Mendoza and Cordoba

After our chilly, but beautiful trek in Bariloche, we were thrilled to arrive in Mendoza where it was glorious t-shirtweather! We knew we were going to love Mendoza because on the 13 hour bus ride to the city, the bus attendant had all passengers play a game of BINGO and Josh won a bottle of delicious, red wine from Mendoza. Good thing we've been practicing our Spanish numbers!

The small city was quite charming. It had been destroyed by an earthquake about 100 years ago so as a result, the new city was built with wide, tree-lined boulevards to protect the streets should there be another quake. These spacious, shady streets made Mendoza a real pleasure to stroll around. Josh was also pleased to find food prices -especially ice-cream prices- to be lower than in Patagonia. We spent a lot of time there, sitting in outdoor cafes and people watching. We also took a tour to some near-by towns, a natural bridge made from hot spring sulfur, the base of Mt. Aconcagua (the highest mountain outside of Asia) and "El Cristo" -a Christ statue erected on the border between Chile and Argentina at 4300 m. The highlight of our time in Mendoza, however, was touring the bodegas (wineries). Josh and I, and two friends we made, rented bicycles and spent a glorious day biking from one bodega to the next. Some were very old fashioned where most processes were done by hand, others were modern and completely mechanised. ALL had delicious wine to taste. Our unanimous decision was that we enjoyed the "Malbec" varieties the best. Luckily, we were all able to bike home tipsy even though our bicycles were on their last legs and difficult to ride even when completely sober!

On to Cordoba! ...after another wonderful over-night bus ride, of course. Cordoba is a large city but still has a charming downtown with pedestrian streets and of course, a large town square. Josh couldn´t believe his eyes when he saw you could buy 1/2 Kg of delicious ice-cream for 7 pesos (about $2.50). Needless to say, I had a hard time convincing him that ice-cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner was a bad idea. Plus, at this point, since we haven't been trekking in a while, out pants are getting a little tight in the waist! Besides enjoying the city of Cordoba, we also visited near-by Alta Gracia. This town is famous for being a former Jesuit settlement where they ran a huge ranch and grist mills while converting the masses. It is also famous because "Che" Guevara lived there for a time as a child and his former home has been turned into a museum. Both sites were very interesting to tour. Che was a lot chubbier than the usual picture you see of him!