Mendoza, Argentina Backpacking Eight Months On the Road By Bus Through
South America
By David Rice  
Page Twenty Two
Mendoza Wine Country

From the falls I went across Paraguay 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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