Grapes, Bikes and Steaks

We bid our final farewell to Chile and boarded an early morning bus out of Santiago which unfortunately left before the free breakfast was served at our guesthouse (after traveling for a year, a free breakfast is a nice treat). Our route took us up out of Buenos Aires and toward the border with Argentina. The bus ascended switch back after switch back as we passed Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas) as well as the famed Portillo ski resort.

Our last border crossing between Argentina and Chile turned out to be a long one. We spent a ridiculously long time sitting at the border, it was a Saturday in the middle of the summer and the resulting crowds were out in force. We spent a full 3 hours waiting in line outside our bus, the longest border crossing of our trip, in order to be processed. There were no less than a dozen windows processing applicants and the whole task seemed so incredibly simple and straight forward that we had to question what the hold up was (the Argentineans take periodic breaks to drink this funky looking tea called ‘mate’ out of wooden cups and that was the prime suspect for the delays). After the agents searched every single person’s bag, we finally re-boarded the bus and arrived in Mendoza, Argentina a few hours later.

Mendoza is home to the wine industry of Argentina (chances are if you drink an Argentina wine it is from there) and we had been looking forward to our visit for quite awhile. We had already been wine tasting in South Africa and Peru on this trip, and knew that Mendoza would be a great experience. After two nights in town we decided to head out into proper wine country and stay on the “wine route”, where all visitors head to taste the wine that this region has made famous. While Chile had it’s unique Carmeneres, Argentina has it‘s full flavored Malbecs. We were new to the Malbec grape but found that it produced inky dark robust wines, even more so than Cabernet. Malbec is commonly blended in other parts of the world but Argentina has begun making 100% Malbec varietel wines.

With the recommendation and gift of a family member we had booked two nights at a lodge on the wine route with the hopes of treating ourselves; the end of the trip was nearing and two weeks camping in cold/wet/rainy Patagonia had worn us a little thin. The lodge was beautiful, tucked snugly between a couple of small family run wineries and we were treated to some comforts for a couple days including our first private bathroom in over a month. The highlight of our stay was renting bicycles and touring the wineries for an afternoon. We had really enjoyed biking around New Zealand wine country a few years ago and again we had a wonderful experience as we peddled our way from tasting room to tasting room. We left Mendoza rested and in high spirits heading toward the coast for what would be our final two weeks of the trip.

We arrived in Buenos Aires via bus (our 115 bus ride of the trip!) and headed to the Palermo neighborhood. As has been the theme of late, we were encountering large crowds and difficult accommodation bookings in Buenos Aires and opted to once again spend a few extra bucks to stay in a B&B in a trendy neighborhood. The other option was a crowded dorm room in the backpacker ghetto of town; the last thing we wanted at the end of the trip was yet another frustrating (yet entertaining) night in a shared dorm room. Buenos Aires is deservingly one of the most highly touted and appreciated cities of the world. It has vast manicured parks, infinite streetside cafes and clubs open 24 hours a day, enough stores to satisfy the most serious of shopaholics, beautiful architecture that has you thinking you are in a European metropolis and all the history to go with it. We spent our days there taking long jogs in the park (only to return later for a beer on blanket under a tree), wandering aimlessly through different neighborhoods viewing sites and touring local street markets. Our final night in town was the 8th anniversary of our first date (yes you know the anniversary of your first date when you dated for 5 years) and we headed out to what was said by the guidebook and our hotel to be the top steakhouse for the money in the city. I had not had a steak in over a year; this is saying a lot for a guy that grew up in Eldridge, Iowa eating red meat multiple times a week. I think Colleen was actually anticipating my meal more than myself and I was just happy that there was a vegetarian option for her to enjoy (when traveling this long you really start to look out for each other, even more than usual). The meal was amazing, my ribeye came with no less than a dozen dipping sauces and condiments and Colleen’s pasta came in an obnoxiously large bowl allowing me to finish off her leftovers. I can’t say it was the best steak I ever had (that still goes to Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue, WA ) but it was better than most and at $12 you can’t really go wrong! We headed out the following morning on the ferry to Uruguay and our final country of our long journey.