Mendoza, the Gateway City

I gave Mendoza two days in my itinerary. Two days. A weekend.

This is what most people give Mendoza. It's unlike Buenos Aires, which is a bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis that drives Argentina's economy. Mendoza isn't a bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis; it's a tourist town.

A good tourist town. It has a charm.

It isn't mercilessly tacky or absolutely 100% driven by tourism. It's merely a gateway city for other excursions. People come to Mendoza because they are on their way to Santiago, because they want to tour the wine country of Argentina, or because they want to trek and ski around the Andes.

I wanted to do the latter; more specifically I wanted to trek around Aconcagua, known as the second tallest mountain in the world. I figured I'd give Mendoza a day, trek Aconcagua, then leave for Santiago for a journey to San Pedro de Atacama. Ultimately I'd end up staying another full day and giving up San Pedro de Atacama, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

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In Buenos Aires I had taken one of the double decker buses, Chevalier, from Retiro to Mendoza. It was an overnight bus trip and when I arrived I decided to walk to my hostel located in the main area.

Mendoza has its cultural life. There are various theatres, happenings etc, but they are relatively small. As I was around the area most of the people I saw had families around because for Argentinians this was a family weekend getaway. That was alright; after the hustle bustle of Buenos Aires maybe it was time for me to relax and be laid back.

Mendoza is more of a day time city; now, locals may see this and cry bullshit but truly the beauty of Mendoza was better seen in the day. Mendoza was peculiar because it was located in the desert and surrounded by desert but inside the city were green landscapes. You had green plazas like Plaza Espana, Italia, etc and the big attraction was Parque General San Martin, a vast recreational park smothered in trees and green life. Thanks to an irrigation system this green growth was possible.

It was all very nice but easily done in a day for the most part. It was cleaner than most cities in the continent, but unless you knew what areas to go to nightlife wasn't too wonderful. That's ok; if you want nightlife Mendoza isn't the place. Mendoza is for trekking.

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The first thing I asked about at my hostel was the Aconcagua trek, which cost AR$210 or roughly $50 US for a group tour. For the most part I had not planned on group tours but the more I looked into how to get there I figured it would save me the complicated processes and it would be easier to do the group. I signed up and was told to wake up at 7:30 en la manana ready to go trekking.

Now, this is when I realized how under-prepared I was for this trip. Essentially I took the Ulysses Grant route (see my preliminary post for this trip) and decided to travel light and as I needed things I would buy them. I was told that I would sun screen, heavy coat, and boots which they would provide. I had my Adidas and layers. I would go by a pharmacy and get some sun screen, which reeked. It didn't smell like normal sun screen kind of reek, I mean it reeked. As far as a heavy coat I knew South America would be cold but I figured I'd find a coat to wear but they were more expensive than I had anticipated.

Here is a lesson that came about: being cheap doesn't pay off.

Seriously, this is a lesson that I would take on with me through the entire trip. Being cheap doesn't pay off. Sure, I was able to do what I wanted and got away with it but I didn't have the comfort. There's a reason for cost. Being cheap doesn't pay off. Got it? Moving on...

So to cover up for not having a coat I decided to put on layers; one t-shirt, plus two flannel shirts and two pants.

We started the trek riding on a bus to our destination, with the entire trip taking approximately the whole day (12 hours) and within 2 hours we started making stops to check out local scenery. It was cool, but mildly cool. It was mainly desert formations.

There was a moment though when we passed by rock formations and looking out saw the Andes and its snow capped glory. Our bus ride went from "nice, very nice, nice, HOLY SHIT!"

It's difficult to be descriptive about these mountains. When you google the images for Andes, you see these impressive snow capped mountains but to see them in person is to feel the force of the mountains (that don't exist, just being poetic here) and feel the chill.

Despite my lack of clothing I was actually doing pretty well. I actually had to take off one pair of pants. So there. Right?

Oh no.

We got to Aconcagua National Park. This park has a trail that's about 1 hour 30 to 2 hours. Once we stepped off we could feel the chill and by chill I mean it bit hard. It wasn't the cold temperature necessarily, it was the wind. You'd be walking fine then the wind would come up and slap you. It was incredibly harsh. A family I met from Miami via Colombia actually decided to not hike it because of how frigid it was.

Was I backing down? No. I'm cheap; that means that even though I didn't buy a coat I also am not backing down something I paid money for. Plus, I could handle it for the most part and I wanted to get a view of Aconcagua.

