After a quick and out of the way (17 hours out of the way - but very much worth it!) detour north to visit the Iguazu Waterfalls, I headed west to the infamous wine country of Mendoza, Argentina. My visit started with a day of rain (the only one I had in seven weeks of travel in Argentina – and the same rain that caused major flooding in Buenos Aires), but quickly turned to blue skies and beautiful days. Anyway, it was a perfect excuse to start my visit indoors with an incredibly luxurious pedicure (and bottle of wine, of course – our own version of a wine tour!). I met back up with a friend I knew from Buenos Aires. Although we’d only known each other a short time, it was great to arrive and see a familiar face.
As I heard from many others, I was not incredibly impressed by the city of Mendoza itself – especially coming from Buenos Aires. But we quickly learned that, much like its larger city-neighbor to the east, Mendoza’s nightlife can still suck you out until all hours of the night. And thus several of our potential wine-tasting days were lost to recoveries from the night before and we quickly decided that a mountain detox getaway was needed – but not before one good solid day of wine tasting like the guidebooks say to do! And it was a productive day of wine tasting at that - we made it to all of one winery. To our credit, it was a great winery. Incredibly nice staff, good tour, and a generous tasting that kept us from wanting to get back on our bikes and leave. So, we called the bike company to come and pick up the bikes and happily stayed another few hours … which somehow turned into drinking until sunrise (as often happens in Argentina) … and the next day we clumsily rolled out of bed and headed straight for the mountains and a weekend detox full of beautiful scenery, fresh air, and activities that involved more than just drinking wine.
Together with the friend I knew from Buenos Aires, and another we met on the never-ending wine tour, we spent the weekend in Uspallata, a mountain town two hours from Mendoza and about an hour from the Chilean border. After a bus ride through some of the most stunning scenery that I have ever seen (when I managed to stay awake to see it), we spent two glorious nights sleeping soundly in a quiet, comfortable hostel – and two glorious days exploring the scenery. We hiked at the foot of Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas, went mountain biking, and enjoyed one of the best, and cheapest, asados that I had during my two months in Argentina. It was the perfect complement to a crazy week in Mendoza, and left me refreshed and ready to conquer new adventures.
*It should be noted here, for anyone who doesn’t know me well enough, that I am very much not a bike rider and thus my biking in Mendoza and Uspallata was quite an accomplishment!
