Mendoza de Argentina. Domingo, 30 de Augusto

We are just over two weeks into the trip now and the travel beard (Matts) is progressing rather gingerly. It feels like we are now getting into the groove of things to come.

From Valparaiso we jumped on our first decent-length 8 hour bus trip, across the Argentinian border to Mendoza.  Although in a straight line the journey was only about 300km, the terraced hairpins and trucks made for slow progress. Fortunately the shear Andes and Michel Thomas (Spanish foundation, Disc 1) kept us entertained. Conjugating verbs must have proved too gripping as we have few photos documenting the amazing road, so you'll just have to take our word for it!
In between "It is not for me, but it is for you"....and,"I'm  hungry, are you hunGRY?" we even passed Aconcagua - fact, the highest mountain in the southern hemisphere at 6962m. And because we like facts, the border crossing was at 3250m. Crossing the border and decending the eastern side if the Andes, the geography changed almost insatantly to extremely arid, flat farmland (ideal for cultivating vino).

Crossing the Andes & approaching the Chile-Argentina border.

Mendoza not only marked a new country but the first splash out on our own room, with ensuite bathroom. I (M) had thus far lost paper scissors rock twice for the top bunk. Unfortunatley, however, the bidet proved to have more pressure than the shower. 
A small city, Mendoza is renowned as the main wine producing region of Argentina. Flattened by an earthquake in the 1860's, the city has a modern grid-plan, with wide tree-clad avenues and large Plaza's. The intention of the planners back then was to make wider streets so that when the next earthquake/s came the buildings would fall into the streets; the Plazas providing evacuation points. We enjoyed exploring the inner areas of the city and the slower change in pace from Valpo.

Plaza Espana

Matt, and Mosaics (for you Joss)

Wine being the drawcard for the region, we thought it rude not to go on a bicycle wine tour. The day started well with another DTA (Dumb Tourist Act no.5), taking notes istead of coins for the bus out to the wineries - this soon became a Brilliant Tourist Act, with a free 40 min bus ride.

The wine tour formula was a simple one, an 11km stretch of road with a about 15 wineries/distilleries/chocolatia's. We simply grabbed our hire bike and numbered map and went on our way.   

Nothing says 'tourist' more than a tandem bicycle.

Mendoza wine country.

The seemingly simple formula was soon broken, when the tandem tank was pulled over by the policia. The fool-proof map fooled the backseat driver/navigator - hence the kind policeman's enquiries into to why we had continued passed the last winery. (DTA no.6)

Museo de Vino. Massive wine barrel adapted into a storage unit. Would make an awesome bedroom (with mezzanine).

Clare, barrels, perspective.

Timber-arch roof structure for the engineers and architects.

Tandem in-action.

 Drinking and riding, condoned.

We stumbled across the Thunderbirds headquarters.

Parque General San Martin.

Sweet Fiat, these cars seem to be super common.

About to embark on our biggest bus ride so far, 19 hours - Mendoza to Bariloche.

From Mendoza we had plans to travel to southern Argentina. There were 2 places we wanted to get to so we just decided to wing it and go with the wind a little. It was a 13 hour overnight bus trip to Nequen where we had to change buses in order to travel further. It just so happened that the Bariloche bus left 10 mins after we arrived in Nequen so we took that as a sign, grabbed a ticket and hopped aboard, arriving 6 hours later in the ski town of Bariloche.