Semana Santa Travelogues: Crayola doesn't have enough Colors for this Beauty!

So this was probably my favorite adventure in Mendoza: going on a walk in the Andes. (I wish I could say hiking but unfortunately that's not really what we did)

It started out when we decided to go see Aconcagua, which is the highest mountain outside of Asia with almost 7000m. So we bought our tickets and thought it was gonna be a 1-2 hour bus ride to get from Mendoza City to Aconcagua and that we might even be able to make it back to the Empanada cooking class at the hostel that evening. But little did we know! We ended up being on the bus for about 4 hours and of course that meant no Empanada making for us that day. But it was definitely worth it!

The bus ride started out in the flatlands of Mendoza but soon we came to the edge of the Andes. We then got a pretty good idea of the Andes in that region because our bus continued towards the heart of the Andes until we were almost in Chile. And even though I was kinda tired from stying up late the night before, I tried to stay awake as much as possible because the landscape was simply incredible!

We eventually got off at a very touristy place called Puente del Inca which was a teeny tiny town that was mainly made up of Artesanía shops. Amongst others they sold lovely Alpaca-wool sweaters, one of which would later go into my possession.

Pretty Artesanía mugs

All sorts of things that had been left in the Andes and some sort of yellow mineral coated it

From there we went on hiking upwards along the only existing road for a while. Unfortunately, Izzie didn’t feel too good that day but I didn’t mind going slow because the landscape was just so breathtakingly beautiful. All the mountains seemed to be different colors. Like god had gone a little crazy with the crayon-box up there. It's not really all that visible but there were patches of almost every color of the rainbow. And all those mountains looked so majestic and strong and slightly intimidating. I felt small up there in the mountains. Very small. But also very happy that I got to see all this beauty. I also felt the urge to climb one of those bad boys but obviously that wasn't gonna happen. I wish I could have seen the view from up on top of one of those mountains though.

The Colorful Andes

...and trust me, this isn't even close to reality's beauty!

Tiny Rachel in the Giant Mountains

Bridget on the rocks

After some time we came to an information center where we paid 10 pesos to get into the National Park around Aconcagua. They also gave us a little booklet with information about the National Park and other useful tips. Amongst others there was a page dedicated to AMS, which is the abbreviation for “acute mountain sickness”. We went through the checklist and diagnosed Izzie with major altitude sickness. Which wasn’t all that surprising because normally we live very close to sea-level in Montevideo and that day we went up to about 3000m above sea-level. But the rookies that we were, we didn’t care about stuff like that. And it was nothing Ibuprofen couldn’t cure. Personally, I didn’t even feel sick at all. It wasn’t until we reached the highest point of our journey, which was a scenic hiking trail at about 3000m, when I slowly began to feel how the air was getting less and hiking was getting slightly more exhausting than before. But I really couldn't care less as I was surrounded by one of the most beautfiul landscapes I have ever seen. 

Beginning of Aconcagua National Park

I think we diagnosed Izzie with "Moderate AMS"... needless to say we did not abort our ascent 

Up up up through the clouds

That's the spirit, Erin!

Hues of blue

So from the information center we continued on to the base camp, where you are supposed to spend some time before hiking Aconcagua. Since however we are rookies and climbing Aconcagua wasn’t on our to-do list, we went on to walk the scenic trail around the Laguna de Horcones. Said lagoon was more a big waterhole. Nothing fancy or impressive, like it sounded to be in the info-booklet.

Izzie and Rachel in front of the very spectacular Laguna de Horcones

..note that I am being sarcastic because really, it's only a water hole

We did however get a great view of Aconcagua, which sticks out between the surrounding mountains because due to its year-round glaciers it was the only one with snow on top. And that sight was truly spectacular! Not as beautiful and colorful as the other mountains but it just sticks out.Well, I guess a 7000m summit is kinda supposed to stick out even though from our perspective we didn't get to enjoy all of its majestic greatness. 

Don't let the clouds fool you, the mountain is huge!

