Mendoza to Buenos Aires

The route from Mendoza to Buenos Aires took us to Rio Cuarto, Córdoba, Rosario and ended in Buenos Aires.

The roads were very good with motorways all the way. Those motorways were not always well maintained but they were fast enough to be able to do a lot of kilometers each day without too many hours spent.

The scenery on the first part, Mendoza to Rio Cuarto, was farmland with quite a few trees and some variation in the landscape. In one part we even had some snow on the road, which came as a surprise as it was summer after all. From Rio Cuarto to to Buenos Aires we saw huge fields with corn, wheat, sunflowers and other crops, stretching as far as we could see in all directions. We saw cattle in very small paddocks, and other herds that were in large, green fields. The topography was monotonous, but if a farmer can't make money there, they won't be able to be successful anywhere.

We had a couple of not-so-nice experiences too, with a hotel owner who insisted we should pay cash (there is a law in Argentina that tourists who pay with a foreign debit or credit card don't pay the hotel taxes), and we realised that this was one of those who don't run a serious business. We moved on, and the hotel we found was one of the best we have stayed in. The other incident was a police check, one of those where they were waiting to be paid after claiming, with no evidence, that we had been speeding. After some time, they sighed and let us go when we seemingly weren't getting their message. This time we didn't pay.

Córdoba and Rosario were both interesting cities to visit. In Córdoba the hotel was about 8 km from the city center, and they had no cooperation with any taxi or other transport so we took the car to go ourselves one afternoon. The reason for not working with taxis was that they are all ripping people off, and in particular tourists. The city itself was quite well looked after, with maintained buildings and a nice, modern shopping mall. Rosario was not the same. Here we walked around and it was sad to see that the buildings and the streets need a lot of maintenance. The city must have been very pretty at some point, but now it was rather run-down.

Buenos Aires is a huge, sprawling city, and we have been there once before 25 years ago. That visit was in winter, so coming back in summer was a new experience. We stayed in Centro, which is an easy place to be to walk around and enjoy the city.

Rio Cuarto

Córdoba

Rosario

From the road