Mendoza, Argentina

May 10 - 14

Pictures link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lotanc/Mendoza

To reach Mendoza we took a bus from Santiago to Mendoza. The way (takes about 5 hours of driving plus a couple hours for crossing borders) is spectacular since it passes through the Andes mountains..

The first day we arrived, was spent walking around the city, and trying to find out the things to do.
Mendoza, being close to the Andes has some great hiking in the area (close to it is the highest mountain in the wester hemisphere - Aconcagua (just under 7000m) which can be climbed without being an expert climber (takes about 3 weeks including time to adjust to the height), and there are several other shorter treks in the area.

Finding out that we are after the season (season is mostely Jan-Feb) it was a problem going on a hike..

Therefore we skipped that option and the second day went to a wine tour..

Mendoza is famous for its wines.. A main attraction in the place is renting a bike and visiting various wineries Trying out the different wines and getting various tours in the wineries:

After the wine tour, Limor decided to go to Valle de Luna, and I decided to go to Cordoba..

Meeting Tamir (whom we travelled with in Santiago), I decided to stay another day to go paragliding..
Having bad weather the next day ruined our plans, so I went again to do a short wine tour (visiting a couple of wineries that I did not visit the previous day):

After that, from Mendoza, I took a night bus to Cordoba (about 10 hours)..