Neuquen: Bones, candied strawberries and a crazy porteno

While in Mendoza, we realised that our ever careful planning had a slight faux pas. We had about two days to spare even after hitting all that we wanted to. On the lookout for novelty and surprises we decided to head for the paleontological wonderland of Neuquen.

A sleepy, little town, Neuquen has little to do except visit the dig sites and museums around it where lie a plethora of fossils. Thanks to rich sedimentary rock formations at the site of a water body which receded, there are enough fossils for you to practically crunch underfoot. Neuquen's moment in the sun arrived when the bones of largest carnivorous dinosaur (the aptly and imaginatively named Gigantosaurus Carolinii) were discovered here.

We hopped on to an overnight bus from Mendoza, on which we were promptly offered a rather ham-y "vegetarian" lasagna for dinner, and arrived bright and early to find no one who could understand our broken Spanish. Finally, we were aided by a lady at a car rental booth, who spoke a smattering of English and was kind enough to excuse the brutally murdered local tongue. She pointed us to a hotel in town, told us where to go and find out more about the dig visits. The hotel we decided upon looked neat and clean from the outside and for the most part was pretty clean but seemed to be run by a clutch of grumpy, old ladies who seemed set on scowling the joy out of you.

We of course set out for lunch in the middle of siesta, but managed to locate a cafe with a warm and gregarious waiter, who insisted on repeating whatever we said punctuated with a si at roughly five times the decibel level. Some rather large humita and spinach empanadas made for lunch. After this, we headed straight to the tourist office in Neuquen to inquire about trips out of town. At this point, we must commend their patience since we went back repeatedly for various bits and pieces of information that we thought about after leaving the office (also, they spoke English! Hallelujah!) before we were fully satisfied. After gathering everything and speaking to a couple of agents we landed at the offices of Quantum Tours to meet the mind-boggling Pablo Daniel Gonzalez.

Pablo speaks in rapid, loud and expressive Spanish regardless of whether you understand it or not or even have a chance to respond much. Pablo wants to know everything about you and he laughs a hearty laugh every time he feels like it. Especially when he knows neither side understood what the other just said. Pablo was overjoyed that our last stop was going to be Buenos Aires, since he is a porteno. Pablo highly recommended our next stop, San Martin de los Andes, and said that it was muy muy muy muy muy (lost count after a while) muy lindo. He also insisted on an "OK" based rating system for hotels there. There were a few which were "OK OK OK OK OK ... OK" but muy caro. There were a few which were barato but just "meh". And there were a couple which were "OK OK OK" and apparently reasonable. Pablo made no promises but still got us a room at one of these. Pablo also got us the best rate for a cab to Proyecto Dino, an active dig, and warned MFTree to keep an eye on me 'cause there was going to be a woman driving it. Pablo is awesome.

As promised, we set off early next morning with the cheery Reina at the helm of our cab. Driving through some stunningly desolate and rambling red-sand-and-stone scenery, Proyecto Dino was upon us, on the banks of the Lago Barreales. After the initial welcome by a sunny Italian researcher, dressed like a twenty-first century Indiana Jones, we were passed on to our guide - a travel-industry trainee nervously eager to show around her first tourists. The project has a fairly neat demonstration of fossil formation and some garish neon-coloured plaster of paris models.

Along with that we were upon some real-

life archaeologists mucking around with their spades and brushes around a rather large looking, emerging skeleton. The site also has a slightly decrepit but fascinating museum containing fossils found around the area - ranging from the Gigantosaurus to dinosaur eggs. Our lunch had been arranged at one of the local wineries (of course) - it was delicious (of course) and led to a winery tour and tasting (of course!) The lazy afternoon was completed with a visit to an idyllic little picnic spot where the locals were hell bent on fishing with makeshift lines.

We headed back to Neuquen to spend a couple of hours at the local annual fair. We'd roamed around it the previous evening as well and tasted the most delicious candied strawberries (shame on you candied apples, you pretender, you!) We pigged out on some more of those, learned how they were made, bought some accessories for MFTree and made our way to the bus station to catch our ride to San Martin de los Andes. It is muy muy muy muy muy lindo or in Pablo-English - OK OK OK OK OK OK!

