Nick and Caity's Grand Adventure: Western Argentina- home of the Malbec and Parrilla BBQs

We are currently lying low as Caitlin and I battle what we think is a water bourne disease.... Between a doctor and a water engineer you would think we might have the know how to avoid such a calamity but my trust in a local telling me we can drink the water was a bit shortsighted and now we are paying for it. Bottled water from now on is the moto of this tale.
After being delayed by landslides/mudslides we finally got on our way across the border from Chile to Argentina. The immigration across the border was torturously slow but we finally made it to Mendoza, arriving at 3am at the autobus estacion. After finding ourselves an ATM to get some local currency we swiftly jumped in a taxi and headed to our luckily open hostel for a few hours of sleep.

Exploring Mendoza was terrific and aspects reminded us of Melbourne. Some bright spark had the foresight to line the boulevards with beautiful sycamore trees which now provide relief from the scorching heat and do a very fine job of beautifying the city. There are many parks and plazas here which break up the city, some very large and grand parks with the Andes looming over the city creating spectacular views while the plazas are small but also very popular with the locals and many have water features, grand statues and beautiful ceramic tile features. We rode around the biggest park on a hot afternoon which was very nice until the unfixable rattle of the front mudguard on my bike and the constantly skipping gears became increasingly intolerable and the soon to follow puncture was a showstopper. Luckily it was downhill mostly back to the hire shop. I think the hirer offered us one free hour for our trouble but our poco espanol meant we didn't quite know what he was saying.


Riding around the Park

Local boys training for soccer in the heat while we sipped lemonade in the shade. Haha

This didn't put us off riding too much and so we bravely jumped on a local bus the next day to taste the local wine which Mendoza is so famous for on a self guided bike tour around the Baccus area. We test rode our bikes before giving the thumbs up and heading off with a little map to spend the day popping in and out of the local Bodegas ( wine houses). We felt very privileged at our first tasting to have a very well known local Italian man named Carmello Patti give us a tasting at the aptly named Carmello Patti Bodega. He didn't muck around and swiftly whipped out some reserve bottled from 2003 and 2004 which proved to be stunning on the nose and pallet. Mendoza is very famous for Malbec and red wine and so not surprisingly we loved the Malbec, Cab Sav and Red blend. The bottles sitting in Mr Patti's cellar for 10 years certainly helped too, wow, thank you Mr Patti. I seriously considered shipping Mr Patti's wine back to Aus but decided to save my Pesos.

Us and Mr Patti

We visited two other wineries one where we had a tasting in a huge underground concrete tank converted into a cellar. Until the 1980s Argentinians consumed on average 92 litres of wine per year when the was a step change and the Bodegas decided to go for quality rather than quantity so the huge storage tanks were made redundant. Production at one bodega has changed from 30 million bottles in a peak to currently about 1 million bottles which is a huge change.

Caity and her bicycle.

A slightly different stop on the bikes was at a boutique chocolate, conserve and liqueur house where there were a huge assortment of these produces. Included in the degustation tasting was the opportunity to taste her absinth which was extremely potent of course. We could only handle a little of it in the heat of the day. It was fair to say after that and the wine tastings that the bike riding was interesting.

Absinth!! Powerful stuff!!

On the weekend we decided that a trip to the local hot (and cold) springs would be fun way to beat the heat only to discover that half of Argentina thought it was a good idea also, but it was still a great relaxing day amongst beautiful scenery in the mountains ( not far from the highest peak in the Andes which we got a glimpse of on the way). It is fair to say Argentinians love a Parrilla BBQ and the Mate tea (herbal boardering on recreational drug tea which makes you relaxed). At the springs there were literally hundreds of locals cooking open flame smokey BBQs and sipping Mate all day. The smell of the smokey meat cooking meant that Cait and I were salivating all day but I did not envy the cooks one little bit while I did laps of the cold pool and starred at the beautiful mountains and swiftly flowing chocolate milkshake coloured creek.

Hot springs in the mountains

Hot springs in the mountains

We dinned locally in Mendoza at some cafes and restaurants amongst the tree lined Bussling streets and plazas. They have certainly perfected the art of cooking beef which was succulent and delicious. The coffee was also not too bad( compared to Melbourne)......

Mendoza tree lined plazas

Chess in Medoza

We moved on to Salta in the far north on a semi cama bus ( a what you say? I shall explain in a tick). The 18 hour journey was very comfortable with some spectacular scenery along the way.

I have been dying to explain the bus system here in Argentina but also Chile. Buses are the main way locals get around. While local buses are pretty standard if not below, there are a range of long haul buses depending on your budget but the options at the normal to high end are incredible. The buses are supersized and and at the top end super luxurious. I don't think anything like this exists in Aus. They are something from the Aerospace industry. There are choices between semi-cama ( semi reclining) equivalent of perhaps a business class seat on an aeroplane all the way to cama ( fully reclining) and executive which would be the equivalent of first class in an aeroplane. There is an on board host who serves meals which are part of the cost and makes sure there is always an MA 15+ movie running for all the kiddies and grandmas to enjoy.......we did enjoy the latest Batman Movie which was in English much to our delight, and how could I forget the BINGO game that the host got us all playing with a PRIZE of a bottle of wine. The buses here are a whole new world, come on Aus bus operators step up to the plate!

Amazing buses in Argentina!!

Salta is a very interesting city which has similar aspects to Mendoza ( plazas and cafes on the streets) which are nice. They take siesta very seriously and the town is dead for a few hours in the afternoon. This is followed by a period of mayhem on the streets ( roads and footpaths) about 8pm which would be hard to tolerate if you were a local I imagine. The beautiful surrounding scenery is the attraction for most tourists.

Cathedral in Salta

In an attempt to be a bit healthy and save a little dough we decided to do some of our own cooking. The supermarkets here are also mayhem, constantly busy, understocked with good foods and overstocked with bad foods ( which the locals seem to love). To get a few items for the supermarket you won't get out of there in 1/2 an hour minimum. Bagging and tagging of fruit and veg in the store, ancient technology at the checkout and needing to show passport ID to use a credit card make for long queues at the checkout. I am glad I am not a local here.

We went on a day tour to Cafeyate a small town 180 km from Salta. The journey was spectacular. Though huge valleys and mountain passes surrounded by cloud forest and gobsmacking geological formations ( Arrgh the geology nerd you say, but I assure you that even Caity was impressed). Cafeyate is also the home of Torontes a native Argentinian grape variety which makes a delicious drop of white wine. So of course we had a stop at one of the local Bodegas (vineyard/ wine house).