Chilling in Mendoza

The lonely road that was Ruta 40 in San Juan province rapidly became a major thoroughfare of commerce as we entered the Provincial capital city of San Juan and followed it to Mendoza. Imagine a four-lane interstate in the United States packed with huge trucks except it’s two lanes, narrow, and either in poor condition or under construction for 100 miles. We really didn’t see anything of interest to stop us so we pushed-on into the city of Mendoza. 

We were too busy paying attention to driving to get photos.

Arriving to Mendoza at peak traffic time, we navigated an intense structure of old roads, detours, and thick, unyielding traffic.

We were too busy paying attention to driving to get photos.

We actually are finding the seemingly chaotic, fluid way that Argentines drive to be quite efficient. Most intersections are uncontrolled and as you approach them one can instinctively sense who has the right of way. The fact that we are learning to drive faster and we are in a large, conspicuous rig may have something to do with others yielding to us. Lanes of traffic widen, narrow, open and close without warning and while the driving style is between assertive to aggressive, no one takes it personal. If we were to take these driving habits back with us to the United States, we would encounter outright road-rage or worse, otherwise passive people using their vehicles as passive-aggressive weapons to block and cut-off.   

While doing a research on the habits, recommendations and general reading of the adventures of others doing Overland trips, all of them recommended getting away from the truck every few days and getting a hotel room or resort to just relax.  We did just that. 

After getting a short list of boutique hotels recommended from a friend we dialed the GPS to one in the oldest part of Mendoza Wine country.  The first two are booked. The third, Casa La Galeana  was open. Casa La Galeana is an old estate transformed into a hotel.  It’s gardens are beautiful with mature trees and lots of space and quiet.

The perfect place to do some laundry and generally find a couple days of refuge from the road.