Driving through the Paso Los Libertadores border crossing in our motorhome Vdos, took us out of central Chile and across the Andes Mountains into Argentina. As it was getting late, we stopped for the night at a fuel stop in the small Argentinian border town of Uspallata. The next morning, drove on to our destination - the Mendoza wine region.
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| Mendoza vines, Argentina |
Mendoza is one of the premier wine regions of Argentina, and the largest wine-producing area in South America with over 1,000 wineries. We'd come here specifically to taste a few of those wines.
We found a lovely campground to stay in, called Camping
Parque Suizo. There was lots of shade from the very hot sun, and reasonable facilities.
Also, it was not too far from Mendoza city, so we drove into the city for a look
around. After finding a shaded parking spot for Vdos there, we
prepared ourselves to face the 32 degree C temperature on foot.
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| Hot but shady street in Mendoza, Argentina |
What a lovely and vibrant city Mendoza is. It is very
attractive, with lots of mature street trees, interesting architecture, modern
shops, and plenty of outdoor cafes and restaurants. We had a lovely day wandering around exploring.
The following day, we drove one of the wine
routes.
Shortly after setting out, we found a bodega (winery) called Ruca Malen which offered a rather expensive
degustation lunch. We decided to indulge ourselves, and enjoyed a wonderful feast of delightfully thought-out and presented
food. It included vegetables grown in the bodega's garden, and wine from their
own vineyard.
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| Leigh with Ruca Malen wine, and brain, broccoli and kale tempura |
The highlight was a superb piece of beef
accompanied by their delicious Malbec. We also tried Torrontés, a fruity dry
white wine specific to Argentina.
Afterwards, we staggered out to the car park
and Vdos to sleep off our food and wine, before heading back to our campsite. Over the next few days, we happily tasted, ate, and slept - repeat - but not always in that order!
Moving on, our next destination was the San Juan wine
area north of Mendoza, where we'd heard that the wine was also very good. Then we learned that San Juan is actually part of the Mendoza wine area, collectively called the Cuyo Wine Region.
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| Modern architecture in San Juan city, Argentina |
We easily found parking in San Juan city. Then after walking around the attractive city centre and
enjoying its modern architecture, we popped into the information centre for
advice on local vineyards and campgrounds.
There were plenty of campground options, so
we explored more of the city centre before looking for a camp for the night. Bad move – when
we found those camps, all were well and truly closed so we had nowhere to stay.
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| World Kayaking Championships at Ullúm Dam, San Juan, Argentina |
Not happy and getting tired, we drove across town several times, eventually heading toward Dique (Dam) Ullúm where there were supposed to be more camps. On the way, we passed the World Kayaking Championships being held there, and wondered whether New Zealand had an entry.
Then just near Dique Ullúm, we spotted a
roadside sign that we followed to Palma la Mer Camping.
Driving through the gates we found a very
large treed campground right on Lake Ullúm and it was open. Excellent – that’ll
do us.
Over the following hot days, we day-tripped to
local bodegas to sample their wines, returning to the cooling breezes of Lake Ullúm for the night.
Our GPS took us on a wild goose chase for some of the more remote bodegas, but then we found Bodega Merced Del Estero which was delightful.
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| Vdos at Bodega Merced Del Estero, San Juan, Argentina |
The son of the Bodega owner gave us a really
interesting tour of their boutique winery, while we tasted their rather nice
wines.
They produce two wines that we haven't seen in
New Zealand, Torrontés which we had sampled in Mendoza and Bonarda, a fruity
dry red. We also tasted their Malbec and Merlot, and both were lovely.
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| Villages around San Juan and Ullúm |
Too soon, it was time to move on, so we drove north through some lovely small villages.
On the way, we stopped at a very small local store
near Ullúm to get a few basics. Then we suddenly found ourselves the centre of
attention.
We managed to communicate what we needed, amid lots of
giggles from the locals. We’re not sure whether they laughed at our bad Spanish, or simply because we're tourists. But it’s always the same in the rural areas, where our communication efforts are always fun for them and us.
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| Locals outside the store in Ullúm, San Juan, Argentina |
Outside the store, we were greeted by a group of local
men sitting in the shade playing board games. They waved, laughed, and gave us
the thumbs up. All so lovely and friendly.
Leaving Ullúm, we headed north on the famed Ruta 40, the longest road in Argentina at 5,224 km, and its most unpredictable. Here in the northern area the road is mostly tarmac, but in the south, it was mostly gravel and holes (see our blogs on Patagonia for our experiences on Ruta 40).
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| Colourful landscape at La Ciénaga, northern Argentina |
Hours later, at the town of San José de Jáchal, we turned off Ruta 40 onto a very narrow winding road through an incredibly beautiful valley of
coloured hills, called La Ciénaga.
There were some very tight and narrow bends where we were relieved not to meet oncoming traffic, but the scenery more than made up for the trickiness of the road.
We were headed toward Ischigualasto Triassic Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| Formations around Ischigualasto Triassic Park (UNESCO) |
Locally known as ‘The Valley of the Moon’, this site is over 250 million years old. It is the only place in the world where sediments from the Triassic age can be found inland. These show as white, grey and red coloured rocks, many of which have fossils of reptiles and dinosaurs.
