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| Sunset over the Andes from our finca in the Valle de Uco |
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen skies like this.
Category: Mendoza
Antares… mmm.
Ah, Antares It’s a brew-pub here in Mendoza, Argentina (one of the only) that has happy hour from 7-9pm. Two-fers on microbrews? Yes, please. My favorites of theirs are Imperial Stout and the current seasonal beer “Wee Heavy“. The Cream Stout is pretty great, too. And they have a barley wine with over 10% alcohol. Not too shabby. Other offerings are Scotch Ale, Kolsch, Honey Beer, and Porter. My first move when I first went was to get the sampler, which features all of the staple beers plus the seasonal selection.
I went to check out an Irish band here last week, that played traditional Irish music. They were actually really good. But I think I may have enjoyed them the most out of the entire room. Although, I’m pretty sure they were a general hit. The place generally has live music going on, but I’m not quite sure of the schedule.
The music is good and there’s a big screen in the back playing either random music videos to accompany the audio, or a big futbol game if there is one that day.
The other perk of this place is that the food is surprisingly good. The Papas Antares (big pile of fries covered in 4-cheese sauce (like an alfredo), pancetta and scallions, i.e. a heart attack) are good, the pizzetas are very decent – get the Especial, and I hear the cazuelas (stews) made with their in-house beers are pretty great. I once ordered the kids meal of chicken nuggets & fries (because I’m 5 years old) and it was perfect.
Service is fast and pretty friendly, and I’ve never had a bad experience here. My only complaint is that I once went with some friends and the place was short on degustación (tasting sampler) glasses, and there was allegedly a waiting list for who could get the next sampler.
You can find Antares on Mendoza’s busy nightlife street, Arístedes, close to Calle Belgrano. Salud!
Kato Cafe, submarinos, shopping and fun
I met up with a friend yesterday at Kato Cafe on Civit and had a lovely afternoon of lounging around on their couches, drinking tea (Patagonia Bee by Inti Zen (Click here for more info)- which is a delicious vanilla, honey, and cacao blend), eating snacks and finishing with my first submarino. A submarino is an Argentine hot chocolate; it’s made with hot milk and a chocolate bar that slowly melts into the milk and makes this not-too-sweet-but-oh-so-delectable hot cocoa that is perfect for the current onset of winter here in Mendoza. With reasonable prices and a great ambience, I think Kato will be a new favorite haunt of mine.
We then embarked on a journey to buy clothes/scarves/boots/coats in the boutiques that line Avenida Arístedes Villanueva (or, simply, Arístedes). Found a great little boutique with a French flair called Cosset, which is attached to another really cute cafe called Clementine. The shopgirl was sweet and attentive, and very helpful. I ended up buying a sweater-dress and my friend bought a few other things. From there, we continued down the street hitting other boutiques along the way. I’ll do a post about this experience in a separate entry, for the sake of brevity here.
After working up a thirst buying things we didn’t need, we ended up at Antares, which I’ll post about in a separate post as well.
Last, but not least, I ended up going to see a friend’s band play at the Liverpool Pub in centro. It was great, but there were some problems with logistics and other things, and I ended up going alone and nobody met up with me there. Woe is me. At least they played some Oasis and U2 covers, and I was pleased.
All in all, a good day.
Taking a taxi in Mendoza
Since I am retarded and afraid of taking the bus here, I either walk, bum rides from friends or take taxis. Here is a brief summary of what I’ve experienced in taking taxis pretty regularly around Mendoza. The good, the bad, and the ugly… on 4 wheels.
Taxis here are cheap. The base fare is about 4 pesos (maybe $4.50) during the day and about 5 and change after midnight. Basically, most of my taxi rides around centro have been $10-15 pesos (or $2.50 to $3.75).
On the whole, most of my taxi-cab experiences have been quite good here. Some of the drivers are pretty young and hip, and try to speak English to me even if I’m speaking to them in Spanish, asking where I’m from, telling me they know someone in Texas, etc. And nearly every single male driver I’ve had that drops me off at my apartment after dark waits for me to get in the door before they drive off. It’s something I’m grateful for, and it’s them going out of their way to make sure this gringa is safe on their watch.
The drivers are sometimes crusty men in their 40s who talk very little, drive a little too fast, and rebuff any attempts at friendly conversation. But they don’t normally overcharge or try to screw me over because I’m a gringa. Me gusta mucho.
The worst experiences I’ve had here are very few and far between. One was last week, when taking a cab back to my apartment, I got in and gave the driver my address. He nodded, and we were off. We got to my neighborhood, and he missed a turn. I was going to say something, when he pulled over a few blocks later next to another cab driver to ask where my address was. He never asked ME where it was, and took me five minutes out of the way. I told him I knew where I lived and could direct him. Then, finally, when we arrived at my apartment, he made me pay the full fare. Dickhead.