Group picture in the very picturesque scenery

After we enjoyed it for a while we started our way back to Puente del Inca. On the way though we stopped for some picture-taking fun. After all it wasn’t enough to simply document the mountains. And for my part, I was exhilarated and just wanted to spin around in the middle of all the beauty. And so I did. And I was very happy in my very own “Sound of Music”-moment.

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music!

Yes, I was utterly happy amidst all those beautiful and colorful mountains!

We are the Champions!

Back at Puente del Inca we made some (sweater-)purchases and had a bite to eat before getting on the bus that would take us back to Mendoza. And that was pretty much the end of a very long and very amazing day. I’m so glad we went there. I know the pictures don’t even come close to capturing the beauty of the Andes but I hope I could provide you with at least a little impression.

And also this is pretty much where the Mendoza adventure ends. Because the next day was spent enjoying some conversations and just hanging out with the girls before I eventually had to head to the bus terminal where I got on the night bus to Buenos Aires. Since it didn't make much difference in prices I splurged on an Executive Seat. Now the regular seats weren't bad to begin with but those Executive ones... well it's almost like a bed on a bus. No awkward awakeness because you're trying to find a position to sleep that doesn't molest your neighbor. I did wake up a couple times during the night and looked outside the window. But since we were passing the Pampa and other flat areas of Argentina, there was really not a lot to see. So eventually I got to Buenos Aires where I spontaneously met up with my friend Stephan who gave me a quick-tour of the city before I went on to catch my ferry. I'm not gonna write much about Buenos Aires at this point though because Sebastian H. and I are planning to visit our friends Stephan and Laura in Buenos Aires soon, in order to extend our tourist visa.

So as I said this was my favorite adventure in/around Mendoza though the whole trip was amazing. If you haven’t read it yet, feel free to check out what I wrote about the trip that we took to get there, my personal impressions of Mendoza, our wine&bike tour and a horseback-ride into the sunset.

Altogether I had a great time in Mendoza with my dear friends Bridget, Erin, Izzie and Rachel. I enjoyed eating lots of grapes and drinking what felt like whole barrels of wine. And of course I had a great time making all those new experiences and seeing all those incredibly beautiful places.

Muchas gracias por un viaje inolvidable!

                                                                                            

Semana Santa Travelogues: Galloping into the sunset

Upon our first arrival at the hostel we saw some posters with things to do around Mendoza. One of which being a horseback ride into the sunset at the edge of the Andes. Sound good? Definitely! 

Compared to our other activities that one was kind of expensive though. However, everyone in our hostel who had done that tour came back totally amazed. So obviously we had to go. And after all, the lack of money keeps us from way too many adventures already.  

So we booked the tour for Tuesday and after a day well spent relaxing we packed our freshly charged cameras (still can’t believe I didn’t realize my battery was about to die before I went on the bicicletas&vino tour!) and gathered in the lobby of our hostel, ready to be picked up for yet another adventure. Since the tour was only booked by the hostel, but organized by some other company, we all got picked up by a minibus that went from hostel to hostel and picked up a mixed crowd that would become our horseback company.

After a while we came to a ranch at the edge of the Andes where we got to meet our horses and were instructed by our gauchos (=cowboys) a.k.a. tour guides on how to ride a horse. We pretty much didn’t need much of that knowledge though because the horses were all very calm and well-tempered and kept following the lead of our gauchos. So after some basic instructions our tour started. First we went through the grasslands at the feet of the Andes and then we mounted some of the smaller mountains. Although at that part I personally wouldn’t call them mountains just yet.

At the Ranch

At that point in time it was all very calm and we trotted along in a line in between our gauchos, Diego and Luis. But then one of the company, David from the UK, lost his camera cap and so he dismounted his horse and forgot that he was not supposed to let go of the leash. Of course his horse went off into the grasslands and our gauchos had to get off their horses and play “catch the horsey”.  But with their incredible horse whispering skills they soon caught it and the tour went on.

[Picture courtesy of Izzie Atkinson]

Never ever let go of the leash!

My Horsey and Me

Right when the sun was about to disappear behind the Andes we stopped on a hill/mountain and had a very spectacular view of the setting sun. Of course all documented with pictures. At that point our gauchos also told us to secure our cameras because we were now ready to gallop. That’s right. I never really learned how to ride a horse and now I was supposed to gallop through the grasslands of the Andes. But of course the adventurous part in me was like “what the hell, let’s do this”. And oh the fun I had! I was even a little bit sad when we went back to normal trotting afterwards.

