Wine, Steak and Desert - Mendoza

The bus journey from Valparaiso to Mendoza in Argentina was across the Andes. It took 8 hours with at least 2 of them stuck at the border crossing as passports were checked, bags searched (the Chileans are as strict about bringing fresh produce into their country as the Aussies....so had to quickly munch on those apples!). This was our first taste of altitude, at 3000m above sea level, we could really feel the shortness of breath, dizziness and nausea coming on.... Oh God, how will we cope in Bolivia where some of the altitudes are 5000m plus! It was a beautiful and stunning drive - check out the photo below...

Back to Mendoza....this city is situated in a desert-like area with the Andes on one side and a whole lot of nothingness on the other. It's famous for its vineyards and Malbec wine. Argentinian Malbec is a red wine that's hugely popular in South America, in fact we pretty much lived on it in Patagonia at only $4 a bottle. (If a bottle of wine in a shop costs more than $10 Aussie, it has an alarm on it. The top shelf ones are about $15. So it's cheap cheap cheap). The Malbec grape blend is originally from France, however according to the Argentinians, it far exceeds the quality of the French wine!!
While in Mendoza we did the infamous 'Mr Hugo's' bike hire and rode the winery route. It wasn't quite as we had imagined with tree lined lanes and rolling hills. In reality it was a cross country route which involved road works, massive cracks and pot holes in the road, huge trucks whizzing past and LOTS of dust!! It was very much a 'South American' wine tour. We had an awesome day though, the tastings were huge and we even had a police escort back to 'Mr Hugo's' just to make sure that we didn't fall off the bikes. Hilarious -nothing like drinking and riding a bike in the desert with no helmet and lights!