The Overnight Bingo Bus to Mendoza

Coach travel in Argentina is simply genius.

After a few days at work after the Uruguay trip, B and I head off on another long weekend bank-holiday trip to wine heaven, aka Mendoza. Instead of getting the plane, we get a coach with Andesmar for about half the price. We opt for the most expensive first class tickets at about £75 return, still much cheaper than flying and well worth it for the dinner, wine (!), breakfast and entertainment.

I've been on overnight buses in Brazil before, but the Argie experience is second to none. You get a fully reclining, huge comfy seat with a curtain for privacy from your neighbours, a full, hot dinner (ours is roast chicken) with a glass of wine and/or champagne, and a very simple breakfast (of mostly biscuits and coffee with disgusting powdered milk). But the best bit is that each coach trip launches off with a game of bingo in which the entire coach participates - simply genius! Our wannabe compere-come-comedian bus entertainer/waiter etc reads out little jokes with every number as B and I try to recognise and scratch off all the numbers on our little card. We don't win, but we do have a hilarious old time in the process and it certainly makes the first half hour of the 13-hour trip go faster!

We just about manage to get a good night's sleep in our comfy coach seats and arrive in Mendoza bus station at 08:45 on the dot - Andesmar coaches are certainly more punctual than BQB Lineas Aereas.

We stay at Hostel Lao, a lovely, friendly little hostel with a fantastic outdoor pool area.

The pool at Hostel Lao

Our double room has a big bathroom and plenty of space and the hostel feels very safe and secure. The owners Mike and Celeste and the rest of the staff are super-helpful with their tourist recommendations, even drawing some directions onto a map for us to follow. 

For our first day, we take a bicycle wine tour around some of the main wineries, including the small and friendly Pulmary and the much larger Alta Vista. Lunch is a huge plate of antipasti with wine tasting at Pulmary as we slowly work ourselves into a lunchtime drunken stupor.

Antipasti at Pulmary

We just about manage to ride our bikes after lunch to get ourselves to Chocolateria A La Antigua, where the hostess is hell-bent on making us try every chutney in the shop. The place makes homemade chocolate liqueurs of every single variety, and jars of dulce de leche with whisky and hazelnut. Ordinarily I would jump at the chance to try everything in sight, but we're still so full from lunch that we can only manage a few mouthfuls of dulce de leche, a chocolate-cherry liqueur each and some flavoured artisan dark chocolate. (So, actually, quite a lot, then...) 

Dulce de leche at Chocolateria A La Antigua

The hostess is so friendly and insists on us leaving without even paying the full amount for the tasting, despite our total willingness to pay in full. 

Finally we go to Alta Vista, the biggest of the wineries, and take a tour of the huge vats of wine and the cellars stocked with hundreds of bottles of Mendozan red. 

Grapes at Alta Vista

Our first night in Mendoza, we discover there's a wine festival in the centre, so we spend the evening trying out a few different types. I'm a little surprised to find there are some interesting bright pink bottles with phallic designs made specially for women at the festival - I can't imagine these selling all that well, although you never know, right?

Strange Mendoza women's wine

The pink wine bottles aren't the only strange thing about Mendoza. Dotted around the city, there are also fountains with deep red/pink water. I can only assume it's supposed to look like wine, but it ends up looking a lot more like blood and is a little freaky and tacky! 

A Mendoza wine fountain by night

We also try out Malbec and vanilla-flavoured ice cream, which is surprisingly good - creamy and rich like vanilla but with a bitter, alcoholic after-taste. Perfect for enjoying in the shade of the extremely hot sunshine with a mid-afternoon coffee!

Malbec and vanilla ice cream

We spend Friday and Saturday night at the lovely Hostel Lao and by Sunday evening we're back on the overnight bus, departing Mendoza station at 20:15 on the dot, just like clockwork. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with Andesmar and I will be travelling with them again very soon indeed!