(Luke solo adventure)
Activity Summary
Monday 6th November - Day 398 (continued)
Travel to Mendoza (Andesmar)
Border crossing
Tuesday 7th November - Day 399
Western Union cash withdrawal
Job applications and interview prep
Coffee at White Shark Coffee
Walk through Mendoza
Fuente de Aguas Danzantes Plaza
Dinner at Bigalia Pizza Napolitana
Wednesday 8th November - Day 400
Maipu wine touring (Maipu Bike Rental)
Tempus Alba
Mevi
Viña el Cerno
Domiciano - failed
Alameda - failed
Trapiche
Thursday 9th November - Day 401
Chill day and job applications
Dinner at Bigalia Pizza Napolitana
Friday 10th November - Day 402
7.30am bus to Santiago cancelled
Wasted day planning reroute into Chile
Bus to Bariloche, then Puerto Montt
Summary
Mendoza
A really nice city that is super chill, has so many nice places to eat, drink and walk around.
The wine touring in Maipu was cheap and delicious. Not NZ standards, but still great.
Argentina cash & fudged FX rates
An absolute shitshow of a system. The banks over a crappy official rate while Western Union offers the ‘blue dollar’ rate. At the time, the official rate stood at around 450 whilst the blue dollar was at 1050 so a substantial difference.
Everyone gets cash out from Western Union. The app makes it easy but the lack of cash held in Western Union shops, the long queues, absolute massive wads of cash (largest note is a ARS2,000) and general stress of it all makes it woefully painful. But it makes Argentina the price it should be.
Monzo was a game changer. It offered about 10% less than the blue dollar rate, running at around 1000 when I was here, but the ability to pay on card meant I didn’t have to use my hard won Western Union cash.
Now booking accomodation is another game yet to be concluded upon at this point. Airbnb is a fixed GBP price but booking.com runs the risk of being 60% more dependent on rates.
Transport
Mendoza
Walk to Valparaiso station
Bus (Andesmar) to Mendoza - much cheaper from the counter rather than online
Walk to Airbnb
Accommodation
Mendoza - Airbnb, Pasaje San Martín
Number of nights - 4
Price per night per person - £16
Positives:
Whole apartment
Work space for interview prep
Netflix on a big tv
Hot shower
Location great
Lovely host
Negatives:
WiFi less than average but worked fine
The multiple keys was a bit annoying
Recommend?
Yes
Diary
Monday 6th November - Day 398 (continued)
The bus to Mendoza was going swimmingly to begin with. The Andesmar buses have a decent amount of space, comfy seats and the journey through the Andes mountains is pretty stunning.
3 hours in, the chill in the journey died. The coach was required to pull over to the side of the road, seemingly being the first vehicle of the queue that ended up piling over a 4 hour completely stationary time period. I had no idea what was going on.
When we did get moving again there was genuine joy and even I happily cheered and clapped along with the rest of the passengers. It seemed that a completely fucked burnt out lorry was the culprit.
Thankfully I had a lot of food on me.
The border crossing was a well oiled machine. Interestingly it was quite deep into Argentinian territory rather than the actual map line but it was super easy. The bus pulled in, some dudes ran our bags through scanners and reloaded right back into the bus while we got our passports seen to. They took my Chilean PDI and after a scan of my passport that was it for Argentina, apparently doing away with stamps. All in all it took about 30 minutes as we waited for everyone to rejoin.
I arrived in Mendoza at about 7.30pm and foolishly arranged to meet my Airbnb host without buying my return ticket to Santiago. Not willing to walk back to the station I ended up making Natalia wait longer than I intended to as it was a decent 1.5km walk to the centre of town.
This was my first experience with Argentinian currency and the Monzo risk paid off, getting a refund for the difference between the actual and blue dollar rate a few days later. Interestingly Monzo then switched its approach and went full blue only so removed the requirement for a refund on later transactions.
I love an Airbnb apartment. It was comfortable, had everything I needed and most importantly a desk with TV so I could go through job applications and interview prep without being uncomfortable.
Dinner was a Mcds because it was opposite my airbnb. That and I’d been gagging for one for a while.
Tuesday 7th November - Day 399
I had a nice relaxing slow start to my day before heading out to get some of the famed chaotic Argentinian Pesos.
With the first Western Union I tried, I ended up standing in the queue for 15 minutes only to be told super late there was no money. Poor communication but I had heard this was a regular occurrence. At this point I was cursing my lie in.
The second Western Union lived inside a Carrefour supermarket and had a sizable queue as well. This queue did not go down quickly and I was there for an absolute age before it was my turn.
Enter a complete twat of an old man who decided he could just push in front of everyone and got his way by shouting at them. He was a complete asshole but the security guard did nothing and the Western Union guy just let him have his way. Fortunately he was depositing so wasn’t going to be taking any of my much needed money, but him shouting in my face was seriously irritating and more so because I couldn’t shout back in a language he could understand.
