argentina - ilivetotravel's travel log

A Weekend in Mendoza, Argentina

17 January 2010 by Raul Leave a Comment

My current business trip to Santiago is for 2 weeks so I had a weekend in between to either: walk around Santiago and re-discover parts of it, opt to go and visit southern Chile (Puerto Montt or Pucón, for example; both of which I had visited in 1991), or go to nearby Mendoza, Argentina (capital of Argentine wine country). Because it is peak season in the south (high airfares, no rental cars available, and only 2 days) and due to a colleague strongly recommending Mendoza, I chose the quick trip over the mountains to Mendoza, Argentina, a place I have been wanting to visit because of its wines.

Mendoza, as the eagle flies, is pretty darn close to Santiago. However, the magnificent Andes sit in between. So the drive takes 6-7 hours over spectacular landscape from what I hear. However, I also hear customs on either side of the border can be quite bad so for a 2-day weekend visit, I had to fly. Luckily, LAN had an $82 fare (taxes included) and a 30-40 min flight time so it all became a no-brainer for me. My colleague suggested a moderately priced hotel ($60/night) in a great location so that eliminated guesswork and research time which I didn’t have. She also got me some recommendations for restaurants which was great. Flying over the Andes brings with it incredible winds and both flights gave me a run for my money in terms of scary moments!

Exploring the town of Mendoza proper

I arrived in Mendoza around 5 PM and had no problem getting a taxi at the airport at the rate I had been told ($23A or $8US). The Hotel Internacional where I stayed was OK. The room was not as nice as the pics on the website but the hotel was quite decent for the price. For the $60/night, it included a good breakfast and wi-fi. The location was great, surrounded by good eateries and close to the center of town.

I walked the town Friday after I arrived and on Sunday morning. The contrast couldn’t have been any bigger: the pedestrian part of Sarmiento (the main street) was a beehive of activity Friday but almost deserted Sunday morning. It sports cafes and shops and you can see the locals coming out from their homes to enjoy fresh air – and likely “cooler” temperatures than their own homes.

The not yet crowded Calle Sarmiento

Calle Sarmiento begins to pick up customers!

Mendoza is very, very hot this time of the year (90s – but dry) and I doubt everyone has AC at home. So it is nicer to sit in a plaza and enjoy some breezes under the shade of the many trees that line the streets of Mendoza (an odd thing considering it rarely ever rains here and that it is very arid land; the answer is that snow melt is captured and then released to the city and farms via an ingenious curbside open flow system).

Water collection from snow melt curbside in Mendoza, Argentina

The ingenious way to collect water!

Sunday morning, I got to walk almost in total solitude around town, covering all major squares and parks in the center. Mendoza struck me as a town that would be probably a great place to live as it is pleasant, clean, and not chaotic as Buenos Aires. At the same time, the time I spent walking around was probably all that a tourist needs to do in the town itself while visiting (surely, I am omitting some museums or theaters) outside of just chilling (in which case a tourist can do a LOT of that perhaps while enjoying wine, beer or ice cream at a café…).

Government building in Mendoza, Argentina

Need I say? A government building, of course…

Now, while the city is not a grand collection of sites for tourist interest, there are 2 things that make it quite a good choice destination to see: 1. the food. 2. wine country. Food, I will share here. Wine

Food

I ate at Mi Tierra on Friday night where I enjoyed empanadas to start and deer raviolis for dinner. The food was definitely good but I wouldn’t call it spectacular. The ambience of the restaurant is outstanding. (Watch out: the menu offer is only valid if you pay cash!)

Mi Tierra

Saturday night, I ate at La Florencia on the corner of Sarmiento and Peru, a few steps away from my hotel. This is not the same type of fancy restaurant than Mi Tierra (or a couple of the other restaurants recommended by my colleague, like Azafrán). It feels very local (in fact, most of the customers seemed either local or, at least, Argentinian) and was highly recommended by my wine tour guide. She was right! I was wanting just a normal Argentine piece of steak and fries and this place was PERFECT! The menu was quite broad and everything I saw served looked fantastic. We sat there for 3 hours and we felt we were at home. THAT’S the experience I was wanting and I got it!

I definitely think I chose wisely how to spend a weekend. While another day would have allowed me to go to the base of Aconcagua (I really wanted to do that), I cannot complain because I did get to sample great food and a taste of life in this western town!

Filed Under: Argentina, Good Eats and Drinks, South America Tagged With: argentina, food, Mendoza, Wine

Re-visiting Buenos Aires

24 January 2009 by Raul Leave a Comment

So, in 1991, I met BB.AA. Enjoyed exploring it, enjoyed the great food, and enjoyed seeing it with people who lived there. Fast forward to 2000. Company offers me an opportunity to go deliver a training class of 3 days. What to do? Had I ever taught or even attended the training class before? No. But, of course, if they thought I could teach it, who was I to defy corporate wisdom?

