Patagonian cruise, circum-Andean drive and a Pacific island hop back

[RooFlyer]

To dinner. We chose El Meson ("The inn"), a seafood place well regarded on trip Advisor. I should add that this whole area is a world class fishing location - especially trout




We naturally went (relatively) early - about 8:30pm from memory, but the place filled up during the evening. it was still warm (30-ish), but a spot by the back door was perfect and little dog in attendance, briefly.



The host introduced himself and in spite of limited English, we were made very welcome and comfortable. Started with a Saurus Sav Blanc from Bodega Famila Schroeder at San Patricio del Chañar Valley to the north-east, still in Patagonia. A dinosaur skeleton was discovered during the excavation for the winery, hence the name of this wine line (there are other lines of course). An amuse bouche was presented - savoury trout pieces, I recall.




We had the same entrée, which turned out to be a large serve of anchovy etc on toast. Nice, but too much. My main was a very nice fillet of trout; it was nicer than this pic tries to show.




We had swapped to an albarino from Las Perdices winery, expertly chosen by JohnM. Meaning 'Partridges', its located at Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo; the first Argentine DOC zone at Mendoza. Two Argentine couples at the adjacent table introduced themselves and we had a very pleasant chat - they farm outside Buenos Aires and come to San Martin for 4 or 5 months of the year. Good gig! We were served what we gathered to be the Argentine version on limoncello, I think because our Buenos Aires friends, having Italian heritage, were also drinking it.




A great night, and again, cheap!!

 

[RooFlyer]

Our third day was a long one - San Martin to Chos Malal, well into the more arid zone. We deviated off Routa 40 to stay closer to the mountains for a while and made a side trip to Volcan Lanin.

The map shows us going over the border into Chile, but that is just Google Maps mis behaving - we went as far as the Chilean border station, abt 15km short of the actual border. In the distance, our objective, Volcan Lanin a stratovolcano on the Chile-Argetine border, 3,776m high or 2,624m above surrounding topography. Its a mainly basaltic volcano, last eruption unknoiwn but said to be within the last 10,000 years. 'Stratovolcano' means that the flanks of the cone are made up of many layers, formed over time.





It is apparent that at some stage the volcano has gone "BANG!" and one side has been blown out, sort of like Mt St Helens in more recent times. This usually happens with silica rich lavas - they have a high melting point, so get 'sticky' quickly. If they solidify in the neck of the volcano, and there is still gas an lava pushing up from below, it turns into a pressure-cooker and eventually something gives, somewhere, with spectacular and often devastating results. Volcanos like the Hawaiian ones have less silica, so are more 'runny' and tend to keep flowing out, rather then getting bound up (don't worry, JohnM had to put up with this for over a week )

I thought there were some gasses escaping from one point in the blown-out area, but couldn't be sure and there is nothing on the web that indicates its still lively.



We drove through our first monkey puzzle tree forest, which caused some excitement.



We continued up the road towards the border and again came on a long line of cars, mostly stationery. This was the last week of school holidays, so we guessed that the long lines were because of this. At least we hoped that was the reason - if its normally like this then goodness help travellers here in general. We began thinking ahead to our own crossing, west of Mendoza later on.

 

[RooFlyer]

We continued north, on dirt roads. Our next stop was the little town of Alumine, pleasant enough and like all the towns we came across, tree lined streets and a neat central plaza/park. We stopped at the Deja Vu café for lunch and a hit of Wi-Fi.




Alumine - home of the WHOPPER ham cheese and tomato sandwich (TM). We both ordered a HCT sandwich, and began to wonder why it was taking so long. And then they appeared - this is but one, and neither of us finished more than a third. And then we experienced what became a common phenomenon in western Argentina (we'd seen it before, but dismissed it as a one-off). Queues at petrol stations. All fuel is dispensed by attendants, and sometimes the amount of customers exceeds the ability of attendants to dispense the fuel. But there was another phenomenon. Sometimes we joined a short queue (maybe a few cars) and almost immediately 5 to 10 more cars joined the queue behind us. True observation. Sure enough, in this sleepy little town, we joined the short queue and immediately others joined behind us.




We passed a number of nice rivers with clear, and likely trout filled waters running off the mountains. A bit later, an interesting bluff appeared, with more monkey puzzle trees. Tthe umbrella shape means that the tree is an older one.




