Winery tour in the 8th wine capital in the world, Argentina

There are thousands of vineyards in mendoza that let you taste wine if you show genuine interest. It's possible to do a tour by bike, but the weather was really hot in the afternoon so me and my new friend took a bus tour two wineries Vistandes and Cavas de don actcri, as well as one olive oil factory.

I asked a winery guide the difference between Argentina wine and Chilean wine and which one is better. He replied that chile does not has any location listed as a wine capital as Mendoza.

Mendoza is so dry and good for the grapes. The yearly rainfalls is about one week of rain in Buenos Aires.

Comparing with the wineries in Ica, Peru, the wineries in Mendoza are more modern and less generous in providing wines for tasting.

Way to Mendoza Argentina

I picked the worst ever seat among all the bus rides of my south american trip. The overhead countpaetment leaked freezing cool air. I kept on migrating to different seats as people on and off the bus to avoid my seat, while listening to madonna singing "Don't cry for me, Argentina" (check the lyrics online to fully appreciate my joke). I still managed to get enough sleep during the 22 hrs bus ride.

The Andes is long, and buses cost 33-50% of flights to travel along the Andes. Not all bus routes are scenic. This one is so so, reminding me route 81 from the end of route 66 towards Harrisonburg Virginia, yet almost no house along this way to Mendoza.

Beside bus rides, I also had enough of corns and potatoes in south america. Although I have only been in chile for 6 days and Argentina for 3 days, I am already sick of the limited choices of food. I saw bread and pizza all over the place.

One well-traveled friend told me that each person has a travel saturation time period, and it was too aggressive for a new backpacker like me to do the 1st trip of 3-month. After 2 months, I have already started counting down my days to go back home. I completely agree with him, but decide to executing my plan after watching the movie "G I Jane" in a bus. Comparing with SEAL training, my trip is nothing.

Whenever I feel homesick, I find something exciting to motivate myself to continue the trip. I think hiking the America's highest peak Aconcagua (highest in the world outside the Himalayas) will do it, but I need to find out the cost, time, equipment, weather and physical requirements when most trekking agencies in Mendoza open on Monday.

I walked from the hostel to downtown to stretch my legs after the bus ride. I visited the plaza independcina and the huge Park San Martín which includes a zoo, a pond and many exercise facilities．

Salta, Argentina

Offers package tours to the nearby mountain range which I saw on my bus ride into the city, so I did not take any tour here. I used my time walking around the city, enjoyed the city views from a cable car, and visited a nearby small town via local buses.

San Lorenzo is a charming little town approx 20 minutes outside Salta. It has lots of accommodation, restaurants and its own attractions. I would stay there one night but for my overnight bus to Mendoza. I can not pinpoint any specific sights yet the whole atmostphete there was very relaxing.

Way to salta argentina

The cleanance of passagers at the chile side was quick, but the bus clearance was long for unknown reason.

The Argentina customs was even slower because they checked luggages as well. Worst of all, Unlike chile, The AR custom officier could not extend my visa at the border such thar I need to extend my visa in Buenos Aires (BA).

Now I an thinking of skipping Santiago and traveling from mandoza to Bariloche directly to reduce the number of border crossing, since it is so time consuming.

The views along the bus ride across the Andes was nevertheless beautiful. There were a few salt flats on the way, but none of them had enough water to retain flamingos.

The bus arrived salta almost 11 pm. I run to the info desk to get a city map and tried the nearest ATM which did not take my debit card. By accident, me and four austrian backpackers took the sane options of a hostel offering free taxi ride to the hostel with reasonable room rate, since none of us had AR currency to pay for taxi.

The hostel was brand new yet further away from the town center. Yet the staff was very helpful to loan us local currency to pay for our dinner. We were trapped in the bus for 14 hrs eating only crackers. All five of us went out for pizza and enjoyed night life at the near by plaza. They were two young couples took off from work to travel around the world for one year.

Tour the 3rd largest salt flat in the world, Chile

An hour drive away from San pedro lies the chile's largest salt flat, spotted pink flamingos and its edges crinkled by volcanoes (symmetrical Licancábur, at 5916m, looms closest to the village). Here also lies high plateau lagoons filled with snowmelt water. The highlights include the toconao village, the jere village, the national park Los flamencos (VGA as lagoon), the socatire village, the mid anti and minister lagoons.

After 2 months of traveling, I felt tired and miss home. Traveling in chile is frustrating because it takes much longer to move among cities and the buses do not run everyday.

My new Taiwanese friends has traveled around the world except africa. I asked him what he is going to do after finishing Africa, since he will finish what he plans to know when he retires. He is not sure about the answer. He will work a few years to save more money and figure it out. I know traveling is not the purpose of my life, yet I have already save enough money yo retire. I am facing more urgent situation to respond before I return home in early December.

San petro de atacama, Chile

After arrived in the early morning, I found my desired hostel was sold out but I run into a fellow Taiwanese backpacker who treaveled 39 countries in 2.5 months starting his 30s. He knew that once he got back to the workforce as an engineer, no Taiwanese boss will let him off more than 10 days. He tried to travel around the world during this career transition. Seize the day while you may.

San Pedro de Atacama (elevation 2440m) is an oasis village turned into a tourist boomtown due to it's beautiful scenery.

We took a tour to the valley of moon with colorful geology. Located in the Sierra Obate depression, 2550 meters above sea level, it has different visual attractions of desertic nature, without flora, fauna and humidity. The highlights include view point to "cordillera de la sal", the Valle de la muerte, the las tres marias, salt statues, and big sand dunes. today.

A little crisis in Chile

The Bariloche airport closure for volcano ashes costed me more than half of day to contact the airline company and look into to alternatives to hike on the patagonia.

I used my afternoon to walk alone the beaches in Arica. The ocean was warm enough to swim and a lot of families BBQ on the beaches. Today is the All Saints' Day (in the Roman Catholic Church officially the Solemnity of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas) .

The holiday crowd in the bus terminal looked scary. Hope I will get on the right bus on time and arrived the destination with my luggages.