Mendoza, Province of Mendoza

I have started my trip south, by heading west. Why you might ask? Hopefully things will have thawed out a little by the time get get right down to the very tip of the continent. So I am taking a round about route. I took an overnight bus from Buenos Aires and traveled about 1100km (13 hours) west to Mendoza, arriving yesterday. Mendoza sits at the foot of the Andes, but is primarily known as being the premier wine growing region of Argentina. It is on the main road to Chile.

I am not a fan of long distance bus travel, but if you pay a little extra it can be relatively painless. And so for A$135 (US$45) I went "coche cama", which like traveling business class, and includes dinner (with wine), breakfast and bingo. Yes, we started the trip off with a quick round of bingo all organised by our very amiable steward, Diego. No, I did not win, but it was the first time I had played bingo on a bus - a novelty. I cannot remember the last time I actually played bingo.

The scenery change was quite drastic. The area around the capital, the Province of Buenos Aires, is lush and fertile with gently rolling landscape. Mendoza, however, is arid, with sandy soil and low scrub-like vegetation. The dryness is a welcome change from the humidity of the eastern side of the country. It is thanks to water from melting ice from the mountains that the area is habitable. They can go many months without a drop of rain.

Anyway, there a great number of activities to do in and around the city. So my mission for today is to book some tours and explore the city.