On closer examination, I nearly had an accident (and not in a motoring sense). That bluff was the leading edge of a lava flow, which just 'froze' there, probably a few million years ago. Check out the columns, both near vertical and curving to close horizontal. A phenomoinal geological feature.




And of course monkey puzzle trees. The road passed very close to the Chilean border north of Villa Pehuinia (see map above) and a road branched off, to another border crossing into Chile. This time the queue was about a km long and stretched off the dirt side road to the border and onto the main road, which thankfully was now sealed. We began to discuss the strategy for our own boarder crossing later in the week, given we couldn't be too late over the frontier, as JohnM had a plane to catch that evening.

 

[RooFlyer]

Sorry about the geo pics and stuff - I appreciate its not of great interest to most, but professionally its fantastic to me. Only a couple more ...




Lava flows on top of ash beds ...




Approaching Chos Malal we went through a different geological environment ... lots of folds in sediments. Our destination at Chos Malal was the Picun Ruca hotel. I wasn't expecting much for US$50/night and I wasn't disappointed . It would have been a nice hotel in the 1970s, but now its very dated .. but I'm not sure if there was anything much better in this smallish town.




Lonely Planet describes the town as an 'oasis' and this is true - again, streets lines with trees and several tree filled parks. It had been a long hot day so we repaired to a café for a beer ..



We were lucky in that one of the better restaurants in town was very close to the hotel - the Petit restorant. Obviously a family affair and we had a decent dinner with some decent wine.

 

[RooFlyer]

The next day we planned to head west again into the mountains to see some alpine lakes. A long way in, over dirt roads once we got off Routa 40




About half way in ... disaster. I got a flat. The spare was one of those small toy things, but that wasn't our problem. The problem was that we couldn't get the tyre off the hub. No amount of wiggling, banging with rocks and, after people stopped to help, leverage with some tyre levers, would shift the tyre. We were stuffed, in the middle of nowhere.



The offending tyre. Someone stopped and we understood (not much English spoken in these parts, but I had an off-line translation application on my phone) they would alert a 'mechanico' in a small town 15km on. With no apparent result, we flagged down another car and a chap in it thankfully had good English. I rode with him into El Hercu, indeed a village and dare I say dry and dusty. Problem - the 'mechanico' was on call for driving the ambulance. A subbie was sought, but couldn't be done for half an hour or so.




Anyway, eventually we drove out to our car and with a lot of cunning and leverage, the 'mechanico' eventually freed the tyre.



We limped back into Chos Malal, intending to get the tyre mended the next day. It was currently Sunday, and we couldn't find any place open. We again repaired for a beer, and then realised that the next day was a public holiday. Panic!!! Fortunately the young bloke serving us had some English and even more fortunately he had some initiative, and simply led us a block up the road where there was a tyre place open. Saved!!

And again, lucky. This guy was a real pro. No mucking around, showed us the largehole in the tyre and put a big patch on it. Tested etc etc, tyre back on, done. About A$30 from memory.

 

[RooFlyer]

Chos Malal has a few sights .. the government offices, and there is a tower of some note. Rather startled to see this sign, knowing 'via' meant 'way' or 'route' - went inside for some AFF research ... but it was a hardware store.




Happy we again had a functioning vehicle, we repaired to dinner at supposedly the best place in town, Don Carlos. It was a bit of a Fawlty Towers episode - getting a glass for a beer took a looong time; then other confusions and silly service, even with Anglos. There was a wine list, but in the end we had to ask then what wined they DID have, as most were not available.

Ended up with grilled trout with papas fritas, which wasn't bad and good 'ol Fin del Mundo Postales.



Next day we struck onwards to Malargue, moving into Mendoza Province and going through an area with the highest concentration of volcanic vents/cones in the world! I was excited

 

[RB]

Enjoying the read. You are bringing back some education that has sat hidden away/unused for many years!

 

[RooFlyer]

The rest of the day continued in much the same vein. Mostly dirt road, some bitumen, lots of volcanos ...







... but I really wouldn't like to be cycling this corrugated, dusty strip ...




The Rio Grande ... which didn't seem to be, really ...




And finally to Malargue. it was much bigger, and greener than I was expecting. A decent sized airport; Malargue is the service town for some ski fields in the mountains (that we visit tomorrow).

 

[RooFlyer]

I didn't take a picture of our hotel. It was another US$50/night job, so I wasn't very hopeful, but it was fine - basic, pretty quiet, with aircon and reasonably modern. There was a well rated restaurant just down the road and we went early to have a beer and make a reservation. 9:14 we were told. (We actually tried to get into a better place, but it was fully booked).