I understood why the concierge felt boots were necessary; as we stepped on the road it was all frozen dead ice. A guy from Spain actually slipped right from stepping on it the first time. On this trek all of us, including me, would slip at least once.

We started to hike in the snow, taking in breathtaking views of the Andes, with the diversity of colors such as the blue tipped shadows of the mountains, the white snow, the golden grass. We had no idea of telling how deep the snow was; we'd walk and we'd feel the ground then all of a sudden the snow would swallow up our leg.

Shockingly, though, I felt fine. I didn't feel especially cold, just a little nippy. A Portuguese couple that was cold even in their heavy coats asked me where I was from, for which I just said Atlanta because Mt. Airy, Georgia doesn't have a ring to it. "Is it cold in Atlanta?" "No." "You don't seem that bad in the cold." I took a moment for that comment to stroke my ego.

The trek is essentially a ring that led us to a special view of Aconcagua. Aconcagua seemed short, hazed in blue, but it was there, the second tallest mountain in the world. Many men died trying to climb the mountain and to have a view where it just seems tiny--yes, I was crushing it with my thumb and finger--is a bit awe inspiring.

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This is was my first trek that I had planned to do on this journey so I started taking in notes for what worked and what didn't.

The main thing that would be common for any trek I did was to always have plenty of water (obvious) and a ton of bread. Anytime I would trek, whether in La Campana or going to Machu Picchu, I would stock up on bread. Sometimes water isn't going to give you the energy you need, just the hydration, and bread will fill you up but also give you plenty of energy. Bring bread, always.

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When I got back I felt I was right with this region of Argentina, that truly is one of the more stunning areas. Yet, I was ready to move on. I wanted to get to Santiago, then get to San Pedro de Atacama. Santiago was a 6 hr drive, and Atacama was a 20 hour drive from Santiago. Anxiety started setting in already, as I was trying to figure out how to squeeze everything I wanted to do in Chile within my time frame. I wanted to spend some time in Santiago, in Valparaiso, and Atacama. Atacama was at least four days, with driving there and driving back two days via bus, plus at least two days to enjoy it and trek. It was going to be tight.

The guy at the hostel told me to wait till tomorrow to order a ticket, they have a bus company they use. Fair enough.

I did and he tried to find me a ticket but the system was down. At 9 it was down, at 10 it was down, at 10:30 it was down, and at 11 it was down and the bus left at 12. He told me to make a run for the station but I realized it was futile halfway to the station and came back to find that the system was still down; even if I made it I couldn't get my ticket. Shit.

This tightened up my Chilean plans even more and I decided that Atacama may have to wait. It was my fault, the poor planning of my trip and my itinerary, primarily because I decided on Atacama so late in my planning. The way I figured it, though, was that Central Chile (Atacama was in the North) had some national parks as well and I could trek one of those. It would seem a step down and I'll touch on this disappointment on my Chilean posts, but for the meantime I was stuck in Mendoza.

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I wasn't sure what to do and honestly I thought, maybe it would be a good idea to relax, stream the latest episode of "Mad Men," and just chill.

Eventually I would walk around again and by luck happened upon the food market. Mendoza observes siesta so between 2 and 5 most businesses were closed. In the food market were several stands, mostly closed, but Harry's Fast Food wasn't. Harry's Fast Food, despite its American name, is actually a popular Argentinian place in that area of the country with popular variations of the lomo sandwich. If you're not in the know, lomo is a very popular dish in the Spanish speaking world that is essentially beef tenderloin. A lomo sandwich, the one I got, had beef tenderloin, egg, ham, lettuce, cheese, and mayo on arab bread which was about the size of a rugby ball. It was huge. I ate half. That was enough for me. I would eventually leave the other half to a person in the hostel because I couldn't imagine eating the rest.

The food market had opened by then and I started walking around. I love local food markets because the food is inexpensive and it's all (for the most part fresh). Throughout this whole trip I really wanted fruit so I went to a merchant and got some grapes, which seemed appropriate for wine country.

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Many argue that you should stay in Mendoza for a long period of time, but honestly I disagree. If you're into wine, stay for a wine tour or two. If you trek and ski, definitely come, but Mendoza isn't going to give you big city amenities.

Yet, there is something chill (literally and figuratively) and relaxing about this place. I can understand how people from other areas of Argentina come here during the weekend just for a getaway, to feel away from their lives. It's a nice place, and perhaps my memory is clouded in the frustration of not getting my ticket. Aconcagua is a marvel, however, and going through the Andes is necessary for anyone in their lifetime.

I would get my ticket and head to Santiago. More on that later.