Getting there not always half the fun

Back then, there was no direct flight from Atlanta so I was to connect in Miami to a United flight to BB.AA. Due to an earlier cancelled flight to BB.AA., United decided to bump me off the flight. Now, I understand how these things work – most of the time – but I had paid full fare in business class so I do not understand how United made such a brilliant decision to bump off a full fare paying passenger of a large international business. (No wonder U.S. airlines continue to fail miserably in their business model… But that should be a topic for a different blog.) Suffice it to say that the resolution to this was both good and bad. Good, I could still leave that night. Bad, I had to connect now through Sao Paulo to get to BB.AA. Good, they put me on first class on the way down and the way up. Good, the never-ending refills of Dom Perignon. Good, the comfort of the seats. Bad, international first class back then did not have the fancy “seat-cabins” you see today. Good, I could use the first class lounge in Miami on the way back which had fantastic shower rooms. Neutral, the Canadian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo to BB.AA. got sprayed upon landing in BB.AA. as happens in flights between other countries (I assume to kill off any bad germs). Bad, I am allergic to those sprays which meant within 24 hrs. I was bedridden in my BB.AA. hotel killing my day to prepare to deliver the training…

But the good wins

In between landing and getting bedridden, I re-connected with one of my Argentine friends with whom I had worked in Chile in 1991 (the one who got us to ride in the colectivo during my BB.AA. visit in 1991 and to whom I may owe having survived that ride). Had dinner in a non-descript local place and then headed over their place to have some mate. Good to see Hugo and his wife again.

The training class was in a subject I was well acquainted topic so I followed the lead of my co-teacher and was able to add good value to the trainees’ learning experience (or so I think!). I knew some of them from past work and had a great time in spite of not feeling well.

I did also get to see how much BB.AA. had changed. Home Depot now had a store there. The dollar now could be used as currency. However, they did not accept any bill that was slightly torn or stained. The irony was that when giving you change, they felt they could give you back torn or stained Argentine bills… Oh, and I got to re-connect with empanadas. Empanadas are a gift from God via Argentina [good eats]. And I got to see how the city had undertaken urban renewal, like in the area of Puerto Madero, making it even more enjoyable to visit.

This particular trip was way too short to explore more of the city but it was sure good to see it again and see how it had changed.

What would others recommend people check out these days? It is 2009, 9 yrs since my last visit which was 9 yrs after my first visit. I feel I am due again and wonder “what’s new, Buenos Aires!”

Filed Under: Argentina, Good Eats and Drinks, South America Tagged With: argentina, Buenos Aires

Visiting Buenos Aires

24 January 2009 by Raul Leave a Comment

I have had the opportunity to visit Buenos Aires, Argentina three times: in 1991, 2000, and 2010 (I don’t like the spacing between visits…). The first time was a weekend trip when I was living in Santiago, Chile and the second sent do co-deliver a training session for my company’s office there. The third visit was for a short business trip when I got work -again- in Santiago, Chile (yes, I am blessed!). I will write here about the trip in 1991.

Exploring Buenos Aires

Though we were entitled to be flown back to the U.S. from Santiago for Thanksgiving in 1991, we made a small “business case” to our manager that it would be way cheaper if they paid for us to go to BB.AA. (airfare, hotel and airport transportation). We worked with some Argentines in Chile who flew home every weekend (abt a 2 hr flight) so they encouraged us to go and hang out with them.

We booked a hotel in Recoleta which was a nice part of town. With our friends, we got to explore fantastic food. The well-known area of La Costanera [good eats] did deliver a fantastic steak meal. I remember that I wasn’t very hungry so I ordered half a steak. The steak was as big as the large plate it was served on – of course, to see it I had to work through the pile of French fries on top of the steak.

BB.AA. is a great city to walk around. The architecture (reminiscent of Paris) and the diversity of the people provide a lot of things to look at as you make your way between places to visit. We had to make the ¨obligatory¨visit to the cemetery where Eva Perón is buried, see the Casa Rosada (the president’s house), watch the mothers still marching many years after military left power in front of the Casa Rosada, walk down Calle Florida (a great pedestrian shopping street). Perhaps the most exciting thing we did was take a local bus to go to a colleague’s house. The bus (or ¨colectivo¨) never really stops to let you in nor to let you out so with coaching from our local friend, my other American colleague and I managed to be successful in these 2 maneuvers… A real adventure!

The thing we enjoyed the most though was a gelato chain called Fredo’s [good eats]. The gelato was superb and my personal favorite was the wine cream gelato. I think we stopped at a Fredo’s whenever we saw one.

Asado at a Friend’s

We enjoyed going around town with our friends and glad they were doing the driving. I recall the Ave. Libertador having about 5 to 7 lanes of traffic with no lanes painted on the road surface. I met chaos that night. The best part of the trip was the time we were invited to one of our friend’s parents’ house for a traditional Argentine ¨asado¨ (read, BBQ) [good eats]. True Argentine hospitality! When it came time for the main course, they brought a huge round piece of wood loaded with all the meat that had benn grilled. All the meat meant all of the cow. We were asked to choose a non-¨traditional¨piece of meat. I went for the kidney as I didn’t fancy some of the other crazier parts… Not impressed with the texture of the kidneys.

I flew Pan Am between Santiago and BB.AA. Flying over the high peaks of the Andes on my first ride ever on a 747 was exhilarating and unnerving. It looked as if the mountaintops were going to scrape the underbelly of the airplane. And yet, looking at the cabin of the airplane, I couldn’t fully comprehend how such an airplane managed to fly. On a semi-historical note, my flight back to Santiago was the last day Pan Am flew.

BB.AA. is definitely a town made to be explored and enjoyed. Back in 1991, the country was just enjoying economic stability after the hyperinflationary period and everyone’s mood was great. BB.AA. has changed tons since that first visit as I discovered in later visits – it has become even more exciting and interesting – an Argentines are still a heck of a lot of fun!