| Mendoza, Argentina Backpacking Eight Months On the Road By Bus Through South America By David Rice |
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Page Twenty Two
| Mendoza Argentina, Backpacking by Bus In South America Eight Months On the Road By David Rice |
Mendoza Wine Country
www.softseattravel.com
Page 10
From the falls I went across Paraguey and took an all-night bus ride that
stopped at a few stations on the way but had as a destination Asuncion,
Paruguey.
The border is notorious for masses of people going through trying to
smuggle goods in an attempt to avoid sales tax and I inadvertently got in the
wrong line. I was a tourist heading to Argentina and had nothing to declare
but I found myself in a huge line and later discovered that it was the wrong
line.
After waiting 45 minutes I finally found the proper line and I moved through
customs quickly.
I spent the night in Asuncion the capitol of Paruguey. I was just passing
through the plains to the south, a region of rolling hills, on my way to
Mendoza Argentina via Tucuaman.
From Tucuaman I went to Cordoba and I spent a day waiting for a bus in an
interesting square with lots of activity A European-feeling city, I enjoyed it as
I waited for a bus to Mendoza, the heart of Argentina's wine country.
Once I reached Mendoza I checked into the Hostel International where other
backpackers from all over the world, the Europeans, and off course the
inventors of travel, the English, were ensconced for some serious wine
tasting.
The British travelers are everywhere and they are brave and intrepid. I am
sure if I was flying off the edge of the Devil's Throat Falls there would be an
Englishman flying beside me.
The town's streets are lined with sycamores forming near tunnels of foliage
much like the roads in Provence and likewise this region is now producing
some great wines.
Spanish speaking and European in feeling, the city has its own ambiance
and is not necessarily European. Great cheese shops and great bread
shops, and beautiful parks and plazas with tiled sidewalks and shade trees
on the avenues make this region different.
I would go to the bread shop and buy a small loaf of bread, go to the cheese
shop and buy cheese, perhaps a cheddar, and then go to the wine shop
and buy a bottle of red wine such as a Malbec or Merlot blend that they
labeled "Malbec/Merlot," and then I would go to one of the parks shaded by
sycamores for a picnic.
The good wines in the area cost about five dollars a bottle and with the
great weather in October, early Spring in the southern hemisphere with
warm days and cool nights, I could picnic almost anywhere. The nights would
get cooler as I moved south even in what is their mid summer, a season
which includes December and January.
I spent three days in Mendoza enjoying the wines and breads and their
amazing chocolates. Mendoza makes candy animals, chocolate bars, and
candy treats of all kinds made with chocolate. After a day of filling up with
chocolate, my fourth day in Mendoza, I caught a bus headed to Santiago
Chile.
Bearing west out of Mendoza, I crossed the Andean Cordillera which
includes some of the worlds tallest mountains, and includes the tallest
mountain in the western hemisphere Mount Aconcagua. On the Alta
Montana Route we had a magnificent ride over the mountains and then we
crossed the border between Argentina and Chile. Oddly enough we did this
crossing in a tunnel with a large underground chamber that includes an
immigration stop. The area was a huge vault where they checked everything
in the luggage. The officials were looking for goods that people try to
smuggle to avoid sales tax, goods such as electronics and textiles.
In an attempt to duck the required duty payment, passengers would have
children's shoes tucked in their dresses, computer gear stuffed in a bag,
and textiles wrapped around their bodies. I had nothing to declare so I
breezed through but some passengers had their luggage confiscated and
had to pay a duty payment to retrieve it.
On the rest of the trip south I crossed the border between these two
countries many times as I went south but this crossing was the most heavily
policed.
The bus crested the mountain and we entered Santiago where we were
surrounded on three sides by high, snow-capped peaks. I hoped to be
hiking in mountains like those that surrounded us before too many more
days.
Soon I would be in Patagonia.
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