What ensued was our first real strike-out in the dinner department of the trip. We were seated right by the toilets - when we tried to sit at another, non reserved table we were firmly directed back to 'ours'; service was slow; the bottle of Salentein reserve malbec that JohnM had spotted earlier was at first denied, then OKed when JohnM went and pointed it out!! I tried the house specialty, clay pot cooked goat. It came out overcooked and gristly.



LH pic as it came out, RH pic as I finished it.




Next day dawned very promising - a beautiful day, with very few clouds on the mountains, our destination. We were to make two separate forays into and up the mountains:




We headed north up Routa 40 a bit before turning into the range:

 

[RooFlyer]

Sorry about the return to rocks, but this sght was amazing. In the RH pic, you may be able to see that the blocky texture goes up the side of the mountain a little way. That's a volcanic vent, and its erupted a lava flow sometime back, which has surged down, hit a valley, progressed a bit, then just stopped (RH pic).




We progressed up the bitumen road, and passed Los Molles, an older ski resort, now looking a bit sad, especially in summer. Some other gloriously coloured slopes.




A bit further up we got to Las Lenas, a modern ski resort, with still a bit of non-ski activity in summer. We were getting seriously into the mountains, although we weren't that high.





After about another 30-45 mins of climbing on dirt roads, we reached close to the top of the present range. The road kept going, but no-where really different as far as we could see and we knew we only had a dodgy small spare if we got a flat way out here. I think we were at abt 3,000m here, although it seemed a lot higher.

 

[RooFlyer]

Our final destination ...




And from there, this almost 360 degree panorama. The middle pic is looking into the range, towards Chile and the bottom one looks back the way we came. Absolutely an 'on-top-of-the-word feeling!

 

[love_the_life]

That is a magical view - just gorgeous.

Reminds me, did JohnM survive Geology 101 et al?

 

[JohnM]

That is a magical view - just gorgeous.

Reminds me, did JohnM survive Geology 101 et al?

I did . Now taking in the chaos of India. Shortly on the road Jaipur to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.

 

[love_the_life]

I did . Now taking in the chaos of India. Shortly on the road Jaipur to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.

And now are you an expert on all things geological? (I have to admit that I have forgotten most of what I covered at uni though perhaps I do remember more of the climatology stuff, or perhaps not, come to think of it)

Hope you see tigers. I understand they are very reclusive.

Looking forward to your TR as I have a friend spending a few days in Doha in May and she is interested in things to do. I sent her the link to the Falcon souk.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes, JohnM was extremely patient with all the rock talk.

On our way out we passed the crater on the right. Holy smokes!! Volcanic? Meteor??




Our second trip of the day was a very tall volcano a bit to the north; we returned to the highway and turned in on a dirt road that led us to the destination. The road was rough to OK; we passed some very unlikely vehicles, such as this caravan which was way beyond any sensible distance up this road - it groaed as it scraped over a creek crossing.



We thought this volcano was our destination, but after a number of hours, we finally reached it an realised it was only the prelude to where we wanted to go!! The road didn't climb it, but went around the base; we had only gone about half way, so, not having the time to complete the journey, called it quits. Some tantalising views into the distance.






On the way out, a stop at a nice lake, although the wind was strong and blew these camper's tents down (or stopped them from putting them up). Donatia spp cushion plans provided a nice sitting area.




Oh, the crater? A sink-hole would you believe. Almost perfectly round.

 

[tgh]

Really enjoying this tr and the pics … keep 'em comin'

Just love the big sky topography of South America.

Last year we crossed out of Chile into Bolivia at Ollague on our way to Uyuni , it was wild and super spectacular country.

 

[RooFlyer]

We suffered a bit of a cash crisis the last evening in Malargue. It was a holiday long weekend, and our preferred restaurant was closed. We discovered our hotel, and preferred second restaurant only accepted cash mad: ), and several of the ATMs had run out due to the long weekend. JohnM had a problem with his cash card, so I gingerly took out just enough cash for us to get by, and we'd have to go back to the same restaurant as last night, as they took cards! it was a better meal, but still not recommended.


We set off the next day keen to put Malargue behind us and looking forward to our destination, the wine region of Tupungato, just south of Mendoza. I could smell the malbecs!

The day's course .. we diverted off Routa 40 and took a dog-leg east as the roads appeared to be better. We had a lo-o-o-ong stretch of bitumen before turning back on to dirt. Lucky to come across a couple of rheas, the South American equivalent to the Emu.




