This is my “on the cheap” trip this year. Going for 16 days and airfare, apartments and transfers will be less than $700. Round trip to Buenos Aires, 40,000 miles on AA. You can get 50,000 miles just getting a Citibank AA card. The booking cost just under $100. Airfare between Buenos Aires and Mendoza, $170. One week in a two bedroom in Buenos Aires, my half is $225. One week at a two bedroom in Mendoza, $125. Taxi’s to and from the airports are cheap but I rounded up, so $700 with tips, drinks on the plane, etc.
Buenos Aires
Palermo is the expat neighborhood, great bars and restaurants and walkable to see Tango street competitions. Good cigar bar within walking range. Some decent tourist activities and museums, my first stop is the expat bars to make my itinerary and find someplace safe to exchange money as the black market yields over 50% more than the banks. Great combination of beef and seafood available there, dinner for 2 with decent wines under $50.
Mendoza is great too, this is where I’ll be spending some serious money on some “field trips”, but you don’t have to to have a great time. This is where I drop some dough… https://catenazapata.com/
This isn’t just about the Malbec’s, I’ve been here before and the entire wine experience is really awesome. In fact, I’ll take it all day long over Napa. Having a 5 course wine paired dinner with the snow covered Andes in the background is pretty hard to beat. But again, if you don’t want to spend much you don’t have to as you can buy some really great wines in the grocery stores and have dinner in town for that 40-50 dollar range for two. I never eat breakfast out and half the time they give you so much for dinner you can take it home and have it for lunch. Covid is roaring there right now as they are finally just getting their vaccinations but it should be completely open by November. If not, I’m going anyway and I’ll still have a great time.
Daayuuumm. I’ll see if I can buy something and sell it for more than I paid for it.
More likely - uber it is!
Last I heard, they’re still pretty hardcore about quarantining when you first arrive, so we’ll see how that goes. LOL. I’ll likely be going to the Falcons game this year too, because the Lions don’t play in FL this year.
Trying to get back to spring training and Clearwater at the end of next March. A really good guy, Chazmaster, from the original board lives in that area and we get to Joker and I hit a few other venues. Cancun in February, used AA miles for that trip too. Out west for trout fishing in Colorado and walleye in Wyoming in late May. Looking at Argentina again November 2022, it’s really a cool blend of people. Speak a little Italian, a little Spanish? Good, because they mix them together in Mendoza. I loaned my camper to a buddy who was going to use it for 2 weeks, that was 3 weeks ago. Moving my daughter to Denver in 2 weeks so looks like I’ll be stuck at home until then. Eh, worse places to be. Really been too hot to camp unless you run the a/c, which I hate to do. And the big plus for me has been live music is back on, had a lot of friends who struggled thru and are just getting gig’s again now. Covid was bad enough, but people lost their homes/apartments in the Derecho and it’s been really tough on lot’s of them. Everyone’s appreciating what they had and what they’re getting back.
Nope, it’s about 1,200 miles from Mendoza. I actually will be looking into going to Patagonia for next year to go fishing. It’s a hard call for me because I am by nature a cheap son-of-a-bitch, and that won’t be cheap, but that attitude when it comes to travel has allowed me to travel all over the world. I took a bus ride from Santiago, Chile, over the Andes to Mendoza once and saw the largest mountain in the western hemisphere, Aconcagua. Rented a car in Mendoza and went back for a day trip, I might do that again. I will be trying some wine from Salta while I’m there, and possibly be taking a wine class one evening because you always learn something new.
Los Libertadores, the reason why you take a bus over the Andes…
In America, a great deal from Amtrak right now. $299 for 10 segments in 30 days. I went from Iowa to Denver, you get in really early so that when you leave you go through the Royal Gorge and then the mountains in early day and then cross through western Utah and Nevada during the night. First thing next day you go thru Donner Pass on your way to Emeryville,(they bus you from there to San Fran). From there I went to Portland, then Seattle, then Spokane and ended up in St. Paul. I had done the European trains and wanted to try Amtrak, which was a different experience for sure but the observation car is really great on Amtrak.
More of a wine fan. They have been improving their chard’s and other reds so I’m all in. I rarely drink hi end wine at home, I tend to make do by buying cases when priced right. I have lived on Stag’s Leap Lane and Silver Oak,(streets on a golf course), over the last 20 years, and while I enjoy them both the boutique status of Silver Oak esp has put them out of a range that I would typically buy in. I was one of the first 4 or 500 people to go thru “Opus One” in Napa, love their wine but again out of sight. I call it “Pompous One”. This is my “go-to” Malbec at home. never bought from this site but their review is pretty straight.
There was a draft thread about what you were drinking and I posted this. Pretty good juice to be honest. Not remarkable but solid for sure. I wouldn’t pay full price for it but got a great deal.
As far as bang for your buck Justin’s entry level cab is pretty damn good. Whole sale it’s like $18 or so.
As far Argentina values I think this wine is pretty good for the price. Clos de Los Siete is owned by Michel Roland so it’s a serious wine. Malbec led Bordeaux blend. $15ish wholesale
I do like blends, in fact it’s what I have the most of in my cellar, errr, basement. Some Meritage, Bordeaux’s, Chilean Red table wine, to the point that I barely have much of anything else. The Clos de Los Siete is one I’ve not seen , but their 2017 got a 95 by Suckling so I’ll be checking it out when I get to Mendoza. This year I didn’t drink from Jan. 2nd until sometime in early April except when a friend stopped by in the middle of March with a bottle of 1992 Ferrari-Carano reserve Cabernet. HE has a cellar, and is a former chef and restaurant owner so he cooked dinner too. It’s amazing that Rolland has the time for all the things he has his hands in, someone I never heard of but wiki has plenty on him and wow. Wine, for me, is like art, I like what I like and don’t worry too much about what others have to say. I’ve seen the Mona Lisa a couple of times and you couldn’t pay me to stand in that line again. There’s one in the Prado that I prefer, actually. Thanks for the heads up.
