Vacation from Vacation

Next stop: Mendoza, Argentina. But to get there I first had to cross the Andes mountain range. There are several night buses from Santiago but I was recommended to take a day bus instead just for the scenery, and it didn’t disappoint. Crazy serpentine roads, 29 hairpin turns in the most famous and extreme part, going up to an altitude of about 3200m.

Mendoza is located in the middle of the desert and the days got pretty hot. It didn’t take long to adjust to the habits of the locals. Siesta! The city comes to pretty much a complete stop every day between 1pm and 5pm and stays awake late instead.

Mendoza is considered one of the wine capitals of the world and is by far the largest wine producer in Argentina. This means that a wine tasting tour is pretty much mandatory. The tour included a few different wineries of various sizes, as well as a distillery where we got to try various brandy infusions. I can’t say I know that much about wines but most of the wines were, like everything else in Argentina, a bit more sweet than I’m used to.

After not staying in any place longer than a week (more commonly only two to four days) during four months of travelling it was time for a break. I decided to head back to Buenos Aires to see a bit more of the city and to do a bit of very much needed nothing. This stop ended up being an entire month…

During this month I was staying in the San Telmo neighbourhood and have probably walked every street of it at least twice by now, but it’s still a nice place to wander around. So many small bars, restaurants, the Sunday market, and so much life around.

This is the hottest time of the year in Buenos Aires and some days got as hot as 36 degrees, which, with the high humidity, felt like way over 40. Those days were perfect for doing nothing because it’s simply too hot to do anything. Even the cooler days were pretty hot by Swedish standards and the main thing to do many of the days was to go to one of the many parks just to wander around or sit down with a book.

The parks I visited the most were in the Puerto Madero neighbourhood, the newest and most modern part of Buenos Aires, and also conveniently close to San Telmo. This is were you find a lot of modern skyscrapers, but also plenty of green space and it’s usually not too crowded (except some times during the weekends). I also found some really nice 3D street art there.

I did also do one trip out of the city to Tigre. Tigre is a town about an hour away from central Buenos Aires and is a popular weekend destination for the locals, partly for the amusement park and similar tourist attractions, but also for its location. It’s situated on a delta and once you get away from the central part of town there are several islands full of small houses and even private parks and camp-sites only accessible by boat. Completely different to the Stockholm archipelago but still somehow a similar vibe when you cruise between the islands.

One extra reason to stay around for a longer time was to get a new debit card. My old one still worked but has gotten a big crack in it so it was about time to replace it. Snail mail is really slow though and eventually I gave up hope that it would arrive and decided to keep going anyway. The old one still works after all and I do have other backup cards if it would break completely. But as soon as I get a bus ticket to my next stop the card finally shows up. 3.5 weeks delivery time for mail from Sweden to Argentina. Time to head into the desert!