Post finally getting a withdrawal I was absolutely fuming, did some supermarket shopping and went back to the Airbnb in a terrible mood 2 hours after setting off for cash.
After finding a laundry place, I had lunch at the Airbnb, worked and changed scenery by going for a coffee at White Shark Coffee 2 seconds down the road. Comfortable spot but not great coffee.
To head to dinner I had a nice evening walk along a really quaint pedestrianised road that has masses of alfresco dining and green space.
This eventually leads to a large park where the Fuente de Aguas Danzantes Plaza and Mendoza sign is. It was a lovely walk.
I had dinner at Bigalia Pizza Napolitana and I can honestly say it was 4.9 google review quality. The pizza was sensational and for £4, so cheap. My first glass of Argentinian Malbec washed it all down as I sat for my dinner for one. O so lonely but at least I was in a really nice city.
Wednesday 8th November - Day 400
I had planned to do some wine touring the day before but the lie in and cash situation really scuppered my plans. So today was the day.
Armed with a packed lunch, my iPad and the calls of a glorious 30 degree clear sky Mendoza day calling, I took a cab (Cabify - for some reason my Uber wouldn’t work?) to Maipu Bike Rental.
I was kitted with a bike that only had a rear brake working but thankfully the route was predominantly cycle lanes with little traffic so there was minimal risk of crashing. The bike guys gave me a map with some discounts and I more or less followed that route. The area is not as picturesque as you would expect, interestingly enough.
First winery was Tempus Alba and I think it had my favourite setting. The winery was really nice and it was a great place to chill. If I had come back to work again the next day, this would have been my choice despite the wines I tried not being that great.
ESPUMANTE Charmat - 7 - fizzy and quaffable
Malbec rose - 3 - na mate
Syrah - 6 - not bad
Mevi had some great views over the mountains but the wines weren’t good. White wines from Mendoza are trash panda but the Malbec was decent.
Viña el Cerno had the best wine of the day, a 50/50 blend of Cab Sav and Malbec to create a lighter red wine that’s more to my taste. Best Malbec I tried here as well.
On the map we’re Domiciano and Alameda wineries but the former had forced wine touring then tasting so I said hell and the latter a closed door. Domiciano had the same closed door and I didn’t like that approach so I cycled off.
By this point I’d been cycling from the Southern wineries, to the North and then trying my hand at the ones in the middle. It felt like a lot of cycling and all I wanted to do was drink wine. Thankfully Trapiche was open but didn’t quite offer the same experience as the first 3.
With a card, I was able to self-serve tasters from 8 bottles as if I was in a wine bar in Nottingham. At this point I didn’t care, I was just happy I had access to more wine and continued drinking until they kicked me out at 5pm. The Syrah Viognier blend was top at a 7.
I was at least close to Maipu Bikes and could hand the bike back, have a glass of water and wine from the staff while waiting for my cab back to Mendoza. I didn’t fancy trying to make friends.
Being slightly inebriated gave me all the justification I needed to score Mcds V2.
Thursday 9th November - Day 401
Surprise surprise, drinking from 12pm to 6pm in the sun and cycling around made me feel groggy all day. Always nice to get some justification as to why I don’t drink much while travelling.
I had a very unexciting day doing job applications that involved grand outings to the supermarket and for dinner at Bigalia Pizza Napolitana again.
I did catch some of the light show at the main park which was cute.
Friday 10th November - Day 402
Today was the start of some rather rough travel due to another Santiago/Mendoza border crossing gone wrong.
I woke up at 6am, was at the bus station for 7am to find my 7.30am bus to Santiago was cancelled due to adverse weather in the Andes mountain pass. So my morning was spent trawling through the internet and chatting to Nicola to work out a sensible route that would get me to Pucon. The internet is not very helpful for this route and the status of the various mountain border passes between Chile and Argentina.
In conclusion, I wouldn’t be able to get to Pucon to be able to see the national park on Sunday, which would be closed on Monday. Therefore a long reroute into Chile would be:
18:30 - 18 hour bus to Bariloche
07:30 - 7.5hr bus to Puerto Montt
Pray the border crossing is all gravy
After spending 5 hours in a cafe in the bus terminal I decided to stretch my legs by walking the 1.5km right back into town and have lunch and coffee at White Shark Coffee.
After a few hours I was joined by Sam who happened to be in Mendoza and the Andesmar bus station when I was pulling my hair out and was leaving in the evening to Cordoba. Nice to have some company to break up the 12 hour wait for my revised bus.
Back at the terminal it was Mcds V3 for dinner in order to preserve the sandwiches for a breakfast and lunch combo the next day as part of the 18 hour bus ride.
Part 1 of my ridiculous detour was up and running.
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