Week 25 and 26 Mendoza and Bariloche

Week 25 and 26

Tuesday. Today we went on a bus tour (120 Pesos each) to look at the interesting sandstone formations in the surrounding area.

In the afternoon we went to the Nanni winery to taste some more wines. This is the only organic producer in the area and I have to say that the wines were very nice - we ended up buying a couple of bottles to take back home.

Wednesday and Thursday. We left Cafyate at 2pm to catch a bus to Mendoza, not before we tried some wine flavoured ice cream! It was yummy! This was a long bus journey with a 3 hour stop over in the not very nice Tucamen. We arrived at Mendoza at 2pm on Thursday! Our bums were a little numb!

Argentinians drink so much Mate, that they have one of these at the bus terminal!

We stayed at Hostel Macondo which was in a nice residential area of the city, a good 20 minutes walk to the centre of town. We dumped our bags and then had a wonder around the city finding yet another place to eat more steak! After dinner we wondered around a bit more to burn it all off.

Friday. The main reason we came to Mendoza was to try even more wine! Instead of going on an organised tour, we decided to hire bikes and do the touring ourselves. We caught a bus from the centre of town (from Calle Rioja bus 10 172) to Maiou where we hired our bikes from Hugo (50 pesos each). This was much cheaper than the 300 pesos we were quoted in town for a 3 hour tour!

Not quite the view I was expecting cycling to the vineyards!

Following the map that we were given at Hugos, we cycled for about 45 minutes, before reaching our first Vineyard - Bodega Familia Di Tommaso. We decided to visit this one as it was one of the oldest vineyard in the area and had received some good reviews on tripadviser. The tour of the vineyard with a tasting only cost 50 pesos each and took about 1 and a half hours.

It was really interesting to see where the wines used to be made and hear all about the wine producing process.  

Grapes leaving the vineyard to be made into yummy wine!

We then cycled to a beer garden to fill up of empanadas and beer before making our way to the next vineyard.

Hmmmm eating the grapes given to us from the truck driver

The second vineyard we visited was the more industrial Trapiche vineyard.  It was great to compare this one to the previous place. Amazingly the  tour and tasting was free and we left a little merry - riding the bikes to the olive oil factory was amusing! 

Massive vats where the wine is made

This was the last stop of the day and for 40 pesos we filled ourselves up on bread various dips and some strange tasting liquors.

Saturday. It was a beautiful day in Mendoza and as our bus to Bariloche was not until 9pm (Andsesmar 1,050 pesos each, semi cama), we decided to have a walk around the massive park and chill out at the hostel eating delicious cured meats and cheese from the local deli.

Sunday. We finally arrived at Bariloche at 5pm after the 18 hour bus ride! We both could not wait to get off that bus. We stayed at the Green House Hostel where we had our own attic room with a balcony with views of the nearby lake - lovely!

View from the bus ... 

... beautiful!

View from our balcony

The Green House Hostel

Monday. Barloche is in the area of Argentina known as the ´Lake District´and is a perfect place to hike, bike and have lots of fun outdoors. With this in mind we decided to walk all the way to Llao Llao from our hostel - 26km in total. At km12 we were joined by 2 dogs which seemed to take a liking to Roland (I named them Wagtail and Tiedie!) and followed us all the the way to the Cerro Campinaro chair lift at km17.5. I felt bad leaving them behind - they even started to follow us when we were on the chair lift!

Bonita beach

Wagal and Tiedie

Going up on the chair lift ...

... going back down

At the top we had an empanada lunch with stunning views of the surrounding lakes and mountains. 

As we were making our way back down, we couldn't believe it when we saw Wagtail and Tiedie! And as soon as they saw us, they came bounding over to greet us!

We reached Llao Llao after 5 hours of walking and quickly decided to catch the bus back to the hostel. 

Tuesday. Another day of adventure. We caught the bus to the base of Cerro Caredral and followed the trekking route to the cabin at the top of the mountain - Refugio Frey. This was a lovely walk which took about 4.5 hours in total (up and down). The view at the top was worth all the sweating getting there!

We made it!

At Frey

After a quick siesta we caught the bus into town and ate at El Boliche which was recommended in the Lonely Planet. OMG we had the biggest steak ever here and we even managed to eat it all! Felt quite ill after!

OMG!!

Wednesday. We were both absolutely knackered from our previous adventures, so we had a duvet day and did nothing all day! For the first time in Argentina, we actually couldn't stomach any more steak! The steak we ate the previous night had finished us off! So for the first time in ages, I cooked us spaghetti bolognaise in the hostel - it was yummy!

Thursday. Feeling refreshed from our duvet day, we felt ready for another adventure. We hired bikes from the hostel (130 pesos each) and biked the Circuito Chico, stopping at some lovely beaches along the way and we also visited Colonia Suiza.

Playa Villa Tacul

Playa Los Troncos

Pit stop ay Colonia Suiza

Friday. Our last day in lovely Bariloche. We have both really enjoyed staying here. Our bus to Buenos Aires (Crucero Del Norte, 1150 pesos each, cama) left at 3pm. 21 hours later we arrived in Buenos Aires.