Uspallata, or What-did-you-say?!

Us: "Quisiero dos boletos para 'oospayata'" (I
would like two tickets to Uspallata)

Bus counter lady: ¿Que?

Us: "Quisiero dos boletos para 'oospayata'" (I would like two tickets to Uspallata)

Bus counter lady: ¿Que? ¿Donde?

Us: "Oospayata"? (Uspallata -hurriedly consulting phrase book)

Bus counter lady: ¿"Oospayata"?

Us: ¿Si?

Bus counter lady: ¿"Oospayata"?

Us: *Showing guide book and pointing*

Bus counter lady: Ah, si! Upashaata! Si!

Us: Huh?! But but but, it's spelt Us-pa-lla-ta. Double l pronounced "y" like we thought, no? No? Ok. Double l pronounced "sh" then. And what about that s? Swallow it?! Alright!

Our quick education in the Argentine accent was at the bus stop in Mendoza. We were fumbling around trying to buy tickets to a little valley town in the Andes called Uspallata. The bus folks didn't seem to understand what we were saying until we showed them the name written down. Then it dawned on us that we were a bit off! We came away with slightly bruised egos since we thought our Portuguese and Spanish was now passable enough to at least buy tickets. But we proceeded to have a very amusing time by randomly shouting out Andehmar (Andesmar) and shaama (llama) and Ahtor (Astor) Piazzola!

Soon all confusion was sorted out and we had two tickets for a bus early the next morning to Uspallata, and another bus from there on to Puente del Inca ("Bridge of the Incas") and back. The ticket operator assured us that the only bus back left at 7:30 pm. We shrugged, it didn't really matter to us what time we came back. Little did we know ...

So we set off early the next morning and reached the picturesque little town of Uspallata, where we spent a couple of hours walking around and waiting for the connecting bus to Puente del Inca. Uspallata is located in a valley, in the midst of meadows with the barren, wind-swept, snow-capped Andean peaks ahead. We sauntered across town, had coffee at an old lodge with an ancient looking wooden bowling alley and our packed breakfast sandwiches. After ogling the scenery a bit more, we boarded the next bus to Puente del Inca. The drive was extraordinary! We had front row panoramic view seats, and the narrow road (which eventually goes into Chile) curved upwards through the Andes. We couldn't get enough of the mountains.

As soon as the bus door opened at Puente del Inca, the loud wind whipped inside and chilled every bone in every living things there was.

It was freezing cold. And loud. And hard to concentrate. The bridge itself is a marvelous thing, naturally carved out of rock, with a sulphur hot spring beneath it. Beneath the stone formation is a little spa which had to be abandoned due to structural instability. Abandoned train lines stretch into the distance adding to the lonely and desolate landscape. Snow-capped peaks tower above, shorn of trees and often even grass, leaving dry and dusty slopes with jagged rock formations. Unfortunately the bone-chilling wind soon caught up with us and we proceeded to have some hot coffee and sandwiches. Indoors!

After a brief pause, we made inquiries as to how far we would have to go to get a glimpse of

Aconcagua - the highest peak in the Americas. Discovering that Aconcagua National Park was only three kilometers away, we started off for it, throwing on whatever warm clothes we had with us and braving the still biting wind. Fortunately at least the sky was clear and the sun was out, otherwise it could have been worse! We made slow progress towards the park, stopping often to admire the landscape and click photographs. The base of the park itself has a little loop leading to a viewpoint offering breath-taking panoramic views of the range around Aconcagua. The top of the big one itself was obscured by clouds but that made the scene no less stunning, and this was just the start of our time in the Andes. We were thrilled!