Erin and I

Izzie, Erin and I on our horses

Eventually we got to the destination point, where we got off our horses and said our goodbyes to them before Luis took them back to the ranch. And I truly believe he is some sort of horse whisperer because they followed him without a leash or anything. Or maybe they just know where they belong.

My horsey

So for Luis and the horses the evening had come to an end but for us it was only the beginning. We had a very delicious Asado and a never ending supply of wine. And by that I mean that whenever your glass wasn’t full, Diego would come and fill it up to the brim again.   So obviously it didn’t take very long for us to be slightly tipsy. But none of us cared because it was such a fun experience and we all got to know our fellow travellers better.

 A very fine Asado

And after we all had eaten we went out to the fireside and listened to Diego play the guitar. It was a pretty cool mix of Argentinian gaucho songs and well known ones like “Hey Jude” that we could sing along with. And in this fashion we continued the night for quite a while. Singing, laughing, talking, listening, enjoying.

The whole group 

[Picture courtesy of Izzie Atkinson]

Mendoza in the Moonlight

[Picture courtesy of Izzie Atkinson]

But at some point it all had to come to an end and we all climbed into the bus that would take us back to our hostels. And accompanied by the most random tunes we made our way back to Mendoza. And by random I mean, us and the gauchos rocking out to “P.I.M.P.” and “Insane in the membrane”. But again nobody cared. Cause we are mother***in’ P.I.M.P.s!

And somehow that was a weirdly awesome end to a very incredible experience. But don’t worry, the best part of my Semana Santa Travels is yet to come!

If you missed the previous posts about the trip, the destination and our wine tour, feel free to scroll down or be lazy and click the text. 

Semana Santa Travelogues: I heard it through the grapevine

Or: Bicicletas & Vino

I have mentioned here, Mendoza is particularily famous for its wine. So obviously we could not spend a week there without getting acquainted with some of its fine grape juices. And since everyone at the hostel recommended us to rent some bikes and tour some wineries that offered wine tastings for a small amount of money (30 pesos each = ca. $1.50), we set out for a little bike adventure the day after we arrived in Mendoza.

Since that meant we had to get out of the city center, we had to take the bus to a darling place called Chacras de Coria which is a small town outside of Mendoza city. And even though half of the bus was empty, of course Rachel and Erin sat on the reserved seats on the bus that are actually meant to be for old, disabled or pregnant people. Now they are definitely not old... 

Rachel and Erin enjoying their "special seats" *

Once we got there we found the bike rental place and got ourselves some bikes and helmets. Because after all it’s safety first, when you’re plans include riding a bike while intoxicated. Plus, it made us look all nerdy and tourist-y.

I want to ride my bycicle...*

At the bike rental place a nice young lady named Mariana planned out our route for us and sketched it on a map. Which was quite helpful because the wineries all had different opening hours, and by knowing them we were able to schedule our bike trip accordingly.

The route Mariana had planned out for us

So we set out for the first winery of the day, which was called “Bodega Pulmary”. It was a rather small, family-owned winery where we got to see the wine making process in a small format. I also liked this place a lot because they had put up a lot of artwork of local artists. And all of you who know me well enough know that I kinda have a weakness for art. It was also quite good in my opinion, though very expensive since the artist was apparently like a local celebrity. That winery was also where I had my “favorite wine of the day” – a very tasty vintage of Malbec.

Degustación: Our guide handing out my favorite wine*

Girls in the wine cave*

Favorite piece of art

After that we sat outside under a sunshade made up of grapevines and ate the sandwiches we had brought. Which would have tasted a lot better if it weren’t for the Asado (=BBQ) that was offered by the winery to its guests. Unfortunately you had to pay quite a bit for it, so no Asado for us.

I heard it through the grape vine..

