Mendoza with Liam!!

After a 15 hour bus ride from Bariloche I arrived in Mendoza on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Thankfully I had prebooked a hostel because all of the hostels were fully booked due to Easter. Liam was arriving in the evening so I had a day to spend walking around Mendoza. I ended up walking around Parque General San Martin, a large park on the edge of Mendoza. I also had a much needed nap and waited impatiently for Liam to arrive. I met Liam at the airport and then after having dropped off his bags at the hostel we went out for food, since Liam hadn´t eaten all day.

The next day we had to change hostels since I wasn´t able to book at one place for the entire weekend. We then walked around, had a picnic in Parque General San Martin and hiked up a small hill to get a panoramic view of the city and nearby mountains! We did a lot of walking that day and both had sore feet by the end of the day.

The following day we headed out for a wine bike tour. We caught a bus to Maipu, a small town on the outskirts of Mendoza. In Maipu we rented bikes, they gave us a map of nearby wineries and we were on our way. Our first stop was actually a liquor, absinthe and olive oil factory. It was a short tour followed by a tasting of some of their sauces, jams, dulce de leche and liquors. Liam went ahead and tried the absinthe, while I stayed a little more conservative and tried chocolate banana liquor. I think mine was a little tastier than Liam´s!! We then decided to head to the farthest winery on the map and work our way back to the bike rental place. After 10km or so we arrived at the last winery where we started our first tour and tasting. The tour was neat and the tasting seemed too formal for both of us, especially since we both agreed that the wines weren´t that great. The second winery was much neater and had underground storage of the wine, which looked really neat. This place was much less formal and we both found it more interesting. In total we visited 3 wineries. All were great but the previous day we had discovered Trapiche Malbec and both agreed that none of the wines we tried were as good. Trapiche also had a tour and tasting but by the time we arrived there it was closed for the day, we were both quite disappointed.

Liam waiting at a train crossing during the wine bike tour

A truck that drove by us FULL of grapes

The following day we were picked up bright and early at the hostel for a ¨High Mountain Tour¨ as it was named. The tour included seeing some nearby towns, the Puente del Inca and Aconcagua. We both agreed that the tour wasn’t worth what we paid but that we saw some pretty cool things. The Puente del Inca is a natural rock bridge that is suspended over the Mendoza River. Below is an old building that used to be a thermal resort and spa in the early 1900. Seeing Aconcagua was also really neat, it is the tallest mountain in the Americas at 6, 962 meters. Our tour took us to a mirador where we could get a nice view of the mountain. We also saw a few more sights but those were the two that really stood out in my mind as the more impressive things. Unfortunately to see these two things we had to sit in a car for a full day.
The following day we had planned to go and have lunch at one of the wineries. After having contacted a few and we discovered how expensive the lunches were (about $60 canadian) we quickly changed our minds. We then decided to go back to Trapiche for a winery tour since we missed it during our bike tour. We caught a bus back to Maipu and walked to Trapiche. We had to wait about an hour since we had just missed a tour. The tour was much more detailed than the other tours and during the tasting our tour guide taught us what to look for in a wine. It was kind of neat to learn what you are actually supposed to do in a wine tasting. We also enjoyed the wines more than at the other wineries.

Puente del Inca

Aconcagua

That’s all for now! Another post abut the end of my trip will come soon!

El Chalten - Trekking Capital?!?

El Chalten is a small town whose main industry is tourism. It is the self proclaimed trekking capital of Argentina. The majority of the treks start and end in El Chalten, therefore making all of the hikes into Parque Nacional Los Glaciares very accessible. Sandy, Anna (a friend that I met in Bariloche) and I decided to link a bunch of day hikes into a 4 day trek. We prepared in an afternoon and then took off the next morning for 4 days. The days were quite a bit shorter than on the ¨W¨ so Sandy I found it quite a bit easier. Every day we did a side trip to see a mirador of some sort.

The first day we hiked 2 hours to our camp, set up and headed up a mountain side (without our packs!!) to get a good view of the valley. I have come to a conclusion that Argentineans don’t like switch backs. Almost all of their hikes go STRAIGHT up the mountain - and this side trip was a perfect example. We didn’t end up going all the way up the mountain because of strong winds and driving rain. We hid in a rock shelter for a little while and then decided to head back down since the weather didn’t look like it was getting any better. We ended up being back at camp pretty early and played cards for a couple of hour before dinner. We also played with the camp kitten that really enjoyed hiding in our tent.

The second day we hike 4 hours to our next camp. The trail wasn´t well marked and it took us much longer than expected (it was only supposed to be a 2 to 3 hour hike). The unmarked trail involved some sketchy bouldering and a stopped and looking for the next trail marker. We also took a side trip along our way to view a laguna and glacier. Once we got to our camp we set up the tent and took another side trip to get a better view of Monte Fitz Roy (altitude 3, 375m) a very beautiful and well known mountain. After having spend some time at the mirador we headed back down for an early dinner and an early bedtime.

On day 3 we started our day with a side trip to view Fitz Roy from a different angle. We followed a river up to a laguna and glacier below Fitz Roy. It was quite a bit of scrambling to get there but lots of fun! We then took down camp and hiked 3 hours to our last camp. It was a very nice, open campsite with a river running right beside it. It was kind of loud (but it turned out kind of handy to block out noise from some noisy neighbors).

On day 4 we did a side trip to view Cerro Torre and a glacier below it. We ended up sitting and watching for view for a long time. We then packed up camp and hike back to town.

Overall the hike was not nearly as spectacular as the ¨W¨ but it was nice to be outside nonetheless. We all agreed that a lot of the trails were not well marked and the nacional park was not well mentioned. We stil have a great view of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. We also came to the conclusion that El Chalten is the trekking capital for people who dont normally trek and don´t need experience and can sleep in a hostal every night and can wear jeans and inadequate footwear hiking, and and and...

After the trek Sandy and I headed back to Bariloche and Anna continued her way south to do Torres del Paine. I had three days in Bariloche before Sandy and I parted ways (tear..) Sandy stayed in Bariloche to do another week of Spanish school and I went off to Mendoza to meet my boyfriend Liam.