It was much like driving in western Queensland ... dead flat and treeless. The difference being you get the occasional volcano out here ... Would have been amazing to have been here when these things just popped out of the flat terrain.




We descended into a lava flow, through it, in fact, and came out on a small water storage dam.






Eventually, the road converged onto the mountains and we re-joined Routa 40 and entered to poplar and willow-dominated Valle de Uco at Tunuyan. Getting close, and next stop a tour and lunch at the O'Fournier winery.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think JohnM (who has been here before) has noted that wineries in the Mendoza area don't operate like they do in Australia. For the most part you can't just pop in for a taste and maybe buy some wine. Most operate only by pre-booked 'tours' which are extensive, and formal. Most of the established wineries have big gates at the front and guards, with little English. You might catch a local guy with a uniform and a clip board (in which case the chances of getting through are lesser), or a more reasonable chap. We fortunately got the latter when we rocked up to O'Fournier Winery, where we hoped for a tasting and lunch. By making obvious gestures with our hands we communicated that we'd like to taste some wines. He radioed through, and waved us on.

We're IN!

I knew I was in for something different ... and how! As JohnM has said before, these places make most Aussie wineries look like some backyard hooch operation.

The winery, as seen on arrival. That's the offices and admin ... the winery itself, architect designed, is almost all underground.



We walked around a bit, unsure where we should front, but instinctively made our way to the restaurant. Those mountains in the background!



We were met at the door by a young lady who introduced herself and said she would be our guide on the tour. OK, so we have a tour, by the sound of it.

Started on the ramp where trucks deliver the grapes for crushing my a mobile crusher. The outlook is nice.




The outlook is still nice. Under the admin glassed in offices are the tops of the vats, into which the juice etc from crushing is poured directly; you can see the tops of the vats in the concrete slab. Everything here is gravity fed; the winery is essentially vertical.




Their lab - how would you like that view, blackcat20 ? And that's the winemaker, in his office. We got a wave.

 

[RooFlyer]

Another view of the tops of the vats. O'Fournier are selling off blocks of the vineyard around the winery. You too can live (or summer house) here! That's Lewis Hamilton's (F1 driver) place under construction.




Then down into the winery. First level down are the vats. Three types - concrete at left (traditionally used in Mendoza), stainless steel at right, in a shape pioneered here, and French/American oak. The winery is heavily into art; a German painter painted these vats - top pair of eyes per normal; middle pair after a 'few' and lower pair, sozzled. You be the judge!




The female pair of the male in the earlier pic ( :shock: ); oak barrels. 15,000 litre French oak tanks





Inside of one of the oak tanks. Then we progress towards the cellar room and these doors 'magically' open before us. Its quite a show! The cellar room is on the next level down; the wine is taken from the vats to the barrel room by gravity (again).




Its no accident the cellar room has the air of a cathedral. the centre part is mostly for show; the barrels are stacked up in the outer parts, out of view. We paused to reflect (and think of the tasting coming next ...)

 

[RooFlyer]

Walking past the barrel cavern, we go via what was described as the 'owners cellar' (pant, pant) to the tasting room. The latter is adorned with commissioned art on the wall and ceramics.




JohnM was in fine form ... and this was today's line-up - underneath the winery emblem, a rhea, which of course we saw early in the morning. A good sign, it turned out. As you can see, no public at this tasting area ... tours only.




First, a 20015 Torrontes from their 'Urban' line (the lowest of their 4 lines), sourced from near Salta, well to the north beyond Mendoza. First time with a torrontes for me ... liked it a lot! A$ 10 bucks, bargain!
Then a 2015 Urban tempranillo, sourced locally. I'm already a fan; A$10 bucks, again a bargain
Next, moving up in their lines, a 2011 B (beta) crux - 40% tempranillo, 40% malbec, 10% merlot and 10% syrah. Grown at 1,100m locally, picked April 2011, fermented 12 days in stainless steel vats, aged 12 month in oak. A$30 and personally I could pass over it;
Last, one of their second top lines 2012 A (alpha) crux , 100% malbec, picked locally at 1,100m fermented 7 days in oak vats, 17 months in oak barrels. A$63 and worth every penny.




Very satisfied, it was then up a short flight of stairs and we were magically arrived at the restaurant, ready for lunch . A 6 course menu, with the only difficulty choosing a main out of the three choices. And the view was still there ...