Then I had a woman driver last night. Now, I’m a girl. I am a girl who can drive. Usually, I don’t find many women to be good drivers. Sorry, it’s true. This woman was no exception. She was rude, abrupt, and drove erratically. She also didn’t tell me she didn’t know exactly where I lived until we turned down a street near my apartment (that was a wrong turn, since the streets are mostly one-ways and she turned too soon, and would have to loop around to get in front of my apartment) and I made her let me out on the corner. No sooner had I paid her and shut the door did she speed off in search of other customers to be a bitch to. She wasn’t about to wait around to make sure I didn’t get raped or anything walking by the abandoned, dark construction site. Gracias.
There are also taxis you can order, called a remise. They come in handy on Sundays when there are less people around and less taxis available to be hailed on the street.
Taking the bus to Buenos Aires
Well, this post is only a few days late. I am pretty sure this is something a lot of people who don’t live in Argentina don’t know about Argentina – you can take overnight buses that have accommodations extremely similar to a first-class section of an airplane. There are several tour companies that provide this class of service, but I took the AndesMar bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires and it was fantastic.
I booked my ticket earlier last week for leaving on Friday night and returning on Tuesday morning to Mendoza for $780 pesos. That’s roughly US $160, roundtrip. The cheapest airfare I could find was US $360 roundtrip. My friends/coworkers convinced me to go a day earlier and helped me change my ticket. My friend called the bus company and asked if I could change my ticket, and he said yes but was all iffy about it, so we went immediately to the Terminal in Mendoza and went to the ticket office. The first chick we talked to said I had to change it online and couldn’t do it.
But my friend doesn’t take no for an answer, and I’m really glad she doesn’t. We went to another AndesMar office (yes there are several in the station) and she got the manager to change my ticket, no questions asked. I then had about 2 hours to pack for a weekend in BA (it was 430pm) and get back to the bus station with my stuff to leave at 7pm.
The bus ride to BA takes about 12-13 hours. You can choose to do this in a regular seat, or you can pay extra and spring for an Executive Suite. On some buses, the entire bus consists of Executive Suites (first class), and are double-decker buses. This was my bus. They have bathrooms and bars on board, with a bus attendant, televisions, radios, curtains and fully-reclining flat beds with pillows and blankets for your comfort. Sure, it may be way slower than flying, but if you’re not in a rush, why not be comfortable and even save a night or two in a hotel?
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| Comfy flat beds, plush leather and blankets? What’s not to love?! |
You only need to arrive 10-15 mins before departure and give the guy standing next to the bus your bag to store underneath. He gives me a claim ticket and I get on the bus, finding my reserved seat. There’s a bag for your shoes that bungees to your armrest. Then we leave the station.
The bus attendant introduces themselves and we watch a safety video.
Then he hands out motherf*cking BINGO cards and I get to play Bingo! The prize being a bottle of wine.
The first movie starts. It’s in English (subtitled in Spanish) and it’s Grown Ups.
You get your meal served an hour later. But before the meal, you are offered wine and soda. Afterwards, you can have champagne, coffee or tea. Anyone who knows me knows that I went for the wine and champagne. Non-alcoholic drinks are for plebes.
Another movie starts. This time in Spanish. I’ve lost interest, but amused that it features Kirk Cameron as the lead.
Bed goes back flat, curtains drawn. It’s sleeping time, biatches.
Wake up to honking like someone is having a baby and we’re in their way as they’re trying to get to the hospital. Turns out it’s just a traffic jam somewhere on the outskirts of BA. The sun is rising and we’re on a highway, but there are tons of buildings everywhere. This city is enormous.
We pull into Retiro station and park. It was cold and drizzling, but it was still so exciting to be in Buenos Aires that I didn’t care. I got my luggage (and the man really does check your claim ticket, which is a nice security measure) and wheeled it downstairs to the sign where it said to get a taxi. No line for a taxi. Yay!
Got in the cab, gave the driver the address and I was on my way to the apartment in Palermo. Cab driver was talking about Chuck Norris and the TV show Dallas, and I was just happy he understood my Spanish.
And so the Buenos Aires adventure began…
Mendoza Bus Tour
My friends and I took a bus tour last Saturday from in front of the Park Hyatt hotel that, unfortunately, only went through the park (Parque San Martin) up to the top of this overlook where the Gloria statue is and came back down to the city.
It was a really good tour, however. My only complaint is that it was all in Spanish with no English option. I’m kinda glad I waited to go on it until after I’ve been here a while so that I actually understood what they were saying.
We spiced things up by bringing Fernet & Coke, champagne and beer on board with us in thermoses and our bags. While this was very enjoyable to us, we definitely got some dirty looks from this chick sitting across from me whose daughter insisted on standing up in EVERY PICTURE I TRIED TO TAKE FROM HER SIDE OF THE BUS.
I’m not bitter. Just saying.
Some people need to lighten up. We’re all in our 20’s and 30’s and were having a very contained, non-disruptive time. Sorry for partying.