May
2009
Mendoza, home of Argentine wine and crooked cops
This past weekend Ashley and I drove to Mendoza to take in the Argentinean beef and wine and renew her tourist visa. The drive is scenic, and involves heading right up and over the Andes on the Paso de los Liberadores, a nasty switchbacked mountain road full of fruit and lumber trucks heading into Argentina and beef trucks heading back into Chile. The border crossing is predictably lax on the Argentine side, where the most important issue is whether one has swine flu–nevermind what else we might be carrying or doing. On the Chilean side it’s all business, with 5 different checkpoints, sniffer dogs, detailed questionnaires and the usual gruffness one finds entering the US. This is definitely an indicator of how much the two countries, though neighbours, differ culturally.
We spent 3 fun days in Mendoza, eating great food and visiting the plazas and parks in this mid-size city. On the way home we got pulled over by the Argentine police on a bogus charge of passing on the right. Hard to do when I was merging on to the highway after having filled up on gas. Thankfully I’d just emptied the majority of my cash at the station, so had only $25 to cover the expected $200 bribe. Ashley cried to make the cop feel uncomfortable and we were off!
Needless to say we were happy to be home. Here are some photos from the area just before the pass on the Argentine side.
