Northern Argentina

After leaving Santiago and Chile, our first stop back in Argentina would be the wine capital of the country, Mendoza.

The bus journey was 7 hours and went from one side of the Andes to the other, so we knew we would be in for a real treat. The journey did not disappoint as we wound our way through the mountains and eventually reached Parque National Aconcagua. Fortunately the sky was clear and we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the majestic peak. The gigantic Aconcagua stands at a dizzying 6962m a.s.l., and if the Himalayas did not exist, Aconcagua would be the highest peak on the planet.

When we arrived we found the town of Mendoza buzzing, as it was celebrating it's annual wine festival. We immediately knew we were going to be in for a cracking couple of days, so we quickly settled into our hostel and headed into town.

The city of Mendoza has a central plaza, Plaza Independencia, and the street that runs North and South of Plaza Independencia is pedestrianised and lined with countless cafes and bars, which are perfect for kicking back with a bottle of wine and spending a few hours people watching and discussing the next couple of weeks of your travels, so we did exactly that. By the time we had finished the bottle of vino blanco we decided it was too late to go back to the hostel for a shower and so stayed out for food to make the most of the festival.

We found out from tourist information that an area of the city had been dedicated to an outdoor wine tasting event and that the fun began at 8pm. WHen we got there we discovered that the event housed approximately 40 wine producers from different areas of Argentina and spanned 2 streets. We were in heaven! For 20 pesos (4 pounds) you could try 8 different wines, 6 young wines and 2 prestige wines, from any stall of your choice. Me being me got rather excited and dashed up to the first stall to get my first taste, while Mel carefully picked through the list of wine producers and the wines they had on offer to ensure she made the most of it. I then found out that you did not just get a taste of the wine, but a whole glass, so I curbed my excitment somewhat and decided that I would pace myself, with my other seven tokens in my hand!

The atmosphere at the wine tasting grew as the night went on and by 11pm it was in full swing, and so were we. There were many Argentine families around, and the little ones were enjoying the atmosphere as much as the adults. At one end of the festival a stage had been set up and a trio of musicians, consisting of a violinist, a double bass and a pianist, were sound testing. So we got our 5th or 6th glass of wine and took our outdoor seats on the bails of hay and listened to the trio, who turned out to be absolutley amazing. 1am had passed and we were starting to feel slightly jaded from the 8 glasses of wine each and the 7 hour bus journey we had taken earlier that day, so we made our way back to the hostel as we were due to get up the following morning relatively early to hire a couple of bikes and spend the day cycling from bodegas to bodegas doing some wine tasting!

Needless to say, we did not rise early that morning and eventually managed to get our bikes by 1pm. By this time we were both feeling a bit better and ready for our first glass of the day, so we jumped on our bikes and headed off the to the first bodegas. We slowly cycled along the quite roads over looking the vineyards with the snowcapped Andes in the background. The setting was beautiful and the day a great one, not just sampling wine but also chocolate, liquors, olives and sundried tomatoes along the way.

The following day we took an overnight bus 14 hours north to a town called San Miguel de Tucumán, or just Tucumán for short. We were only stopping in Tucumán for a little over 24hrs as there was not a huge amount to see in the town. This turned out to be just about the right amount of time, as the town had a pretty central plaza but not much else, so we used the time to relax in a few little cafes and bars and eat some tapas, a great way to re-charge the batteries.

The next stop was a little town called Cafayate, which stood at a little over 1500m a.s.l. in a valley in the Andes. The microclimate generated within the valley was perfect for the growth of grapevines, so this area of Argentina is known as the best place in the country for the production of, yes you guessed it, wine! Cafayate is only tiny and all of the bodegas are situated within the town, so despite our 5.30pm arrival, we still managed to fit in visits to two bodegas, one of which, a producer named Nanni, was outstanding, and we decided to purchase a bottle of Rosé to go with our dinner that evening.

Our hostel had a huge roof terrace which took in views of the whole valley and was perfect for an evening meal and a bottle of great wine. So we spent a relaxing evening drinking, enjoying some home cooked food and watching the electric storms over the mountains.

The following day we had booked an excursion along the Quebrada de Cafayate, a section of road 50km north of Cafayate, that took in some of the incredible sights of the Andes. This did not depart until 3pm so we had a few hours to squeeze in a couple of wine tasting sessions. We visited a vineyard, which much to our delight, was harvesting, and we got to see the process of grape selection and crushing in action.

3pm soon arrived and we headed out on our excursion. The Quebrada really blew us away as we took in some dramatic rock formations, which were amazing in shape and colour. As the Andes are extremely rich in minerals and variations of rock type, it possesses a huge amount of formations that have been shaped by the extreme weather that occurs in this part of the world, and this combination produces some amazing sights.

After a couple of days in Cafayate we departed to head further north to the city of Salta. We had heard many good things about Salta from other travellers and we were not disappointed. It was a lovely, clean city with a really relaxed vibe and some beautiful architecture. We spent our time in Salta wandering the streets, looking at the lovely buildings and stopping at various cafes in the central plaza for expressos. In the East lies Cerro San Bernado, and after climbing the 1070 steps(apparently) to the summit you reap the benefits with stunning views of the city.

Our next stop on the jouney towards the Bolivian boarder would be a tiny mountain town called Tilcara. This sits at just over 2500m a.s.l. and is famous for it's stunning location within the Andes. Talcara is a town typical of those featured in western films in the 50's, with its dry dusty streets and half constructed - half demolished buildings. This aside the town is very pretty and quaint, which we loved, so decided to stop a couple of nights just to relax and enjoy the small town life of Northern Argentina. The town is only 4 hours drive south of the border, so the influence of Bolivia can be seen in the faces of the people and the food served in the restuarants i.e. llama steak.

Our hostel had amazing views down over the town and of the mountains beyond. After a hectic week and a half of travelling through Northern Argentina this was the perfect place to slow the pace down a relax a little. The town has some beautiful ruins in the east, which also had a great panorama of the valley, and a colourful cemetary in the North. There was also a crazy festival going on in town where the local played music (badly!) on a variety of instruments and sprayed each other with shaving foam. We never did find out what the festival was in aid of.

After leaving Tilcara we headed 4 hours north to the frontier town of La Quiaca, where we walked across the bridge over the Rio La Quiaca and into Bolivia to start the next chapter of our travels.