The girlies under the grapevines*

After some troubles with the map we then went on to the next winery which was called Alta Vista. That place was a lot bigger and you could actually see the vinyards surrounding the winery. Normally you are advised to schedule a tour there but since we hadn’t done that we had to wait for a bit. So we sat down on the front lawn and enjoyed the sun. And some wine which they offered to us while waiting. Even though I don’t mind waiting, I sure did enjoy having a glass of wine to pass the time. While waiting we met some fellas from Australia, the UK (which also stayed at our hostel) and even one from the beautiful region of “Franken” in Germany. Since half of my family is from that part of Germany and thus talk in a distinct accent that is spoken there, I did enjoy chatting with that one quite a bit.

Twisted vision*

So we passed some time enjoying the sun and finally got to go on the tour of the winery. Which was very large compared to the previous one. Now this winery was more commercial and sold wines for ridiculously high amounts of money. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try the really expensive vintages so I cannot tell you whether or not they are worth their money. Pretty much we got to see the wine making process again, but this time in a much larger scale. We then went on to the caves where they stored the wine barrels during the ripening process and the owner’s collection of fine wines. Ultimately we came to the bar, where we got to try some of their wines which were all very tasty, but didn’t make it to my favorites list.

I definitely enjoyed their harvest...

...however not so much their prices! 

(divide by 5 to get the Dollar amount)

Me, Bridget, Rachel and Erin in the vineyard at Alta Vista*

Beautiful scenery

We then left and had a winery and a Absinth/Pesto/Dulce de Leche/ Jam/Chocolate place to go. We were a little short in time for the winery so we decided to skip that one and go straight to the other place.

There we first got to try the pestos and hearty bread spreads. They mostly contained olives or similar things. Though one was a mixture of blue cheese and olives, which was particularly delicious. I had to think of my sister because I’m pretty sure she would have loved that one.  

Next up were the sweets. Which meant we got to go round a wine-barrel/table trying lots of different kinds of jam and Dulce de Leche. Up until then I have only had plain normal dulce de leche (which I could probably eat with every meal) and I was very fond of two of the offered flavors, Coco and Coffee. I decided to buy a jar of coffee flavored dulce de leche to bring home to my family. Let’s hope it will survive the next few months and actually make it to Germany!

Sugary goodness!*

Last but not least we also tried some of their Absinth/Liquors. I stuck to the sweet and delicious ones, dulce de leche & banana and hazelnut chocolate. But Izzie was as brave as to try the “Muerte Rusa” which translates to "Russian Death" was a sort of absinth that was made of green pepper, I think. Though she was as kind as to shar. Curios? Well I was and luckily I got to try since Izzie was in a generous mood she shared it with us (or she wasn’t “man enough” to drink the whole thing haha). Anyway, I got to try that one as well and I have to say I have never tasted anything like it. It was sweet but really spicy at the same time. Such an interesting flavor! It kind of made me regret my decision to only pick sweet liquors.

Preparing the "Russian Death"*

The Liquor Selection* 

After that it was time to get back to the bike rental place. But since we enjoyed the landscape so much we made some detours just for the detours’ sake to take in some of the beautiful scenery before we handed our bikes back over to Mariana.

And to those of you who are concerned about my alcohol intake on that particular day, let me assure you that we had long pauses in between the wine tastings and for my part I didn’t feel like I was drunk or tipsy at all.

We then took the bus back to the hostel a girl there asked us if we wanted to join a movie night with wine and cheese. And what would be a better way of ending a day of wine-drinking than drinking some more wine? 

One of the best food&drink combinations: 

Wine + cheese + crackers + grapes*

So we joined her for an Argentinian movie named “Un Cuento Chino” (=A Chinese Tale) which was one of those odd yet amazing movies. It starts out with a proposal of a Chinese man to his Chinese girlfriend on a little boat when suddenly a cow falls from the sky and kills the girl. Did I get you curious there? If you are into movies with extraordinary and odd characters you should definitely watch it. I’m not sure if they have it in English though. Well, whatever… go learn some Spanish. That’s what I’m doing ;) 

On another note, I would like you to know that the pictures marked with a * have not been taken by me. Which is why I would like to give a big shout out to my friend Izzie Atkinson because she so generously supplied me with those pictures after my camera battery had died that day. 

