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The coach journey between Santiago and Mendoza takes 7
hours, the route takes you through the heart of the
Andes and passes the highest peak �Acongagua�. The
scenery is amazing, especially as you go above the
snow line and see the huge peaks. We had to stop twice
to go through Chilean and Argentinian customs and
arrived in Mendoza about 7 hours after leaving
Satiago.
After arriving we checked into a hotel near the bus
station and set off to explore the city, Mendoza is a
very pretty town with a huge central plaza and four
smaller plazas. The streets are wide and tree lined.
We both really liked the city, especially when we
found out the peso/pound interest rates meant our hotel room was $8 per night. As we were in Argentina we wanted a steak for dinner,
and found a lovely restaurant where we ordered a
bottle of Argentinian red and 2 fillet steaks. The
steak was as big as a Sunday roast and
was still mostly alive... lovely!
Just outside the city is a �Parque San Martin�, its very
picturesque with rose gardens lots of open green lawns
and a big lake with lots of rowing boats, we spent the
afternoon walking around the park in the sun, and the
early evening checking out the bargain buys in the city centre. We decided on steak again but a different
restaurant, just as nice as the first night but the
wine was much nicer. After dinner we found a nice bar
called �Liverpool� where there was a local band
playing live music and Beatles covers with Spanish accents.
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The next day we took a taxi to a hill which overlooks
the city and took some pics of the Andes which sit
just behind Mendoza, and of the local countryside. We
walked back into town and visited the zoo for a few
hours of animal spotting. The zoo was about 10 times
as big as we�d imagined and was home to Rhinos, Hippos,
Polar Bears, Lions, Girraffes, Zebras ... and monkeys
which had escaped and were climbing around in the
trees and mounting the occasional tourist. In the evening we had a quick dinner and then
went into the casino of the Hyatt hotel. We won a bit
of money on the Roulette table and then lost it all
again... typical.
Our last day was Sunday and we popped into town to buy
some Salamon walking boots at a very reasonable price. We left Mendoza at 2pm on a bus bound for Santiago. The
coaches on these long trips are normally very
comfortable, however we had Sterling Moss driving our
bus and the trip was both spectacularly scenic and
quite terrifying. The Andes looked even better coming
into Chile than they did going out of Chile and the
journey that took us 7 hours on the way there only
took us 5 and a half on the way back. Glad to arrive in Santiago alive.
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