On to Mendoza (Day 35)

This morning I arrived in Mendoza after a 15hr bus ride from Bariloche. I had the swankiest bus company yet, Andesmar. I tell you, bus travel in Argentina is the way to go! Roast beef supper, movie after movie (including "Best of 80's" music videos, oh man!) and we even played a cheezy bus bingo game. Very entertaining :) The best part of the whole ride was that as the sun rose when we were still about 2hrs out of Mendoza, I got my first glimpse of the Sierra range here. It's pretty breath-taking and very, very different from the other mountain ranges I've seen here yet.


My first thought on arriving in Mendoza was -oh no...another big city. It's funny that since I've been in little mountain towns for the last month or so, I now get culture shock coming back into the big cities (not that I'm a city fan at the best of times...). But, I have to say that it looks a whole lot cleaner (land and air) than Buenos Aires, which is a relief. There were hostel reps in the Terminal del Sol bus depot in Medoza, hustling people for business. I took one up and she escorted me to their cute hostel just 2 blocks from the hostel. I dropped my bag and had a quick chat with the other hostel host to get some touristy info (he gave me some inside scoop on local bicycling wine tours!!! and hikes and hostels in the surrounding High Mountains area) and then hit the sidewalks. One of the unique features in Mendoza is their open "irrigation" drains. I'm not entirely sure what consistutes "irrigation" (could be yucky...) but they're definitely different.


The first spot I went through was Plaza Independencia, this huge park. It has a huge monument in front with water fountains and at night, it's all lit up (I'll have to try to get back after sunset to see).


I should also point out that it seems like Mendoza has a lot more green spaces...with actually greens. I also get the feeling that I'm either walking through a posh-area of the city, or that Mendoza itself is just a little more affluent than some of the other cities I've been to here. I soon made my way to Parque San Martin, in the west part of the city. This park is HUGE and very impressive- from the entrance gates in wrought-iron and gold


to the San Martin statues at the roundabout inlet.


This park is host to a wide range of different things, including the central university in Mendoza (how's that for sweet school grounds!) and a bunch of really cool desert plants.


I had been intending to make my way to the Ferial artesenal (art fair) at the clear end of the park, but once I found out it was closed for the season and was saved a 3km walk for not, I opted to walk up Cerro de la Gloria. This is apparently a hilltop shrine to General San Martin, who was a huge military hero in Mendoza and all over Argentina. It start with this momument that has all plaques from the inauguration of the surrounding areas


and culminates in a humungeously impressive momument for San Martin, depicting all his war victories.

The top of the Cerro de la Gloria also gave a good panorama of Mendoza and its surrounding area, which is a whole lot more vast than I realized. Then I wandered off and ended up in the stadium grounds of the Argentina World Fair from 1978 (I think something equivalent to Expo '67 in Montreal).

And from here on, I got, well, disoriented. I was aiming to hit the Club Hipico Mendoza (their big stables and riding facility), but I somehow ended up on the other side of the park (remember I said this place is huge...) at the Regatta Club. This was also pretty, but I had now been "wandering" for about 5hrs. I ended up having to make a full circle of the south part of the park to finally reach the Club Hipico Mendoza (notice the fence-tied horses quietly waiting, unsupervised, for their exercise).

The grounds are pretty impressive- they have the largest sand riding ring I've seen and pretty generous, hedge-lined grass show rings.

I suspect this is a private club (which of course I just waltzed into pretending like I knew exactly where I was going) so I made a quick round and then exited. From here, it was still a hike back to the entrance (with yet a few more backtracking thanks to my navigation challenges and vague map) and then back to the hostel. When I finally got back, feet tired and grumbling stomach, I was ecstatic to find out that the hostel was hosting an asado. Yay- my first traditional Argentine bbq!

This asado was beef and they burn down wood first to use the embers to cook huge slabs and whole veggies. The meat is accompanied with bread, this tomato-onion-avocado-olive oil salad and more wine and beer than could do in a ship of seasoned sailors. Needless to say I went to bed with a stuffed belly :) But man, it was sooo good.