i had been looking forward to the bus trip from buenos aires to mendoza. the argentinian
luxury sleeping buses are quite famous. they got seats similar to the ones found on planes in first class (the seat folds out into an almost proper bed). there's also a stewardess who besides serving dinner keeps passengers happy with red wine, champagne and whisky;-) our bus had black leather seats and a lot of red velvet around. unnecessary to mention, that it didn't feel at all like a bus - it was a fun ride, much better than i had ever dared imagine!
one night and over a thousand kilometers later we arrived at
mendoza. if the name rings a bell, it's most likely because you find it on almost every wine-bottle produced in argentina. mendoza is a pleasant city, compared to buenos aires a very slow moving one. the roads are wide and lined with trees. there are plenty of parks. the biggest one is about the size of the town center and called parque san martin. mendoza is like a city built in a huge park - me gusta.
everything looks very clean and well organised - the town is supposed to be the tidiest one in south america and if you see people clean the pavement twice a day with water even on a rainy day, you believe it.
todays town center is relatively young. the original one was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the 19.century. these days this area is called area fundacional and besides some ruins of the church of san francisco, there is an excellent museum depicting the life of the area during it's heydays and a park (what else!).
on our second day, we explored the famous
wine region by bike. it was a mistake! i wasn't used to ride a bike anymore at all. so, after just half an hour, my bump started hurting like mad - i spent the rest of the day riding my bike in a standing position. the people must have thought i'm from mars and just learnt to cycle around. furthermore there were none of the imagined vineyards around, just industrial area. however, after two hours (for only 15km!!!) we arrived at at maipu at our first winery.
lopez is a real wine factory. impressive for it's size, but the wines are very disappointing, they just miss a soul. much better are small family run wineries like vina al cerno or di tommaso. they mainly produce red wine, just think about those terrific malbecs! still, there are some very interesting white ones around (like torrontés).
a visit to a winery is very different from back home. here you get to see the whole place: vineyard, production area, cellar. in the end you can taste one glass of wine, if you're lucky two - sort of different, isn't it? the good thing is, that the people are very friendly, they show and explain without ending. at one place we even got an excellent introduction into how to taste properly (things like check the colour over a piece of white paper).
our idea was to travel from mendoza to santiago de chile by bus, which meant
crossing the andes. we were looking forward to see the spectacular mountains and places like the natural stone bridge at puente del inca. there was only one problem: it had snowed and the pass was closed! who would have thought of that in the early argentinian summer. so after about one hours drive the bus got the information and simply turned back.
in mendoza we went straight to the airline. to our delight, it was no problem to change the flight only one day in advance to one day further back
the next morning we were greeted by blue sky and sunshine. it looked like there were no problems with snow today... we were wrong again! sun down here doesn't mean everything is fine up there. so after a turn-around at the bus-station we found ourselves buying a flight-ticket to santiago - means, we were doing exactly what we had tried to avoid in buenso aires:-(
in the evening we had our third farewell-dinner with malbec and steak (manuela had wine and pasta, even in argentina she strictly remains vegetarian).
the third attempt to reach santiago worked. the plane left on time. from the window we could see the impressive mountains and sometimes even the road we would have loved to travel on. after a bit of waiting in the transfer terminal we took off for quito where we landed save and sound in the early evening.
it's already our third day in
quito, ecuador. we based ourselves in the tourist-ghetto area of mariscal sucre. here everything is set up for foreigners: hostels, restaurants, bars, internet cafes and heaps of travel agencies (all specialised in galapagos, djungle tours and of course climbing snow-capped volcanoes). we too want to experience the famous wildlife on galapagos, so we had no choice than to jump in head first.
it wasn't that easy to find a spot on a boat, high season! once or twice offered beds were gone only a couple of hours later. it was annoying, but finally we got lucky. we're leaving on the 25th of november. meanwhile we finally have some time to have a look around quito and explore some areas in the andes - sounds promising!
posted by christoph 03:30
it felt good, as we carried our backpacks on saturday morning to the bus terminal. it was time to leave quito behind. we took a bus via latacunga to chugchilán, halfway on the so-called quilotoa loop. the bus had a lot of clearance, soon we knew why. the raod changed from sealed, to pebblestones, gravel and finally dirt. we passed deep gorges and impressive mountains. the grass changed from vivid green to dry brown the higher the bus climbed.
we hiked a bit along the rim until a path descended down towards chugchilán. from now on the landscape was dominated by deep canyons and steep cliffs, everything looked sort of grey-brown-green - at times very surreal! i loved it, took picture after picture.
quitos main attraction is the old town (unesco world heritage listed, just like salzburg;-). it's jampacked with colonial buildings: church, church, plaza, another church... the center is plaza grande (or plaza de la independencia) which is surrounded by presidential palace, cathedral and archbishop's palace. my favourite is the marvelous monastery of san franciso (s. photo).
the climb up the dome and as well the hiiiiiigh bell tower is an adventure itself. the ladders are narrow, steep and don't really look trust-worthy. the higher you get, the less safety railings are around. sometimes it really felt as if there were are strong wind you had no chance to prevent a fall... the magnificent city views were worth all the efforts and anxious feelings;-)