Quickly though, there was a dampener on our elation. Just as we were about to make our way back to Puente del Inca we saw a bus from our company whizz by around 5:30. We were a little bewildered because they had assured us that there were no buses back till 7:30! And we were too far away to flag it down. Well, we thought, maybe it's going somewhere else and continued trudging back to Puente. We reached to find almost everything shut! There was hardly a place to sit indoors and the sun was setting with no let up in the wind, making it even colder than before. There was no response at the one hostel around and the only cafe was winding up. We finally found an old fellow whose living room also served as a restaurant (or was that just his two little dining tables?!). It seemed shut but he invited us in and offered us a pizza, which is all he had. We were ravenous and dug in. We broke open a bottle of wine that we happened to have on us, and the meal wasn't too bad! There was also a television blaring an old Argentine movie, with what seemed to be gaucho-like characters. It was reminiscent of 1970s Bollywood and was about a downtrodden guy and a landowner with some sort of romance thrown in. Very melodramatic! Even though we didn't understand a word it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Our bus finally arrived and we gratefully clambered in, out of the cold, dozing all the way to Mendoza after a full and rewarding day.

(P.S. The rest of our photographs from Mendoza are here)

Mendoza - wine tasting amidst the Andes!

From Cordoba we made our way South-West to the town of Mendoza, an epicurean delight, especially for oenophiles! Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina especially for red wine. (Salta is the capital of Argentina's white wine - it's further North, and we didn't manage to make it there on this trip, but next time for sure!)
Mendoza looks a lot like an affluent town in the Bay area, think downtown Palo Alto. However, the reason one must visit Mendoza is not Mendoza itself, but Maipu, the wine growing region about an hour's bus ride away.

We arrived in Mendoza in the morning, after an overnight bus from Cordoba. Based on Lonely Planet's recommendation, we took a taxi to a hostel called Damajuana, but found it to be above our budget for the day, although it was a lovely place! We walked along till we found a hostel we could afford, although it was considerably less lovely (Hostel Itaka). The only saving grace was our first view of the lower Andes from our window!
We caught a local bus to Maipu and were deposited on a little dusty road in an hour. Renting bicycles is the best way to go wine tasting around here, since most of the vineyards are located along a long stretch of road, and there is no other mode of transport. We started off from the "town" of Maipu and within a few minutes had to whip out our camera to capture our first breathtaking view of the snow capped Andes.

This afternoon was one of the highlights of our trip. Bicycling along a tiny road, surrounded by gorgeous mountains, tasting wine and great food at the vineyards, it was true decadence South America style!

Mendoza is famous for its Malbec, and Tempranillo (pronounced Tempra-neesho). The wine tasting experience here was very different from Napa or Sonoma in California.

It's extremely chilled out, and not as modern or industrialized. It's what I imagine Napa might have been like in the 1970s (here I must confess that my knowledge of Napa in the '70s is based solely on the movie "Bottle Shock").

The vineyards are small, and the family that owns it usually hangs out and talks to their visitors. We lunched at the elegant Tempus Alba vineyard, an absolute paradisical venue, with gifted chefs and winemakers! We bicycled onwards and stopped at the vineyard of the Familia Di Tomasso. We drank plenty of Malbec, tasted our first Tempranillo, and bought a couple of bottles to go with dinner back at the hostel. A small note - the white wine of this region was also quite delicious, although Salta's Torrontes is more famous.

We took a day trip to see Puente del Inca and Uspallata on our second day in Mendoza (see separate post). On our third day we strolled about Mendoza itself, had a long lunch at a nice restaurant just outside our hostel, lazed about in a large park, and discovered the wonder of humita empanadas (roasted corn and cheese filled Argentininan dumplings) just before boarding our overnight bus to Neuquen.

Pictures from Brasil

The last time we posted a few albums we said that photos from the rest of the trip would be coming up shortly. Well, we know it's been a while, but we finally got around to putting up the rest of our pictures from Brasil (and a tiny bit of Argentina). Rest assured, they're worth the wait! Also, more posts and pictures coming soon!

