Crossing the Andes

This mountain pass through the Andes between Argentina and Chile is known as the Paso Internacional Los Libertadores, also Cristo Redentor.

We are up early so as to be driven into the bus station in downtown Mendoza for the bus over the Andes to Santiago. Spent the night in a losing battle with a mosquito, so didn't sleep well.

Cloudy morning, quite cool.

The bus travels back over Ruta 40 heading south for a short time towards the wine areas we've been to in the past two days. We then head west towards the Andes: wonderful colours of greys, reds & browns, landforms a mix of clumpy peaks, smooth hills & mountains, sedimentary layers uplifted into sinuous patterns. Vegetation a mix of greys, greens & pale yellows: all stumpy, mostly shrub & grasses.

This is a shrine to Gaucho Gil, protector of the truckies apparently. He was actually an outlaw in the 1800s - like a Robin Hood figure, and the story (a long one) goes that he was eventually killed by the police but the policeman that shot him, his son became ill so the policeman prayed for him to get better which he did & legend has it that Gauchito Gil saved the policeman's son.

The road criss-crosses over a defunct railway line: old tunnels, bridges fallen into disrepair. Such infrastructure gone to waste! (But then, we know all about that in Australia, don't we? It's just worse here: so rundown). Would have been an incredible journey at one time.

Over the first range of mountains, through about 15 tunnels, the landscape opens up into wide valley with a river flowing through & mist-shrouded mountains soaring up, shards of sun piercing through in spots to reveal mountain peaks and brilliant blue sky. So dramatic.

More sun. The scenery is incredible!

The clouds disappear & the sun miraculously comes fully out bathing the landscape in brightness. About 110 kms from Mendoza we see our first close up views of Mt Aconcagua - at 6960 m, the highest mountain in the western & southern hemispheres.

We pass the Los Penitentes ski field.

And reached the border near San Cristobal.

It took 2 hours to get through the border. The usual shambles. Traffic was lined up into groups of cars (autos), buses & trucks (camiones). The buses of course take ages as lines of passengers are processed through immigracion control: visas & passports for all different nationalitites. First we line up in paso (queue) 1 & then another lot of paperwork is processed in paso 2. Then the bags all come off the bus & are scanned. My bag was one randomly chosen for checking but there was no problem. Then all hand luggage is scanned. Then all back on the bus.

So goodbye Argentina & hello again to Chile.

Snow everywhere greets us as we emerge into the bright sun from the control station.

With 174 kms to go to Santiago, we reach the first of the 27 curves - or switchbacks - to descend down the Chile side from the border. Take a gander at this!

Glad I took my travel sickness medication!!

After the curves, the bus descended quickly into hot, dry, dusty country featuring tall cacti & a narrow, fast-flowing river tearing down the gully beside the road; dogs tried their luck with the traffic; I saw a gaucho walking into town in the hot sun. It is by now about 2:00 p.m.

With about 90 kms to go, we joined a freeway for the last run into Santiago. The road snakes up & down through hilly country, past Los Libertadores. I fall asleep briefly in the heat, with the sound of Elvis singing "You were always on my mind" on the Spanish video playing on the bus. Makes me think of home & that we have only 3 more nights to go here (in Santiago) - & how many in the plane?

We arrive into Santiago, the capital of Chile, about 3 p.m. Miraculously we find the Metro, buy a ticket & we are on our way to the area called Providencia. The hotel's instructions on how to get there are perfect & I had to restrain My Friend from pulling out his bloody GPS.

It's a lovely hotel, recommended by Syd & Sue. Only about half a dozen rooms, in a nice area & close to the Metro, cafes, restaurants, parks, etc.

We checked in & then spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around our neighborhood; found a modern-art exhibition which we visited; had an early (!) dinner of pizza & walked some more through a nearby park (Parque Uruquay) that extends for a number of kms into adjoining parks (Forestal, Balmaceda) along a fast-flowing Mapocho River which is channelled into a canal here. The sun was warm when you were in it; cool when not. The park was very attractive, especially with the jacarandah trees in blossom (just as in Buenos Aires). Lots of people out walking, cycling, jogging, exercising on park equipment, playing with the kids & their dogs.

Lovely wide streets. Nice buildings.

Yummy helados (icecream)!

Looking for an earlier night tonight!

For my felting friends

There is a permanent collection called the Killka Collection in the art gallery at the Salentein winery. The gallery seeks to combine art & wine with the architectural setting; it houses renown contemporary Argentine works alongside a group of Dutch paintings from the 19th & 20th centuries to reflect the owner's desire to forge ties between the Netherlands (his former home) and Argentina (his new home).

The felt works are the current exhibition and are by Marita Lavoisier & Maria Cortés: mother & daughter from Mendoza.

 

Mendoza: Saturday 29 November

Another great day touring the wineries, this time the Valle de Uco area, a tough arid place higher than the area we visited yesterday.

First of all, My Friend was reacquainted with his i-phone which he'd left in Xavier's car yesterday ... Miguel, who picked us up from the bus station when we arrived in Mendoza on Thursday, picked it up from Xavier and brought it with him when he arrived to take us on the tour today.

Miguel is very companionable & drives well. He tells us that one can buy 5 litres of syrah wine for 64 pesos straight from the barrel at some wineries - just turn up with your container (& they even wash it out for you!).

Today was overcast, threatening rain. Everyone tells us it won't rain. Mendoza has 300 days of sunshine per year. Very dry. It doesn't rain, but it stays cloudy so we don't get the views of the Andes we'd hoped for but we still have a great day of eating & drinking (no dinner tonight!).