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| Leigh with dinosaur skeleton in Ischigualasto Triassic Park (UNESCO), San Juan, Argentina |
In fact the park contains some of the oldest known dinosaur remains on earth.
We explored part of the park, enjoying some of the fossil displays and weird rock shapes. But you can only explore further by taking one of the organised tours.
Unfortunately, the wind was extreme, and driving painful sand and grit which prohibited a tour. So, instead of taking a tour, we checked out the views from the lookout, then moved on.
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| Red desert road to Talampaya Park (UNESCO) |
Leaving there, we drove about 38 km on a narrow but stunningly red
desert road, to get to the Talampaya Park, another UNESCO site.
We arrived to find a nice and well organised campground at the
park entrance. There was power, clean facilities and hot showers.
But what we didn't know, was that the
showers were only open at night. Marg happened to get up very early the next morning
and had a shower before the park warden came and closed them. Leigh wasn't so
lucky and had to make do with a limited Vdos shower. After that, we went off to explore.
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| Amazingly-coloured canyon wall in Talampaya Park (UNESCO |
All tours in this park are organised, so after buying our ticket, we boarded a big 4-wheel drive bus with half-a-dozen others, that took us deep into the park. We saw some stunning scenery, with dark red rocks and
towering cliffs that were formed over 60 million years ago.
We were able to sit on the top deck of the bus for part of the ride and had a fabulous view of everything. At one point, the bus pulled over and we walked a bit. When we returned, the driver had prepared a mini-feast of wine from the local La Rioja wine region and some crackers. It was lovely.
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| Marg in front of some weird and wonderfully shaped rocks in Talampaya Park (UNESCO) |
Back travelling on the bus, we saw a lot more, including some weird and wonderfully shaped rocks carved by wind and rain over millions of years, early rock drawings, and fossil remains. This park is amazing.
At the end of our park tour, we set off driving northward. We were on a fairly rural road - no fuel or service stations with flash facilities here!
Then we arrived in Villa Unión and turned east, back onto Ruta 40. This drive was wonderful, running between the Famatina and the Sañogasta mountain ranges.
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| Colourful scenery between the Famatina and Sañogasta mountain ranges, northern Argentina |
The deep-red rocks with the green shrubbery looked beautiful, especially when backed by the misty mountains behind.
Famatina is a wine area within the famous La Rioja wine region. However, it was getting too late to stop and taste wine, especially as we had not identified anywhere to say overnight. A few hours and several tiny villages later, we were still looking for an overnight camping place, but couldn't find one.
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| Our overnight park in San Blas de los Sauces, northern Argentina |
We pushed on, hoping something would turn up. Eventually, too tired to go further, we stopped beside a well-treed park in the small village of San Blas de los Sauces.
The park was deserted and quiet initially,
however, around 10 pm a group of young people arrived. They sat talking and
laughing until well after midnight – no alcohol or mucking around - just having
a good time. Harmless but noisy.
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| Animals we shared the road with on the way to San Blas de los Sauces, Argentina |
The next morning, we headed north on Ruta 40 again. We passed many adobe villages, and stunning
desert scenery on the unmade road. We also dodged countless animals such as foxes, donkeys,
horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and armadillo - you name it – we’ve dodged it!
At one point, we stopped to see the ruins of the Quilmes settlement, a fortified citadel which was built by the Quilmes Indians. The area dates back to 850 AD and was apparently the largest pre-Colombian settlement in the country, covering around 30 hectares.
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| Quilmes ruins, ca 850 AD, northern Argentina |
Leaving Quilmes, we pushed on to the town of Cafayate in north-west Argentina. It sits within the Calchaqui Valley, one of the highest places in the world suitable for growing grapes for wine production, and we wanted to do some tasting.
But it’s lucky that we hadn’t had any wine on the way there, because we were stopped at a police check-point. It was because one of our headlights wasn't working, and it’s mandatory to drive with lights on in both Argentina and Chile. We promised to get it fixed the next day and were able to drive on.
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| Interesting building in interesting Cafayate, northern Argentina |
Arriving in interesting Cafayate, we found a pleasant camp
close to the town centre. Then we went out in search of the local automotive
parts supplier.
We found a lovely chappie who fixed our headlight for a ridiculously small fee. Then we returned Vdos to the campground, and set off on foot to hunt for local bodegas and wine tasting opportunities.
The first bodega we visited wasn't terribly good both in service and wine, but the second one, Nanni Wines was much nicer. There, we tasted a lovely Tannat, a big red wine.
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| Lovely Cafayate, northern Argentina |
We spent a few days in and around Cafayate and found it to be a lovely town, with an interesting mix of modern tourist-centred facilities, traditionally built homes in tree-lined streets, and nice wine.
But then it was time to move on. Having only eight days before we return Vdos to Buenos Aires, meant that Cafayate was as far north as we had time to go. So, leaving Cafayate, we headed south toward Cordoba.
The above blog is part of our 4-month tour of South
America. The first blog on this tour is called "Buenos Aires here we come".