Our first two days were a relaxing break from our scheduled lives. The city was very quiet as everyone was celebrating Easter, so we took a self-guided tour of the plazas of Mendoza. There are so many that even after a day full of plazas, we weren’t even halfway done!
We also went to a Serpentarium and an Aquarium and saw some neat reptiles and sea creatures!
That night, we decided to check out the local fair! While standing in line for our first ride, we watched two repairmen climb atop the ride and using small screwdrivers and wire benders, they seemed to be fixing the ride! After about five minutes of tweaking the wires and nails, they decided to allow people onto the ride and continue on! By the way, this was a huge, upside-down ride and I have a feeling that it would not meet the U.S. safety standards! When in doubt, we always follow the natives so we boarded the ride and luckily survived the ride! The other highlights of the fair were the $0.75 chocolate covered fruit skewers and when I accidentally made a ‘gringo’ spectacle by breaking the gate to a ride. Haha.
The next day was my favorite! We woke up super early and met up with our friend Jocelyn, then caught a bus to Aconcagua. The 4-hour bus ride was worth it as we had an absolutely gorgeous day hiking in the Andes! The sun was out, the sky was blue, there was a cool mountain breeze and we had a lot of fun exploring the trails and lakes.
Halfway through the day, we hiked down the highway a few kilometers to see ‘Puente del Inca,’ which is a very interesting sight! The way the minerals and rock formed with a small walkway across allowed this area to be used as a throughway for the Incas way back in the day. Then, in the early 1900’s, a hotel was built above the bridge. But a landslide caused the hotel to slide into the valley and induce a series of chemical reactions causing the colorful rock formation with an old building we see today! The pictures may explain this better.
I don’t know how I have written this much without mentioning the amazing food we ate in Mendoza! One night, we went to the famous ‘Tejitas Buffet’ which was simply incredible! It costs the equivalent of $11 USD to eat the most gourmet buffet imaginable. Everything is made their on the spot, so you can customize your meat, sushi, stir fry, pasta, crepes…anything and everything! Amazing fruit and salad bar, millions of desserts and oh so much flan! Anyways, the specialty of Argentina is meat and it really was delicious everywhere we had it (which was pretty much everywhere we ate). They also make a special red meat called ‘lomo’ and put it on a sandwich with ham, cheese, a fried egg, tomatoes and lettuce.
On day four we decided to do the classic Mendoza bikes & wine tour. We took a bus to the town of Maipu (where all the wineries are) and rented bikes and were given a map for our self-guided tour, plus a glass of wine to get us started! Our first stop was at the classiest winery called ‘Trepiche’ where we had a tour and tasting session. We learned how to do the official tasting routing, which was a first for me! We had a delicious lunch with plenty of meat, bread and wine along the way. Another stop was at a chocolate, marmalade and liquor shop where we were given samples of all the above. It was a very fun day and reminded me a little bit of Walla Walla.
Mendoza has a gigantic park that we still hadn’t been too, so on our last day we took a morning stroll in San Martin Park. My favorite things were the colorful flowers full of butterflies and the ‘Continental Fountain’.
This is what we looked like!
Another great blog. Your trip to Mendoza looks like it was BIG fun!
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