I can without a doubt say that this trip has been my favorite part of Argentina so far! Mendoza is a city at the foothills of the Andes mountains about 10 hours away from Córdoba by bus. I went with my friends Jess (also from the U.S.) and Sabina (from Slovenia) and left Thursday night and arrived Friday morning. Immediately after arriving, we met with a travel agent in our hostel and she was able to set us up with winery tours, a sunset horseback riding trip, and a bus tour of the Andes mountains for the weekend. We started with the winery tour on Friday because we only had a half day. We first went to Bodega López, which is one of the larger, more famous vineyards in Mendoza. Next we went to an olive oil factory and then on a tour of a smaller bodega called Don Arturo. Our tour guide told us that Mendoza has so many wineries that if you wanted to see every single one of them you would have to go to 3-4 of them per day for a YEAR. Isn't that insane?!! I guess I better stay in Argentina for a while longer in order to hit all of them! Good wine is also extremely cheap here so I had to buy a couple of bottles to bring back with me :)
The next day we walked around the city a little bit and climbed to the top of Cerro de la Gloria, where we were able to see some beautiful views of the city as well as the Andes mountains. It took us about a million years to walk there but we finally made it!
 |
| Cerro de la Gloria |
Later that day we went on the Sunset horseback riding tour. Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life! It was only my second time riding a horse but the horses were all pretty tranquil so we didn't have any problems. It is kind of hilarious to think that we rode horses in the foothills of the Andes mountains and then galloped off into the sunset at the end. Kind of like something you would see in the movies, right?! We were joking that we should try and sell this photo to Mendoza tourism because it looks so unreal...
 |
| Our cowboy! |
Horseback riding was then followed by an Asado (barbecue). It was so delicious! We spent the night talking to people from all around the world who were on the tour with us and drinking free wine. Definitely the best day in the Argentina so far!
The next day we took a bus tour of the Andes mountains from 7 AM to 8 PM! It was quite the day but we were able to see Potrerillos (a large dam forming a lake in the mountains), Uspallata (a small town in the Andes between Mendoza and Santiago de Chile), Penitentes (a famous ski resort), Aconcagua (the HIGHEST PEAK in the America's), and el Puente del Inca (a natural arch that forms a bridge over the Vacas river). Also, no one told us that we were going to be outside for so long/we did not realize we would be out in the snow so we were not dressed very warm. Good thing I have Wisconsin blood in me or I would not have made it! (it also helped that we rented boots hahaha)
 |
| Panorama of the Andes! |
 |
| At Penitentes with our new friends from Belgium |
 |
| Parque Provincial de Aconcagua |
 |
| Puente del Inca |
Mendoza is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to and we didn't have enough time to do everything that the city has to offer. I guess that gives me an excuse to go back someday!
No comments:
Post a Comment