MmmMendoza

A bit like Mecca for us... we had drunk so much wine from Mendoza back home, we decided to visit the source. It's a surprisingly green city, considering it's in the middle of a desert and for some reason, all the bars have sofas on the street. 

But what am doing drinking beer?  I cover my face in shame and quickly organise a trip to a winery. Bodega Sottano offered a picnic with their tour - we liked eating Japanese-style off a gingham tablecloth on a packing crate...

Excellent rose and I learned a lot about how wine is made which I immediately forgot after we drank the bottle of rose. (Sorry no accent but you know I mean pink wine not a flower.)

 And now here's a picture of Switzerland:

Actually, the Lake Geneva lookalike is a manmade lake in Mendoza's vast Parque San Martin.  We got lost trying to hike to the lookout point Cerro de Gloria and eventually had to flag a cab in the middle of the park.

But the view from the top was wonderful, it left me speechless (for once, said Pete).

Crossing the Andes

The bus ride from Mendoza to Santiago goes right through the Andes so cue lots of spectacular mountain shots. When the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road half hour into the trip, I thought he was stopping so we could take pictures.  Turns out the bus had broken down and we sat there for an hour, waiting for a 'replacement bus service'. Had London Underground been giving them lessons on how to run a transport system? 

Anyway, we got going eventually and I took far too many pictures of mountains, the only good shot being this one of the highest peak in the Americas, Aconcagua, which apparently people climb when they're not wearing hairshirts.

And I saw a flying saucer.

We finally arrived in Santiago, and took a cab which got extremely lost and at one point, took us down a one-way street the wrong way. Our lovely, if difficult to find, guesthouse was in the posh neighbourhood of Providencia - it is one of the hotels I was reviewing for i-escape, you can read my review here.

Our hosts had a bottle of Chilean Carmenere waiting in our room – our days of Argentinian Malbec were over. Oh well, pass the corkscrew.

Smog and Sours in Santiago

Santiago is smaller and smoggier than BA - but you can always see the mountain backdrop through the haze. Basta mountains! I said, so we stayed on ground level, doing the sightseeing thing and stopping every so often (well, quite often) for a Pisco Sour. Here's a quick art lesson we learned while walking the streets of Santiago:

Ancient Statue

Modern Statue

Living Statue

Actually the old guy is in the really cool Pre-Colombino Museo and apparently he's wearing his enemy's flayed skin. Wonder if it's waterproof...

There are some fantastic views of Santiago with the Andes as backdrop - here is one on Cerro Santa Lucia that Pete is completely ignoring as he is looking for something much more important:  the next lunch spot.

Here's what he should have been admiring:



Then it was time to switch hotels again - our next i-escape stay in Santiago was at the funky, friendly Meridiano Petit Sur, you can read my review here.

The High Life

The most spectacular mirador (lookout) in Santiago is from the summit of Cerro San Cristobal - we zipped up in the funicular and then walked up stone stairs, guided by the Virgin's Immaculate Reception.









Frankly, I felt Mary should be using sunscreen....

Eventually we ceased the secular wisecracks and just drank in the view.

But our high didn't stop when we got to the bottom.  At the foot of the mountain stands Santiago's super-chic boutique hotel, The Aubrey, where we were booked for an i-escape review stay in the very swish Art Deco Suite - we wasted no time cracking the wine and pretending we stayed in this kind of luxury all the time.

We call this our 70s album cover shot.                 Duke brought out the uke...

He hasn't exhausted the possibilities of this instrument.

Don't worry, none of these pics appear in my proper review of The Aubrey for i-escape.