One thing which they have in Chile and Argentina, which we haven’t seen for a while, is roads. Real roads, with tarmac surfaces, road markings and everything. Bolivia’s a wee bit short on this stuff. Here’s a picture taken from the bus as we cross from Chile into Argentina. More top salt-flat and Andean scenery.
Salta is considerably lower than we’ve been of late, so it’s warmer. It’s winter, but it’s still sunny, and as warm as an English late-summer day. Very nice after the chill of the high desert.
We take the cable car up the local hill for a view of the city. Note: no down jacket or silly llama hat, and happiness caused by being able to feel your feet.
One evening, we go to a Pena, which is basically dinner and a show given by local musicians and dancers. The restaurant we chose makes sure your beer stays cool by putting it in a cooler shaped like a cactus. Got to get me one of those J
The show was quite fun, also: three bands with dancers.
The only tiny problemette ? Argentinians don’t really get weaving on the dining front until about 11pm. We were the first in the restaurant at 9:45pm, and left at about 00:30am. I could probably get used to it, but I’m not sure I want to. Anyway, the day after we catch another bus to Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina: we’ve been drinking their products for years. We go on a tour of two wineries: the massive Trapiche, and the much, much smaller Di Tomasso. Trapiche have two wineries here: a high-end winery, where they produce about 5 million bottles of wine a year, and what they describe as their “entry-level” winery next door, which produces 25 million bottles a year. The tour is around the high-end winery, which in a restored old building which they took over some years ago. It’s beautiful, complete with a Louvre-style glass pyramid in the courtyard.
We tour the building and see the tanks where the wine is made. These are original, concrete tanks, but lined now with stainless steel. The equipment and buildings are listed, so they can’t change too many things, but they still have to comply with modern requirements for winemaking.
Finally, we arrive at the tasting room, where we try three wines, ranging in price from about ten quid to fifty-odd quid a bottle. The room is marvellous, with a glass floor looking down into the storage area, leather sofas, and a balcony. Here’s our guide pouring the wine.
Here’s us on the aforementioned balcony.
Suitably refreshed, we moved to the much smaller Di Tomasso winery. They produce only tens of thousands of bottle a year, and sell only in high-end wine shops in a few cities. It’s a much more modest operation.
But, the wine is delicicious J We also had a lengthy lunch here, with wine, which was also delicious.
We’d just about exhausted the charms of Mendoza, but unfortunately the weather took a hand: the pass over to Santiago was closed by snow, so we were stuck for an extra night. Eventually, we leave at 1pm instead of 7:30am, and the journey takes 11 hours rather than 6, because of backed-up traffic.
We were on the not-very-aptly named El Rapido bus.
Still, we eventually pitch up in Santiago de Chile at 11pm, and hit the hay. We leave the tour group here, and propose exploring Santiago and Valparaiso for a week or two before heading back to Argentina and over to Buenos Aires.
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