We drive out to Valle de Uco where vineyards are planted at some of the highest altitudes in the world, in the foothills of the Andes. It takes an hour or more. Through steppe-like country, up & down hills we go & into the Tupungato wine area which also has walnuts, almonds, orchards & olives. The road is the carretera de vin & we share it with a small number of serious-looking cyclists with all the good gear. I found this website too which looks very interesting:

http://pedalingsouth.com/2011/02/magical-mendoza/

Each winery again unique. The first, Andaluna, is regarded as a high altitude winery at 1300 m. The owner died about 3 years ago; was a wealthy American, apparently owned Pepsi? The winery now has Argentinian owners which is not so common for the bigger wineries; these usually have foreign ownership. We bought a nice (cheap!) Cabernet sauvignan here which seemed to us to be very good. The girl here gave us lots of informative stuff about fermentation & ageing processes in the production of the wine; irrigation is from underground water courses from the Andes mountains.

The second winery is the well-known Salentein: an absolute temple to wine and the passion of the Dutch owner who must be worth a fortune to have built this spectacular architectural masterpiece. The sauvignan blanc & pinot noir from here were superb. The winery also has a lovely gallery.

And the third, Domaine Bousquet: an organic winery, the passion of a winemaker from Carcasonne in France. We had lunch here with matching wines, an absolute delight (menu below). There was another group celebrating a birthday & we all sang 'Happy Birthday' in harmonised English & Spanish, ha ha! And they shared the delicious birthday cake with us that had been made by the chef. Yum!

MENU (Restaurante Gaia):

• Amuse Bouche with Premium Torrontés-Chardonnay
• Starter - Grilled prawn with celery & lemon cut in julianne; with Premium Rosé (Malbec-Cabernet)
• First course - Marinated rabbit & quinoa with crispy potatoes; with Reserve Chardonnay
• Main course - Salmon ravioli with organic garden tomatoes & shaved romanito cheese (for me) & Grilled beef filet with roast potatoes, confit tomatoes & asparagus (for My Friend); with Gran Reserve Malbec
• Pre-dessert - Chef's granita
• Dessert - Cherry bread pudding, white chocolate ganache & orange in syrup; with Reserve Sweet Malbec

 

 

Mendoza: Friday 28 November

Wine tour day to the Luján de Cuyo area, close by to Maipú where we are staying. It is extremely picturesque with the Andes in the distance. We are at almost 750 m here. It's hard to believe.

We are driven along roads lined with magnificent old plane trees and enter the wine-growling area where there are also many olive trees.

We visited 3 wineries today: all different. More below about these. But first: the views today were just sensational!

Our first winery was Achavel Ferrer where Phillipe entertained us with his vast knowledge. The winemaker, Roberto Cipresso, is from Tuscany in Italy. We bought a Quimera 2011 here (the only thing we could afford, with some of the wines well over 2000 pesos, that is $US200 plus!!). It has an incredible long dry finish due he told us to the petit verdot; it is a blend comprising 40% old vine malbec with pertit verdot, cab sauvignan, merlot & cab franc & has been awarded 84 points by the American wine critic, Robert Parker. They sacrifice up to 80% of their crop in order to maintain quality & blend before fermentation, which is quite amazing!

Of the 3 wineries we visited today, this one gave us the strongest sense of the winemaking process & the passion of the winemakers for their wine. It was a good start to the day!

The second winery was Viña Cobos which was memorable for the delightful Lorena. We had a lovely long chat to her about the wines but also about her studies. She studied English at university & then after teaching for a number of years, she studied privately in hospitality & tourism. She is now studying to be a sommelier with a prestigious school. She is smart & very personable. We really loved her.

The last winery was Ruca Malen, known as a 'design' winery, where we had the most wonderful lunch after a tour. 

We saw a scissor bird!

The wines were matched with the courses & the entire thing was wonderful (see menu below). We had some interesting chat with Neil from Austin, Texas & his travelling friend at the adjacent table. Austin sounds interesting: lots of IT startup companies; he called it a 'hippy' town; lots of people have moved there from California.

Anyway to my friend Kim: Neil from Austin, Texas says that this taking of photos is called 'food porn'!! (We all laughed when he said this)!

After we got back to our posada from our winery tour, we walked about half a kilometer down the road to a very interesting wine museum called La Rural started by an Italian, Felipe Rutini, in 1885.

Unbelievably, we backed up for dinner at our posada - just a light meal! And for dessert we had a lovely light crepe with dulce de leche (very healthy, not! - made by heating sweetened condensed milk until it turns a caramel colour) and icecream, of course! The dulce de leche seems to be very popular throughout South America.

MENU (Ruca Malen):

• First appetiser - Fresh quinoa salad, fresh onion, Granny Smith apple, lemon drops, spring water sorbet & fresh herbs; with Yauquen Chardonnay 2013
• Second appetiser - Beetroot with goat cheese flakes, drops of olive oil, balsamic vinegar reduction & raisins; with Yauquen Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignan 2013
• Starter - Crusted smoked bacon, pine mushrooms powder, smoked cheese cream, dried olives, carrots, onions & crispy sweet potatoes; with Ruca Malen Cabernet Sauvignan 2011
• Main course - Grilled tenderloin steak with roasted potatoes, sun dried tomatoes, dry prunes & vegetables sauteed in olive oil; with Ruca Malen Malbec 2012 AND Kinien Malbec 2010
• Dessert - Selection of traditional country sweets with honey & orange icecream, decorated with crunchy oranges; with Ruca Maken Brut Chardonnay-Pinot Noir