Santiago

Something happened between getting off the metro station and the hotel.  Our tour leader, Christian, lost his money pouch, which contains a sizable amount of cash.  Someone must have dipped into his pocket and took the pouch without him being aware of it.  It was a very busy street, with many pedestrians on the sidewalk.  It's a warning to all of us to be careful with our valuables.  There and then I decided that I was going to wear my money belt in Santiago.

We did a quick orientation tour that evening, then went to the Mulato restaurant for a very nice Chilean dinner.

The next morning some of us went to drop off our laundry at a nearby laundromat.  It costs 6,000 Chilean pesos, about US$10, and would be ready that evening.  I plan to do my laundry once a week. So far it has worked out very well.  It is much cheaper to have a laundromat do it than to have the hotel to do your laundry.  When they come back, the laundry is always nicely folded.

We met at the Plaza de Armas to get ready for a "Free" Walking Tour.  The tour is free because they don't charge you an advance or fix fee.  You pay based on what you think the tour is worth and what you want to give.  The tour started at about 10:30am and lasted about 3-4 hours.  In between, we stopped at a restaurant for a 45-minute lunch.  It was a wonderful way to know the city and the history of Chile.  Our guide Franco injected a lot of humor into his self-deprecating commentary on Chilean politics.

Ceviche at the Mercado Central

These vendors sell this Chilean national drink

A statue of Mary on top of San Cristobal Hill

Chile grows a lot of fruits, some exported to the US

Many of these crosses are all over St. Cristobal Hill

Catedral Metropolitan at Plaza de Armas

This restaurant's business boomed after President Clinton's visit

The Presidential Palace where the Salvador Allende was overthrown

Our tour guide Franco

We took the funicular up to San Cristobal's Hill

A small chapel on top of San Cristobal's Hill

Chess playing citizens at Plaza de Armas

Pre-Columbian artifacts at the Pre-Columbian Museum

Chile is a big wine producer.  Good wine sells for less than $10

Lots of seafood at the Mercado Central

After the tour we took the funicular up to to San Cristobal Hill.  It has a nice view of the city.  On top of the hill is a statue of Mary and below the statue is a small chapel.  Half way up the bill is a zoo.  We also took a cable car to another part of the hill.

I also visited two museums in Santiago:  the Pre-Columbian Museum and the Museo Historico Nacional.  The former is a beautiful, well-done museum with explanation of what Chilean was like before the Spanish settlers came.  It's worth the US$10 dollar entrance fee.  The Museo Historico Nacional is an okay museum.  It gives a lot of information about Chile's history, after the Spanish came, but only in Spanish.  It looks old, but the entry is free.

The Central Market or Mercado Centro is an interesting place to visit.  It has many vendors selling mostly seafood and many seafood restaurants.  Outside the market there are a lot of vendors selling just about anything - fruits, phone accessories, clothes, knick-knacks, etc.  The street market goes all the way back to the Plaza de Armas, the main square in Santiago.

All day long, there are many activities in the Plaza de Armas, ranging from entertainers, food vendors, people watchers, people using free wifi, and probably a few pick-pockets as well.  Here you will also find the Tourist Information Center, where you can get maps or other information about Santiago and book tours as well.

Bus Journey from Mendoza to Santiago

We took a 9am bus from Mendoza to Santiago, Chile.  It was one of those big coaches that sits up high, with the bottom use for luggage.  The bus was full.  From Mendoza to the Chilean border, it was just another bus ride.  But as we get closer to Chile, we start to see the Andes mountain.  These are pretty impressive rugged mountains.

The bus is fairly comfortable although I think it's fairly old because it doesn't have the USB ports like some modern buses do.  Also it does not have a tray table to rest your stuff or a pocket to put some of your belongings.  When we board the bus, we were each given a cup with a couple of cookies and a packet of instant coffee.  There is hot water on the bus, which you can make your own coffee.  There is also a bathroom.   They played a couple of American movies on the bus but I did not pay attention to it.  I just listened to my music with my noise-cancelling Bose headset.  I read, slept and enjoyed the scenery.

Our bus is the one on the right

Approaching the Andes on the Argentinian side

Our group at the border

Getting in line to go through Immigration

Going through Immigration

One of a few cafes at the border checkpoint

Driving down from the mountain, with many switchbacks

Some of the mountain scenery

It was a fairly complicated process going through the checkpoint.  First, we have to wait in line to go through Immigration.  After we get our passports stamped, we get on the bus and drove about 50 feet to go to the Customs side.  Then they take our luggage and put them through the scanner.  If you have something suspicious, they will call you and ask you to open your luggage.  If everything is good, they load your luggage back on the bus.  Then we have to put our personal carry-on bags through the scanner.  Then we get back on the bus if everything is clear.  We are not allowed to bring any fruits or vegetables.  I think Chile has a big agricultural industry so they don't want any diseases from other countries.  In the winter, we (in the US) get our blueberries mostly from Chile.

The scenery in this region are pretty amazing, just like the Rockies in Colorado.  As we drive down from the mountain, I could see ski lifts just above the road.  Chile also has a big ski industry.  The group that I ski with, Alpine Ski Club, makes a trip to Chile every July.  I imagine in the winter, the mountains here will be mostly covered with snow and the roads can get treacherous.

