Most scenic border crossing - Mendoza to Santiago

One of the reasons why we broke the trip from Buenos Aires to Santiago into two was that the scenery when crossing the Andes is spectacular (and of course for the wines in Mendoza).

Buenos Aires - Mendoza - Santiago, de Chile

If we were to travel from Buenos Aires to Santiago directly, we would be crossing the Andes in the middle of the night - i,e. missing the view PLUS we would be doing the border crossing in the middle of the night which we were told can be quite unpleasant.

Photos from Mendoza

Winery & Hot Spring in Mendoza

One of the things we really wanted to do in Mendoza was of course the winery tour.

We didn't book anything in advance because everything we saw online was quite expensive.

Once we arrived in Mendoza, we walked around the Plaza Independencia and visited a few travel agencies - to get quotes & compare.

Lots of options!

So here are some tours available (that we were interested in):

Buenos Aires to Mendoza

So after almost 3 weeks in Buenos Aires, we were on the move again.

We took the overnight bus with CATA International - I have to say this was the most comfortable bus ride ever! We bought tickets for their 'Royal Suite' - because it sounded cool ....and it really was!!!!

More photos from Buenos Aires...

More photos from Buenos Aires, Argentina...

Peeved in Caminito - La Boca, the street full of happy colourful buildings

We walked all the way from Plaza de Mayo to Caminito, actually we got a little lost and walked past it. We were on the wrong street, it didn't look very safe walking but nothing happened.. I was probably just paranoid but I did step on a dogpoo so maybe it was bad.

The most beautiful bookshop

Another really cool place we visited this week in Buenos Aires was El Ateneo, also known as the world's most beautiful book store (actually according to Wikipedia it's the second most beautiful book store but whatever)

Checking out the Chinatown in Buenos Aires

See? our cool neighbourhood with cool graffiti 

We are staying in a cool and supposedly hip little area called Palermo (with lots of cool cafes & shops) and about 3~4km away is a suburb called Belgrano C also known for its Chinatown.

Since I am kind of into cooking at the moment - we bicycled there to check out some Asian groceries.

I had more fun checking out this place than the Casa Japonesa (which is on Venezuela 2130, Buenos Aires, Capital Federal).

There are lots of shops with Asian groceries including Japanese stuff. Casa Japonesa is just one shop on Venezuela street and not that many selections - I was quite disappointed when I went there (maybe I had high expectations after going to Liberdade in Brazil).

Argentinian Wines

I love wines - Did you know? :-)

Bombinhas to Montevideo to Buenos Aires

After a very relaxing week in Bombinhas, we were on the move again....
(we are getting a little sick of moving, can you tell?)

Waiting for our taxi before 6am

This is the route we took: