We are finally going to the epicenter of wine in Mendoza. We had a morning flight for the one and a half hour trip. You can see the snow-capped Andes as we fly south.
Once we checked in, we had the afternoon to ourselves. Our hotel was perfectly located, so it was easy to walk around. The room was quite compact. We wonder where people put their luggage to unpack because with our two carryon bags and two personal items, we were very cramped. We found this situation at most of the hotels.
Jim was here about 14 years ago and it seemed like a one-horse town then. Not now! It is charming, bustling, filled with parks and plazas. Walking around was a pleasure.
There is a long pedestrian street (Calle Sarmiento) where you can shop, eat, and definitely people-watch. We needed some Argentine pesos, so we meandered a block or two away and were approached by someone who said “cambio.” That means, do you want to exchange dollars for pesos? Normally, one would be a skeptic to do this on the street but this is the way of life for visitors. However, you have to know beforehand that they really want new $100 US bills to exchange. We were able to get them at our bank in Ajijic, since we were made aware by many before we left.
You follow a strange man and go into an inside mall selling and buying gold to an office that handles the transaction. The Argentinian peso was around $1,000 to $1.00 US. If you aren’t firm, you will get pesos in $100 or $200 denominations, which means that you need a suitcase to carry your cash. We asked, and got, pesos in at least $10,000 notes. You feel like a millionaire for only a minute, as an ice cream cone is almost $5,000 pesos and a meal about $20,000 pesos. Using the ATM doesn’t give you a good exchange (we got between $1,050-1,090 to the dollar). If you use a credit card anywhere, you get hit with a fee of about 20% or more. Cash is your friend.
We decided to have dinner on the pedestrian mall and shared a beef meal, finally. One thing they offered was chorizo, which you would think was a sausage. But no, it is a cut of beef, kind of like a New York strip. We kept that in mind for another meal.
It was a long day, so off to bed… Tomorrow, a city tour and then to the Maipu Valley for our wine tastings!