From Fray Bentos bus terminal no buses went out to Las Canas, a village
with a river beach, one shop and 3 bar/restaurants about 8km out of
town, so we jumped in taxi. When we got to the hotel
it was all locked up with a sign on the door to ring a number to be let
in. We’re not carrying a charged mobile phone. While Rhys stayed at the
hotel with the bags I walked down to the beach and in my pigeon Spanish
managed to get directions to the pay phone. The phone didn’t work. I
spent the next 15 minutes trying to explain to a guy at one of the bars
that I needed to borrow a phone, all fun and games. An hour after
arriving in the village we finally we got let into our room.
The next morning we took a cab back into Fray Bentos to pick up our bus tickets and to visit the Fray Bentos factory museum – not a whole lot of English just photos of tinned pies and corn beef cans. Back in Las Canas the two Belgian guys we met in Punta del Diablo checked into our hotel with a Chilean guy they’d met along the way with a rental car. After a few beers in one of the beach bars we drove into Fray Bentos for dinner then back to Las Canas for a bonfire on the beach.
We had booked tickets to Mendoza on the twice weekly bus and the guys dropped us at the international bridge where we had to sit by the immigration post to wait for the bus to come through. After clearing customs we were out of Uruguay and back into Argentina and had an 18 hour overnight bus journey to look forward to. The buses here serve food and drink, although of very differing quality depending on the bus company. We’ve heard of people getting free wine and even champagne and hot dinners. Our bus served us crackers and biscuits followed by some crisps and peanuts and a choice of either a shot of whiskey or vodka straight to help you sleep, lovely.
Arriving in Mendoza we booked to go up into the high Andes and on a wine tasting trip to some vineyards. The Andes trip was brilliant although involved spending a long time on a mini bus, about a 3 hour drive out of town, stopping at lakes and viewpoints along the way, we arrived at the base of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Southern and Western Hemispheres at 6962m. It was really majestic, the Andes are really rugged and the national park was beautiful.
The wine tasting trip was less majestic. We’d been lucky to have a good group on our trip the day before but the crowd for wine tasting was a lot older and the whole thing was quite ‘conveyor belt’ as in you arrived at the vineyards with loads of other buses, got a quick tour, a dribble of wine and back on the bus to the next one. I can happily say though that we are now more knowledgeable about both red wine and olive oil (and Tim, we hope to visit your parents wine cellar again soon).
That night back at the hostel we discovered Rhys’s bunk had bed bugs. Urgh. Last week he was ready to declare war on the mosquitoes, this week it’s bed bugs, not a happy Rhys. We were moved into a different dorm so they could fumigate and they managed to throw my PJ’s out with the sheets. It’s a good job I have another pair because sleeping naked in dorms really wouldn’t go down too well.
We were ready to leave Mendoza after that and the next day took the most scenic road ever to Santiago so yet another border crossing but only a 7 hour journey. The road winds through the Andes past all these little ski resorts to the border and then it’s all hairpin bends the other side.
The hostel here is brilliant, pool table, big TV room, foosball, great people and right in the centre of Bellavista, a really cool area with hundreds of bars and restaurants lining the streets. Last night, after a few drinks on the roof terrace we headed out to a bar. We had intended to do a walking tour of the city today but it didn’t happen so I have to say we haven’t really seen much of the city but since we weren’t planning to come at all and the last hostel was such a dive it’s been nice to just chill out – the couches here are so comfortable and having a couch at all is a novelty!
The next morning we took a cab back into Fray Bentos to pick up our bus tickets and to visit the Fray Bentos factory museum – not a whole lot of English just photos of tinned pies and corn beef cans. Back in Las Canas the two Belgian guys we met in Punta del Diablo checked into our hotel with a Chilean guy they’d met along the way with a rental car. After a few beers in one of the beach bars we drove into Fray Bentos for dinner then back to Las Canas for a bonfire on the beach.
We had booked tickets to Mendoza on the twice weekly bus and the guys dropped us at the international bridge where we had to sit by the immigration post to wait for the bus to come through. After clearing customs we were out of Uruguay and back into Argentina and had an 18 hour overnight bus journey to look forward to. The buses here serve food and drink, although of very differing quality depending on the bus company. We’ve heard of people getting free wine and even champagne and hot dinners. Our bus served us crackers and biscuits followed by some crisps and peanuts and a choice of either a shot of whiskey or vodka straight to help you sleep, lovely.
Arriving in Mendoza we booked to go up into the high Andes and on a wine tasting trip to some vineyards. The Andes trip was brilliant although involved spending a long time on a mini bus, about a 3 hour drive out of town, stopping at lakes and viewpoints along the way, we arrived at the base of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Southern and Western Hemispheres at 6962m. It was really majestic, the Andes are really rugged and the national park was beautiful.
The wine tasting trip was less majestic. We’d been lucky to have a good group on our trip the day before but the crowd for wine tasting was a lot older and the whole thing was quite ‘conveyor belt’ as in you arrived at the vineyards with loads of other buses, got a quick tour, a dribble of wine and back on the bus to the next one. I can happily say though that we are now more knowledgeable about both red wine and olive oil (and Tim, we hope to visit your parents wine cellar again soon).
That night back at the hostel we discovered Rhys’s bunk had bed bugs. Urgh. Last week he was ready to declare war on the mosquitoes, this week it’s bed bugs, not a happy Rhys. We were moved into a different dorm so they could fumigate and they managed to throw my PJ’s out with the sheets. It’s a good job I have another pair because sleeping naked in dorms really wouldn’t go down too well.
We were ready to leave Mendoza after that and the next day took the most scenic road ever to Santiago so yet another border crossing but only a 7 hour journey. The road winds through the Andes past all these little ski resorts to the border and then it’s all hairpin bends the other side.
The hostel here is brilliant, pool table, big TV room, foosball, great people and right in the centre of Bellavista, a really cool area with hundreds of bars and restaurants lining the streets. Last night, after a few drinks on the roof terrace we headed out to a bar. We had intended to do a walking tour of the city today but it didn’t happen so I have to say we haven’t really seen much of the city but since we weren’t planning to come at all and the last hostel was such a dive it’s been nice to just chill out – the couches here are so comfortable and having a couch at all is a novelty!
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| Beach bonfire for Mathieu's birthday, Las Canas. |
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| Rhys at the Fray Bentos factory. |
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| Rhys in the Andes, Mendoza. |
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| Aconcagua Nacional Parque, Mendoza. |
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| Rhys wine tasting. Mendoza. |
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| The road to Santiago. |
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