Ski lifts visible from the road

Arriving at the bus terminal in Santiago

We arrived in Santiago at about 4:30, a 7 1/2-hour bus trip, including time spent at the border checkpoint.  A van was supposed to pick us up but we couldn't find the van.  So we took the metro, went 5 stops and walked to the Hotel Libertado on Alameda Avenue.  We arrived at the hotel just before 6pm and got ready for dinner at 7pm.

Malbec in Mendoza

It was a 2-hour flight from Buenos Aires to Mendoza.  We were going from the east coast to almost the west coast of South America.  It'd have been too far to drive across the pampas of Argentina.  Mendoza is wine country, known for its Malbec wine.  As we drive into town from the airport, you can see why.  The place looks arid but not too hot.  Perfect terrain for wine grapes, olives and other mediterranean-type crops, like in Spain or Italy.  We checked into the Urban Suites hotel on 25 de Mayo street.  We are to stay here for 3 nights.

Our first day activity is a wine and olive tour:  3 wineries and 1 olive mill.  I have been on many wine tours and the wine-making process are all similar.  Each winery has their own twist to the process.  Malbec is the dominant grape variety grown here although other types of wine are made here as well.
The wineries are big and they export a fair amount to Europe and the United States.  Malbec is becoming a popular red wine in the US.

Wine-tasting and wine-education

Malbec grapes ready for harvest

The 1st winery we visited

Name of the Olive Mill

Explaining the growing process

Olive oil from Pasrai

2nd winery - Dante Robino

View of our hostess through a glass of red wine

Olives from Pasrai Olive Mill

Malbec grape vines

A wonderful lunch at our last winery - Kaiken winery

A delicious lunch cooked BBQ-style

Argentina is famous for its steak and we had an all-you-can-eat steak lunch when we arrived in town. It was very good and as you can imagine, we all ate too much.

Steak and other meat on a grill

The next day most of the group went river rafting.  Another traveler and I opted to stay in town and take the hop-on hop-off city bus.  It took us around different parts of the city in 3 hours.  Although we can hop-off and spend time at a site and catch the next bus, we did not do that.  We stayed on the bus the entire trip.  It costs 220 Argentinian pesos, or about US$11.

Monument on top of Cerro de la Gloria

Entrance to Parque San Martin

Church in Mendoza

Hop-on hop-off city bus

One thing that impresses me about Mendoza is the wide tree-lined streets.  Large trees are planted along side all the streets.  It provides shade and adds beauty to the city.

One of the streets shaded by large oak trees.

Tango in Buenos Aires

After two days at Iguazu Falls, we were ready for our next destination:  Buenos Aires (BA).  We drove about an hour across the border again to the BA airport.  We just had to identify ourselves walking across the border.  Our luggages were not checked.  At the airport, we checked-in to our LATAM flight.  It's good that we've been flying LATAM so far because I gave them my American Airlines frequent-flyer number and received mileage credit for it.  Being a domestic flight, everything went smoothly, including security.  Again, I was allowed to bring bottle-water with me on the 2-hour flight without any issues.

We checked into the Two Hotel on Moreno Street, next to the InterContinental Hotel.  It's a great location; about 3 blocks from Avenida de Mayo, which leads to the Plaza de Mayo, the city center.  Unfortunately, the Plaza de Mayo is under renovation so we couldn't see much of it.  In front of the Plaza de Mayo is the Catedral Metropolitan (Metropolitan Cathedral).  Around the Plaza are statues, monuments, government buildings, etc.  Avenida de Mayo is like the Fifth Avenue of BA.

Catedral Metropolitana

Statue near Plaza de Mayo

Inside the historical Cafe Tortoni

Historical Cafe Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo

On the first evening, we went to a Tango concert.  Argentina is famous for its Tango dance.  The energy that they put into the dance and the moves they made are amazing.  It costs US$100 per person, including transportation, tips, and a very nice dinner and all the alcohol you can drink.  It was a very nice evening for the group to get together.

Our group at the Tango Concert

The next day a few of us took a walk towards the Recoleta Area.  This is an upscale area, with museums, parks, and the well-known Cementerio de la Recoleta.  The cemetery contains mausoleums of some of the rich and famous people and families from Argentina.  A wealthy family buys a plot and it stays within the family for generations.  Some of the mausoleums have multiple generations buried in the same mausoleum.  Among the famous buried here is Eva Perón, former First Lady of Argentina.

It was a long walk through an old and nice neighborhood.  It reminds me of some of the cities in Europe.  On the way we passed by places of interest like the The Obelisco (Obelisk), Teatron Colon, Plaza Lavalle, etc.  Following the cemetery, we popped in at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.  We continued walking past the Japanese Garden to the Planetario Galileo Galilei.  They charged admission fees so we decided to spend anytime there.  By then we were fairly tired and ready to head back to the hotel.  It took us some time to get a taxi.

The Obelisk

A famous general buried here

One of the mausoleums

A plague commemorating Eva Peron

The next day we went to the La Boca area, a poor working-class neighborhood with colorful buildings that has turned into a tourist spot with gift shops, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid, a former theater turned into a bookstore

A colorful store with dancers in front

another colorful building

A colorful apartment

Another colorful apartment

It was a wonderful and short visit to BA.  There are many areas to explore but with 3 days, you just hit the well-known spots.  The food is wonderful too.  Steak is the specialty here.  We had a great dinner at the London City restaurant on Avenida de Mayo and the Desnivel Restaurant on Defensa Street.  There is a street market on Sunday on Defensa that has many local arts and crafts.