Amazonia

Lencois Maranhenses

Sao Luis (Oh Sao Luis, we poured our scorn on you but really all we wanted were some beautiful snaps)

Salvador

Cataratas do Iguasu - so overwhelming that Foz do Iguasu had to be divided into two parts (I and II) and that's not including the Argentine side!

Cordoba

Argentina's second biggest city is home to seven universities. Besides being young, vibrant, fun, it is an important intellectual and cultural hub. I personally also wanted to visit Cordoba to see the hometown of Alberto Granado, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's buddy and travel companion on his adventure through South America, chronicled in the book and movie 'Motorcycle Diaries'. I strongly urge anybody who hasn't watched this movie to do so..immediately!We reached Cordoba after a 24 hour bus ride from Puerto Iguazu. We were given the best seats on the top deck of a luxurious double decker bus - the front ones, with a gorgeous panoramic view. We were served hot vegetarian meals as requested, sparkling wine, red wine, coffee, snacks, and a generous dose of hilariously bad Hollywood films dubbed/subtitled in Spanish (2012, Twilight, or Back-Up Plan in Spanish anyone?). That's how I learned my first few swear words in Spanish. We were really spoiled!

Arriving in Cordoba, we were immediately struck by how many "panaderias" (bakeries) there were in town, and the fact that everybody drinks mate. Shopkeepers at work, passengers waiting for a bus, friends taking a walk, students doing homework, an old lady on a sidewalk. Mate was ubiquitous. Naturally, we couldn't wait to try some ourselves. Our first experience with mate was "mate cocido", which is essentially mate in a tea bag, which tastes sort of like green tea. Naturally, I was under-whelmed. But the whole point of mate is in the preparation of the pot, the leaves, and the communal sipping from a cup and straw. We didn't get to experience this until much later when our travels in the deep South of Patagonia got us to befriend a native Cordoban. Lonely Planet had told us that when an Argentinian offers you mate, you never refuse. It's an honor, and an invitation to be their friend. The mate culture runs deep in Cordobans, and families will sit around in the evenings to chat, passing around a mate cup. And students in college will study together, passing around a mate cup.

Cordoba was our first brush with the phenomenon of siesta. We arrived around 11 AM at the bus station, spent an hour planning our next leg of the journey (which bus to take out of town etc.), walked the half hour to the hostel we had selected from Lonely Planet, checked in, showered, washed our clothes (we were running out!), and finally set off to have lunch. To our dismay, everything in town was closed shut. Starving, and bereft of much Spanish, we pointed our way across town and finally reached a strange restaurant run by a old waiter. The food was bad, but it was food. We quickly realized that vegetarian restaurant food in Argentina was going to be pizza or pasta, and that we had left the land of sucos (fresh fruit juices of innumerable flavors) behind when stepped across the international border. However, there were naranja jugos (hoo-goes) to be had! Literally, fresh squeezed orange juice.

The next day was spent walking around town, particularly, the University of Cordoba campus, the Palacio Ferreyra (an art museum) and the Parque Sarmiento, a beautiful large green space in the middle of the city. We ended the day of exploring with a free guitar orchestra performance by a bunch of high school kids in the Paseo del Buen Pastor, a beautiful free performance space. Dinner was fairly bad ravioli with our first bottle of Mendozan Malbec!

The next day we took a bus out of town to the hometown of Alberto Granado, Che Guevara's travel buddy. The sleepy little hill side town of Alta Gracia was gorgeous. However, it was a municipal holiday and so everything was shut. We took pictures of Che's house from the outside fence, and ate empanadas at a tiny restaurant run by a very friendly Cuban couple. We also chanced upon large old mulberry trees and MFTree (reminded by the mulberry trees in her primary school in New Delhi) spent considerable time plucking handfuls of mulberries and eating them straight off the tree! Our sneakers were a royal purple mess as we walked away from the trees.

We left Cordoba to go further south to the Andes, and go wine tasting in Mendoza!

p.s: Cordoba is the capital of Fernet consumption in Argentina, but we didn't end up having any here. As an aside, San Francisco is the Fernet capital of the US! (where most of it is consumed)