Marvellous Mendoza

After a six hour drive from Santiago, we arrived in Mendoza and first impressions were good, driving down roads with trees on each side and we also passed lovely plazas.  We had booked in for one night at an apartment hotel, which was quite pricey, so certainly my expectations were fairly high.  However, after checking in, we were disappointed by the room, although it was clean, it was a bit drab and was slightly smelly, although I actually think it was an air freshner of some sort, but not a particularly pleasant smell - it did not compare to the apartment we had just left in Santiago and we thought overpriced for what it was.  This could have been due to the fact that in Mendoza it was just coming to the end of their wine festival and they may have increased their prices, however, not sure this was the case, it was just overpriced.  Breakfast was delivered to your room, there was a time window and you chose a time within this.

However, once settled in room, we decided to go out and find somewhere to eat, as it was now early evening.  We were not far from the main plaza, and how lovely it turned out to be.  As it was Saturday, the place was buzzing and there was a market with stalls going right around the outside, lots of trees (in fact I have never been to a city with so many trees lining every road).  The market was good, mostly jewellery, and we took time to wander round the stalls.  In retrospect, I wished I had looked more closely at the jewellery and enquired about prices, but as I brought a few pieces in the silver factory in Cuzco, I felt that I probably did not need any more, but as I was only likely to be here once, I should have taken the opportunity, oh well never mind, a lesson learnt.

We then went to find a place to eat.  The restaurants were all mainly in one side pedestrian road with the umbrellas we look for, and after walking up and down the road a bit, we settled on one.   I love this bit of holidays, sitting outside a restaurant or bar people watching and just chilling out!  I had chicken (again!) and Dave had steak and, of course, we both had wine.

We then wandered back to our hotel, having decided we would not spend a second night there.  We booked into a hotel for the next night at half the price we had paid for this one.  The following morning our breakfast was delivered to the room, fairly basic - orange juice, a selection of crossiants and other bread, butter/jams, coffee for Dave and hot water for me.  We then packed our stuff and loaded up the car.  As we could not check into the other hotel until midday, we decided to drive to the park and spend a couple of hours there.  The park turned out to be stunning and as the weather was hot and sunny (at least 30 degrees) ideal to while away a few hours.

We walked to the man-made lake and it turned out that there was a rowing regatta taking place, so we stopped to watch this for a while and then continued our way around the lake.  As it was Sunday, there were lots of families out and about; we even passed an outdoor aerobic class, but doing exercise in 30 degree heat was not my idea of fun!  We stopped for a drink at one of the lakeside cafes on our way round the lake, such a perfect way to spend a Sunday; we spent far more time there than we thought we would because it was so lovely.  However, about 3pm we decided to head to our hotel, which was not far.  Our room here was much better than the previous night and, as said, half the price.  We settled in and chilled out for a few hours (its a hard life) before setting out to find another restaurant to eat.  The plaza was much quieter being a Sunday, but still relatively busy, we found a different restaurant and enjoyed another evening of people watching and also reminiscing about our trip so far.  We have done and seen so much, that I am having trouble remembering it all, so its good to talk about it and re-live bits.  Also, looking through our photos (there are a few!) brings back so many memories.

We did talk about spending another day in Mendoza, but decided to head on to Cordoba the following day.  The following morning at breakfast, we looked at hotels in Cordoba and we again settled on an apartment hotel.  Dave rang the hotel direct, spoke to Alicia, who spoke almost no English, and booked us a room for two nights.  Dave totally underestmates how good his Spanish is - believe me its not "poco un poco" - and had the conversation with Alicia entirely in Spanish. If it was left to me, we would be very hungry and sleeping on a park bench!!!!!

I really loved Mendoza, and Dave did too, the tree lined streets, park, and plazas were lovely. The weather also helped too.   Definitely a highlight for me.