I met up again with Holger and Anja. They are great folks to ride with and we have become good friends.
We spent the night at a pretty lake.
Then parted ways again as I headed for Mendoza.
Mendoza is another warm, friendly city with great food, great wine and beautiful women walking around everywhere. The wineries (bodegas) were awesome as well.
Tasting room.
This was good stuff.
I did a wine tour with some folks from the hostel. We went to a boutique winery, got the nickle tour, then ate tons of food and sampled the various wines they had.
Sorry I dont have any other pics of Mendoza, but suffice it to say that it’s a fantastic place to visit, and if you like incredible steaks, excellent wine, and beautiful women, you might not ever leave. I barely made it out.
Chile was calling and I had to escape and get back on the road. On the north side of Mendoza there is a fantastic dirt road (RP-13) that takes you halfway to the Chilean border.
It can get a little steep and rocky in places, but through those sections I didn’t stop for pics. Its not technical, but you will find yourself on the pegs and doing a little balance and clutch work through some of the steeper rocky switchbacks.
Although after about 20 miles it turns into a nice smooth road……
……..with some fun little hill climbs……
…..and some magnificent viewpoints.
Nice.
You find yourself wandering through beautiful desert canyons.
And the place start to look like a scene out of the Road Runner.
Cool.
As you near the town of Uspallata, you return to the pavement of Ruta 7, so the total dirt section is only about 60 miles, but its well worth the effort. I understand that this route can be a little crowded on the weekends, but during the week I did not see another vehicle or human on the entire route. Highly recommended.
Once on the pavement, you wind up riding through the Andes and the views are spectacular. The entire ride to the Chilean border was really stunning.
You will see a couple of places on the highway with signs for aduana in Argentina, but dont stop there. Keep going through a big long tunnel, through the Bienvenidos a Chile signs and about 6 km west of the tunnel there is Migracion and Aduana for both Argentina and Chile in the same building. Easy peasy.
This was a fantastic section from Mendoza to Santiago.
Saludos, Vicente