Argentina

Back from our wonderful trip in northern Argentina, following a harrowing bus ride across the Andes from Mendoza to Santiago. We took the overnight bus, sat in the front seats, only to be joined by some women who apparently wanted to befriend the drivers. And, apparently, the drivers wanted befriending. The four of them basically had a party in the front, and while the driver navigated narrow switchbacks in the dark, he added sugar and passed around mate, checked his cell phone message, smoked, and turned all the way around in his seat to talk to the others. Lindsey and I feared for our lives and were not amused, but when asked what our problem was, we managed to do nothing but sputter. El Rapido bus company can expect a strongly worded letter from us soon. Once we have someone help us write it.

Aside from that, our trip was amazing. In summation...

We crossed from Antofagasta to Salta and stayed in Salta for 3 days. While I felt the altitude change on the bus, it wasn't as bad as I was afraid and only suffered a slight headache. We went white water rafting, rode the teleferica, and had the amazing Argentinian empanadas for the first time (they're smaller, baked, and filled with cheese and spices).

From Salta we took a bus to Cafayate, about 4 hours south of Salta. It was a small, quiet little city, pretty, and with lots to do. I could have spent my whole trip just in Cafayate, I loved it there.

Our first afternoon in Cafayate we took a walking tour of the surrounding canyons...



The next morning we went on the (free!) wine tour offered by our hostel, visiting two wineries (Vasija Secreta and Domingo Hermanos) and a goat cheese factory...

The Andes are never far

Amazing lunch at the hostel after the tour

After lunch, we found a taxi to take us to Las Ruinas Quilmes, about 45 minutes outside the city. Not much is known about the Quilmes, except that they successfully resisted the Incas but not the Spanish.

From Cafayate we took a bus to Mendoza, about 12 hours south. We had a brief stopover in Tucuman, but weren't impressed. We ate lunch in the bus station, where Lindsey found a crawling bug in her salad, and walked around the dirty streets while we waited to take our overnight bus to Mendoza.

Sign at the entrance to Weinart winery in Mendoza

In Mendoza we ate more great food, visiting The Green Apple vegetarian buffet restaurant twice (might be my favoriate restaurant of all time). We took another wine tour, this time with the incredible lunch at the end I remembered from last year. We shopped. We stayed at Winca's again, a great hostel not far from anything. After our harrowing bus ride across the Andes (see above), Lindsey and I flew back to Antofagasta and arrived here Wednesday afternoon. More pictures, from Lindsey's camera, coming soon...