After our amazing experience seeing the Perito Moreno Glacier, the day had come when we would be heading to the city of wine called Mendoza! This also happened to be the city that we would finally meet up with my little brother Josh!
Flying to Mendoza
The bus that we had booked previously while booking our glacier tour bus showed up around 11:15am. We were able to make it to the airport with no problems, and even got one of our checked bags for free! This seems to be very common with flights if you wait to pay for your bags and are polite to whoever is helping you.
After two flights with a stopover in Cordoba, we arrived in Mendoza. For fun we decided to try two more ATMs with hope almost lost, but to our surprise we were able to finally get money in Argentina! After gathering our things and ourselves we grabbed a taxi to our hostel, Muna Hostel, which was near the city center for 190 pesos.
One Night in a Hostel
Josh would not be arriving until the next day, so we had one night to kill before we started looking for wine. When we checked in, we learned that the owners actually own a second hostel down the street and had just purchased this one. The downside to this was that Muna was not quite set up yet, so we got a dorm room to ourselves instead of a regular private room. The owners showed us a map of town and gave us some suggestions. They also sold us on a 300 peso each BBQ dinner at their other hostel.
When dinner time arrived, which was around 9pm, we headed to the other hostel. This hostel was much more lively and we met a lot of cool people from around the world while we waited for dinner. The dinner actually ended up being amazing! It was an all you can eat BBQ meats and all you can drink wine. They also were celebrating the purchase of the new hostel and one of the owner’s birthdays, so there was even cake!
Josh Joined the Party
The next morning we got a slow start due to our party the night before. After having some breakfast and getting ourselves together, Josh finally arrived in the city and got to the Airbnb! We took a stroll through the city to go find him and drop our things off at the Airbnb. The Airbnb was very nice and even had a pool on the rooftop!
After Josh joined our party, we headed out to a street called Avenida Arístides Villanueva to find some money and food. We ended up at a bar and restaurant called Buffalo Bar, which had some pretty good food and beer.
After lunch we headed back to our Airbnb to research things to do in the city and some of the wineries nearby. After we felt pretty confident in our plans, we bought some groceries and hung by the rooftop pool.
We headed out to dinner around 10pm since late dinner was a normal occurrence in Argentina. I found a very nice place using google called Josefina Restó. It was amazing with meals ranging from 300 to 500 pesos or 7 to 13 USD. The atmosphere of the street was great too as it appeared there was quite a big fútbol game going on (or soccer if you are American). We ended up finishing dinner sometime after midnight.
Looking for Fun
The next day, we got started a little later than initially planned due to the late night and everyone being a little tired from their travels. After we finally got moving, we headed out on the town to book some tours or maybe some white water rafting.
We first tried to book something with Argentina Rafting, which we had heard about through another blog. Unfortunately they were closed for the day due to it being their 25th anniversary; how unlucky for us!
Next we headed to a place called Mendoza Viajes which offered a 2 winery and 1 olive oil factory tour in the afternoon. Another place we tried was called Mayas Viajes y Turismo, which offered a 3 winery and 1 olive oil factory tour in the afternoon. They also informed us about Alta Montaña, a water park with hot springs, and rafting for the next day.
Unfortunately we were too late in the day to go rafting, so we took brochures from both places and headed to a place called BRÖD for some late breakfast and coffee. We really wanted to do winery tours without a tour, so we also took this time and their Wifi to plan our own winery tour route for the next day. Lauren will talk more about this in her post about the wineries.
Parque San Martín
After planning our wineries for the next day and collecting ourselves back at the Airbnb, we decided to take a walk to Parque San Martín. We took our time and took some great photos as we headed to Army of the Andes Monument/Cerro De La Gloria. The walk took much longer than we thought; I believe over an hour. It was very hot, but we got to see a lot of different things.
When we got to the top of the summit where the monument was, there was a great view of the city. We brought a bottle of wine with us, so we took a break nearby and passed the bottle around. There was a cafe near the monument, so before we headed back down the tiny mountain, we grabbed some empanadas, some smoothies, and plenty of pictures.
On our way back to the Airbnb, we walked passed the zoo, which was currently under construction. Even though it was closed, we did see some of the animals sitting in their temporary spaces, which was both interesting and sad to see all at the same time.
Farewell for Now
The day after our winery tours which Lauren will talk more about in our next post, we woke up around 7am to prepare to leave Mendoza. After getting ready, Javier, the Airbnb’s host’s friend who drove us around the wineries, picked us up to take us to the airport. On the way to the airport, he took us around some of the many neighborhoods on the way.
We got to the airport in plenty of time, but this time we had to pay an extra 40 USD for Lauren’s bag :(. Although, we did learn that in Argentina we could carry on 6 bottles of wine on flights!
Our time in Mendoza was great, but brief. We are hoping someday we will return to visit more wineries and take part in some of the many other activities that Mendoza has to offer.
Until next time!
