Argentina – The land of cheap steak & wine!

We arrived in Foz du Iguacu (on the Brazilian side of the border) to a cold morning after our longest bus ride yet (16.5 hours). It was another comfortable ride on another impressive South American bus and we both managed to get a decent sleep ready for a big day at the Iguazu Falls. Here there are 275 waterfalls spread across 2.7km of the Iguazu River. What makes it so impressive is that Iguazu has the greatest annual flow of water across it any waterfall in the world! We visited the Brazilian side of the impressive falls for a few hours before crossing over the border to Puerto Iguacu in Argentina later in the day. We were amazed by the power and scale of the falls – imagine Huka Falls but 20 times better! The Brazilian side gives you more of a panoramic view of the falls as you look across them and we were able to get quite close to them by going out to viewpoints. This would have been even better if it wasn’t overcast & raining.

Cool panoramic view from the Brazilian side

We checked out of our hostel before heading to the falls the following day. All the hostels we have stayed at in South America have been really good, letting us store luggage & use their facilities even after checking out! The weather had finally cleared up today for our visit to the Argentinean side, which was another level! We paid a bit more for our tickets here than in Brazil but it was well worth it! There is a train inside the park that takes you to Devils Throat which is the most powerful part of the falls. Here there is a big arc of very powerful waterfalls falling into one spot which was mesmerising to watch. We stayed and admired nature’s power here for a good 45 minutes. This was the highlight of the day and we had already got our money’s worth with 2 tracks still to explore! We spent around 6 hours here checking out tracks at different levels along the falls before getting back to have a late lunch & catch our bus to Buenos Aires.

Looks quite calm from the top but wait..

The amazing Iguazu Falls

Good view across the falls

Us admiring the force of nature

Devils Throat - last place I would want to fall!

We stayed in the San Telmo district which is the oldest neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Once we arrived we headed out to the supermarket to get some famous Argentinean steak for dinner which is tasty and cheap! We got 3 decent sized fillet steaks for only NZ$5 – was good to have a decent steak again which is the most expensive meat anywhere else! In San Telmo we were within walking distance to the main centre which we explored on our first full day. We were lucky to see the old ladies protesting at the main square (Plaza de Mayo), which they have done every Thursday afternoon since the 1970s. It is quite a sad story really – their sons & daughters just disappeared off the face of the earth when the government was controlled by a military dictatorship back then. Apparently they were abducted, some were killed and some orphaned out to military families. All the old ladies want is to know what happened to their kids, but haven’t been given an answer so continue to protest which is fair enough! 

Some of the old ladies protesting in Plaza de Mayo

One of the many Parillas (grills) along the waterfront in BA

One of the highlights while we were here was trying the local specialty called a Choripan (gourmet chorizo sausage in a bread roll) from one of the many parillas (grills) around town. The best Choripan we had was on the waterfront, which was close by to our hostel and lined with parillas. We were amazed by the huge number of condiments and sauces they had on offer. As it was a Saturday all the locals were out and most of them were lining up for Choripans at the parillas. We kept coming back for more and this became our staple lunch in Buenos Aires. It would be a good call setting up a BBQ and selling Choripans at the Viaduct in Auckland on a Saturday night I reckon!

Haylee with a tasty Choripan

We checked out the colourful town of La Boca another day. This is one of the more dodgy areas in the city and I think the old houses have been painted brightly to make it look a bit friendlier. The houses do look cool but are only cover a small area of La Boca – which we found out is pretty rough once you get out of the tourist zone.

Some cool street art in La Boca

The colourful buildings of La Boca

On our last night here we treated ourselves to a nice steak meal in a renowned restaurant in Palermo, La Gran Hollywood. I got a medium rare Bife de Lomo (fillet steak) and Haylee got a massive sirloin steak (Bife de Chorizo) which she couldn’t finish. We had heard rumours of steak being so tender here you are able to cut it with a spoon. I don’t know about that but ours were both very nice & went down well with some tasty Malbec wine from Argentina. A good way to end our time in Buenos Aires!

