Argentina --> Chile, The Andes!

Mendoza

After a 15 hour overnight bus from Buenos Aires (our last o/n bus!), we arrived in beautiful Mendoza, at the base of the Andes Mountains. Known for its delicious wines, especially Malbec, Mendoza would be our last stop in Argentina. We headed out on the local bus using the trusty lonely planet guide, only to realize, oh, 10 minutes later that we got on the wrong bus. It was in the same place as the other one, and the sign above said the name of the place we wanted to go, but we accidently got on the local local local bus. After over an hour on the bus (the area was 15 km away), the driver told us to get off on the street I kept asking about, only we were at 6500 and wanted to go to 1700. This wasnt even really a town at this point, it was a dusty road with a few houses. I think we ended up walking about 4 km and finally arrived at a lunch place found in LP. Yay! We got a bottle of wine, because most of the wine-tasting hours had passed, and enjoyed it in a nice garden along with a delicious (yep you guessed it) beef stew. We got a cab to our first and only winery of the day and had a nice tour and tasting, then headed back to Mendoza and BOOKED A TOUR. Unlike Sonoma or Napa, you cant really do it on your own very easily.

Bodega La Rural

Wine making stuff mueum, bunch of wierd tools

The Barrel Room

Day 2, Ampora Wine Tours, Decero Winery. This winery is relatively new, started by some rich Swiss cement guy who loves wine. The architect made all the buildings to be able to see the mountains from every room and its spectacular. Our group - 5 other Americans - was really fun, and we tasted a lot of really good wine.

The whole gang

Today for lunch, I had the best steak, best meal, of our entire trip. We went to a restaurant called Azafran and first shared the trio of empanadas. Below is a kinda odd picture of Chris unknowingly about to EAT BWAINSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Seriously, one of those babies is filled with sweatbreads, which he didnt know was brains and I just wanted to be brave and try in Argentina. He liked it, I didnt.

This one is just to see the immensity of my tenderloin. If you ask Chris, he´ll say I took too many pictures of our meals, but they were so good! Can you imagine if I was still veggie on this trip? Phew.

Tomorrow, Chile.

I love Uruguay!

Okay, I swear to god, Chris and I were just sitting at a table in this little restaurant at the Mercado in Montevideo, and he decided to take a pic of me cuz the BBQ was right behind me. We didnt ask the waiter, motion to anyone, did not even look around.... next thing we know, the waiter grabs us, we´ve crawled under the counter, the chef gave us hats and big knives and he´s taking our picture in front of salchichas and chorizo! It was ridiculous and hilarious. I love Don Garcias!

We almost didnt come to Uruguay- kinda sick of travelling, the ferry was kinda expensive, yadda yadda, but I am soooooo glad we did because its a great country and the people are so friendly. We spent our only full day there just wandering around, this building is I think the most recognizable in Montevideo- look familiar?

Teatro Solis- beautiful, went on a tour of it later that day

horse cart trash truck or lil tiny car
The Gaucho Museum! Yay Gigis! (Is that how you spell it dad?)
Inside Teatro Solis- way more giant and spacious than the pic captures

picture of a picture from a small photography exhibit downstairs of the theater

I was almost too embarrased to take this pic because, as you can imagine, Montevideo is not much of a touristy town and everyone was like eating there lunch on the benches all around the fountain, but Chris really wanted to take it and I think it turned out great- very poignant because the most noticable thing about the look of this city was the blending of the very old buildings and more modern ones. And its a pretty fountain.
Next we headed for Colonia de Sacramento, a cute lil colonial town a few hours from Montevideo. Lotsa cobblestone and sailboats. We wandered around for the day - with our backpacks - then took the ferry back to Buenos Aires.


the lighthouse!!!!!!!

Buenos Aires