During our not-always-enjoyable month in Buenos Aires, I turned to Juan in Costanera Sur and asked him: Do you think Buenos Aires is a beautiful city?
We discussed. The answer, we agreed, was ‘no.’ Buenos Aires may have beautiful parts, but on a whole, it is not a beautiful city. It is crowded and dirty and most parts of it are not properly maintained.
Mendoza is a beautiful city. It is full of trees. They have more parks–nice parks–than any city I’ve ever visited. It’s clean. And on clearer days, you see the Andes to the west. For me, parks are what makes a city beautiful.
I spent most of the week with Milo in downtown Mendoza while Juan was in Los Angeles. We were just off the central Plaza Independencia, with its gigantic fountain. This square is flanked two blocks away from its four corners by smaller but also beautiful plazas. Then, about six blocks out from the northern and southern axis are two large parks: Parque Central and Parque Civico. And to top it all off, the western edge of the city contains a gigantic park, San Martín, where Milo and I got lost for a great part of Sunday afternoon. I did not do anything while Juan was gone except go to parks. It was one of Milo’s favorite cities. It is an extremely nice city to walk in, although the lack of congestion leads to faster traffic–beware when crossing the streets!
Mendoza bills itself as an international wine capital. You can find very decent bottles for around three dollars. I visited the mercado central regularly to buy delicious things. It was like being in the Ferry Building in San Francisco, but everything was a quarter of the price. Juan even managed to find me a jar of peanut butter, which I’d been desperately seeking for the past few weeks.
Our car permit is expiring just before Vendimia, the wine festival, but I think we’ve managed to indulge quite a bit. We took care of some car things and dog things, and today we’ll be crossing the border into Chile! Amazing how fast three months can pass in Argentina. We haven’t even made it to Patagonia yet.
Incidentally, we splurged on a stay at Xumec, which was just a few blocks off the Plaza Independencia, one block from the central market, had basic kitchenettes (microwave, refrigerator), included parking right across the street, and was dog-friendly. There is also a municipal campground in Parque San Martín (though getting downtown from there is a hike), and two very well-tended campgrounds just beyond the park in the neighborhood of El Challao. We stayed at both Camping Suizo and El Mangrullo. They were both well-appointed spots with pools, internet, dog-friendly, and with fig trees on the properties, but we preferred El Mangrullo because it was less muddy (tons of rain while we were there) and sunnier. (I didn’t think it was possible for a campground to be too shady, but then we went to Suizo…)