About to enjoy some fillet steak at La Gran Hollywood - and everything here is served with chips!

From the capital we headed west to the town of Mendoza which is close to the foothills of the Andes. This region is renowned for its wine, especially the famous Argentinean Malbec. The climate is perfect for growing grapes being at a high altitude & getting lots of sun. We went to the Maipu district (one of the many wine districts in the Mendoza province) and were able to visit 3 wineries and an olive oil factory over two days. On the first day we hired bikes to get around the different wineries which are spread out over 14km in Maipu. They don’t seem to care about drink driving here and we had heard of a few tourists who were riding around hammered after visiting some of the places that do absinthe tasting. It was good fun for us and even though Haylee is still picking up the art of riding a bike, she handled it well. The roads around Maipu are not really set up for this type of tourism and there is one stretch that is particularly narrow – a little bit dodgy when trucks and buses come flying past.

Awesome view across the vineyards of Maipu with the Andes in the background

Haylee cycling the busy roads of Maipu like a pro

Haylee outside Trapiche - the biggest winery in Argentina. Unfortunately it was closed

We were quite surprised that this region was able to grow anything at all as it was so dry in some places, but soon figured out how the awesome irrigation system works here. The people here have taken advantage of the ice-water running off the Andes which is collected in a reservoir in the foothills. This then flows across the region through a series of open drains that run along the roadsides. Each property taps into this water and can control the amount they need. Apparently the water is only let out two times a month which must be enough for the plants to get by.

Unique open water irrigation system of Mendoza in full flow

The highlights around Maipu were:

• Tasting a few vino’s at Familia de Tomasi, the oldest winery in Mendoza
•  Having a tasting session and free tour around the Laur olive oil factory
• Paying for a tour and tasting session at La Rural winery and then being given our money back to spend on their wine at the end

Learning the art of tasting wine at Famalia de Tomasi

Tasty tasting platter at Laur olive oil factory

Haylee with our haul of wine that we got with our entrance fee at La Rural

Florio - one of the many nice wineries in Maipu

We didn’t spend the whole time drinking wine and riding bikes in Mendoza. One fine day we took the opportunity to visit the Andes on a day trip, and get close to Aconcagua – the highest peak in the world outside of the Himalayas at 6962m. We followed the trans-Andean railway most of the way up to the Chilean border. This has been an important connection between Argentina and Chile but numerous landslides and a lack of money in Argentina has meant it has been closed since 1991. Just out of town we visited the important reservoir serving Mendoza and irrigating the many vineyards in the region. From here we visited a few other spots as we headed to Las Heras, which is right on the Chilean border – deep in the Andes. Unfortunately the Aconcagua was clouded over when we were up there. Even though it was a perfect day and we saw some amazing views over the Andes, there is a different climate up at 7000m which can be unpredictable. One of the highlights was visiting the Puente del Inca (Inca Bridge) which my Pop had told me about on his visit to Argentina. This was formed by a weird mix of avalanches, erosion and thermal activity – and the result is a colourful naturally formed bridge. 

The important reservoir which feeds Mendoza

Old Incan bridge on the site where they battled the Spanish back in the day

Puente del Inca - the weird and wonderful bridge

In amongst the Andes on a nice sunny day

The colourful hillsides up in northern Argentina

Probably what made Mendoza one of our favourite places so far was the cool place that we stayed at – Hostel Mora! It was a great place to meet people, we got unlimited free red wine each night (dangerous), the free breakfast was top notch (included pancakes with caramel sauce), and the staff were the best yet. One of the guys who worked there (Gonzalo) was always good for a chat and really looked after us – even letting us have some of his Argentinean BBQ which was very tasty! 

Hostel Mora - the best stay in town

Another tasty Argentinian steak for dinner. These 3 cost us NZ$4 - can't go wrong!

Picture with Gonzalo before we left - he was a master at cooking an Argentinian BBQ!

We stayed two extra nights here in Mendoza as we loved it so much and now plan on making up the time by catching a 26 hour bus up to Bolivia where our adventure continues.