Thank you, Izzie!*

Also, this is the third part of my Semana Santa Travelogues. I have already written about the trip and my company and my first impressions in case you have missed those posts or want to re-read them while waiting for the next one. Though that one is already written and only needs some pictures and fine-tuning and it's good to go online. So keep checking in!

Semana Santa Travelogues: First Impressions of Mendoza

I would like to use this blogpost to introduce the beautiful city of Mendoza to you because I am guessing that most of you haven’t heard of that place before. So let's start with map to show he geograhical location. 

Größere Kartenansicht

Mendoza is the name of a province in Argentina as well as its capital city where we stayed during our trip. And from the beginning on, I couldn’t help but adore the city with all its charm. It has kind of a southern European vibe and at the same time it’s very adorable. To me the whole city felt like vacation. And not just because I actually was on vacation, but because I kinda felt like it would just be too odd to live there because it’s such a vacation-y place. Very unreal. In the most positive way.

Plaza Independencia

And our hostel fit perfectly into that vacation-y flair. I am fairly sure that it is the best Hostel in all of Mendoza. And the fact that it was completely booked kind of underlines that. When we got to said Hostel, our room wasn’t quite ready for us to move in yet and so we just hung out outside on the patio for a while.  We met two girls, one from England and one from Belgium (and altogether it was a pretty international crowd there), who shared their experiences with us and we found out that you could just take a ladder and pick your own grapes from the grapevines that grew all over the patio to provide shade. They also recommended that we do a bike and wine tour where you rent some bikes and then cycle from one winery to the next and try some of Mendoza’s wine. So we added that to our to-do list. After all Mendoza is Argentina’s most famous wine growing province.

If you ever go to Mendoza, I can only recommend you to stay at this place

Part of the patio

After a little while, our room was ready and we moved in. Typical hostel room so nothing too fancy here. Bunk beds and lockers. Though we had a room with direct access to the patio which was pretty sweet. However, we also had the room with the worst wifi signal. But location tops internet connection anyways.

Following that we went to check out the city for a while and found a square named Plaza Independencia near our hostel. It was super pretty with lots of trees and a fountain in the middle. And that fountain combined with the brightly shining sun resulted in a beautiful rainbow. 

Not sure if that little boy running in the way ruined the picture or made it way more awesome

After checking out our surroundings we decided to  have some ice cream and coffee. And let me tell you, the ice cream was good! I had pistachio and super dulce de leche. It was divine! We pretty much spent all afternoon hanging out in that café, talking and enjoying our vacations.

In the evening the hostel organized a Pizza party and we decided to join it. And that was a wise decision because we were hungry and there were almost unlimited supplies of pizza with all kinds of different toppings. We also got to know some of the people that stayed in the hostel. It was a pretty mixed group but mostly it was people who spent half a year in South America, travelling around, going on adventures and enjoying life.

In the end most of the people went to bed and the only ones remaining were a guy named Patricio from Buenos Aires, another one named Daniel from Canada and Rachel, Izzie, Erin and I. At some point we decided to ask for a deck of cards at the reception and play some card games. After an unsuccessful attempt to explain a game that only one of us knew we decided that poker would probably be the best option, because everybody kind of knew how it works. But then we encountered a new problem : What should we use as a currency? We didn’t want to play for money and strip poker was also out of the question, so what should we do?

Izzie, Rachel, Patricio, Daniel and Erin

Eventually we found a creative solution to our currency problem. Since it was nice weather we were sitting outside beneath a sky of grapevines. So why not use grapes? After all, the hostel encourages their guests to pick their own grapes.  So we pokered for grapes.  Which is kind of weird when you think of it. But then again grapes are the biggest capital of the province of Mendoza. The only problem here was that we couldn’t snack on the grapes because that would be like eating our money. But since we had incredible amounts of pizza earlier we weren’t exactly hungry anyway. And after many rounds of “Uva-Poker” (uva = Spanish word for grape) we went to bed in order to get some sleep so we would be well-rested for the next day’s adventure.

A nice game of Uva-Poker

P.S. This was the second part of my “Semana Santa Travelogues”. If you haven’t read the first one yet, go check it out HERE.