Refugio Militar General San Martín

We were tired but needed to get up for breakfast and to check out. When checking out we needed to pay the second night and had issues with the card. Already last night I couldn't pay for the bus ticket. We had enough cash to pay but when I checked the balance I noticed that it was close to the credit card limit 🙄 So first we went to a bank and withdraw some Chilean Pesos with the other card and then went to a nearby bus station to meet up with the Belgian guys we had met on the trip to Salar de Uyuni. They had invited us the last two days but it didn't work out so we were glad to see them again even though it was just a quick stop.

Because our next stop was a little bit South out of town, the winery Concha y Toro. It's mostly known for the popular Casillero del Diablo. We had a tour through the gardens and a (way too) short stop in a small area with 24 different grape varieties where we could try all of them. That was a super cool concept but we barely managed to try around 15 in the 5 minutes. It was interesting to experience the differences in terms of taste and also texture 🍇 These differences are not really representative though because the terroir and climate is not ideal for all of them. This means that for example the Cabernet Sauvignon here has a thinner skin and therefore less tannins than it's supposed to have. Then we tasted 3 wines, of which one was pretty good and finally went to explore the wine cellar. It looks like a dungeon and the legend says that the devil himself lives there. Afterwards the main part of the tour was over and we were guided to a separate part where a sommelier level 2 (?!) named Tony was waiting for us. Besides the wines there was also a cheese platter prepared 🤩 The tasting was absolutely amazing, he took a lot of time explaining all the wines, origins and combinations. You could really see that he is passionate about his job and we enjoyed it very much. By the end of it we were happy and a little drunk 🍷😅 Our initial plan to walk back was discarded and we took a taxi until the metro station 😁

We stopped at the hotel for our luggage and then went to the main bus terminal after a quick stop at a fancy french fries 🍟 place. We got some (non-alcoholic) drinks and then waited for the bus that departed on time in direction of the Argentinian border. There we arrived shortly before midnight to process our data on exit and immigration. The countries had merged this so you only needed to go to one agent to do this. And after 1.5 hours out bus was done and on its way to Mendoza.Read more