waiting for quite a while unfortunately, and appeared a bit disorganized as well. Near midday we got going. They gave us a wetsuit, jacket, life vest and helmet. We got into the bus and drove 12km upstream to the starting point. After instructions and practice we finally started the rafting. We shared our raft with three English girls we met at the hostel, and one American girl. It was lots of fun! The high water made a wild river ride. We got completely soaked because we were seated in the front. After the rafting we did zip lining, which was not what we expected it to be. We just crossed the river a couple of times and we finished not 15 minutes later. Back in Mendoza we had dinner at a parilla in town. The final opportunity for me to enjoy a good piece of Argentine meat. During our dinner we were joined by two Danish girls, who also knew the English girls we went rafting with. Back at the hostel we relaxed and drank some wine with our friends.

Day 2

Today we went for a wine tasting tour in de Luján de Cuyo area near Mendoza. Mendoza being the ‘capital’ of Argentine wines — most famously their Malbecs — cannot be visited without doing a wine tasting tour. Due to the rainy weather that day we skipped the biking part, but we got to visit an extra winery in the end. We started out at the Bodega Norton winery for a tour, and tasting of four of their wines. Bodega Norton is one of the biggest wineries in the area, which was really visible during the tour. Next we visited a smaller winery of Miguel Minni. They showed us a little bit around the vineyard before we got to taste. After the tasting of three wines we went next door for lunch. It was a lot better than I expected. Three courses: empanadas as starters, a nice steak as entree, and flan as dessert. With each course we got served a different wine. First a sparkling wine, then a white and finally a red Malbec for the entree. After lunch we visited two more wineries — Familia Adrover and Vistandes — just for tasting more wines. At the end of the day we tasted 12 different wines. Back at the hostel we quickly went to the supermarket for some groceries, and cooked dinner back at the hostel. Together with a large group of people from the hostel we headed out to watch a local football match. The bus dropped us quite far from the stadium, thus we had to walk. In the end we took a wrong turn at a roundabout — there were no signs posted — and we walked around the stadium perimeter for about an hour! The ticket office was closed when we finally arrived at the entrance. Time to go back to the hostel… There I bumped into the English girls again, with who I shared drinks with until early in the morning.

Day 3

I slept for no more than 4 hours and had to get up for another wine tasting. The weather was a lot better than the day before: a clear blue sky and pleasant temperature. We got picked up at the hostel again and were taken to the Maipú area. The first winery on today’s program: Familia Cecchin. They gave us an extensive tour around the vineyard, where they explained about their ecological ways of producing wines. We got four different wines to taste. We cycled for a bit to the next winery: Familia Di Tommaso. Another small winery, and one of the oldest in the area. We were guided through a monumental building, which still contains the original wine tanks as they were used many decades ago. Very interesting to see! We bumped into a couple of girls from our hostel, who were doing a self-guided wine tasting tour that day. The third and final winery we visited was Viña el Cerno. Where the wine tasting was more about the sale of the wines than the tasting. We finished the wine tasting tour in a brewpub for a beer with pizza. Back at the hostel we cooked for ourselves, finishing the leftover ingredients from the past few weeks. One cannot take fresh produce into Chile when crossing the border. To finish our exhausting, but amazing, visit to Mendoza I drank some wines and champagne with the girls we bumped into today. Sharing stories about our wine tasting experiences. Everybody was leaving Mendoza to move on with their travels. Tomorrow we would leave also, our next destination: Santiago de Chile.