Eating and drinking in South America

Mendoza is a lovely vibrant town surrounded by mountains and is Argentina´s wine capital. It has perfect wine growing conditions apart from the hail storms. Every afternoon, when we were there, dark clouds would form and a plane would fly into them and cause loud explosionz. A good hail storm destroys a whole seasons crop so the planes seed the clouds with ice rockets to ensure only small harmelss hail falls

We are suffering a bit in a country that makes some of the worlds best wines and 4 pounds gives you the pick of the wine list. It is almost impossible to buy wine by the glass so you are forced to drink it by the bottle.

We have spent the equivalent of 24 days on buses. The worst was the local Peruvian bus that didnt stop for 6 hours and the floor was swimming in pee. The best was the Suite bus we have just taken from Mendoza to Buenes Aires. Our seats folded down into proper beds with blankets and pillows. Half an hour into the journey we where served a hot snacks and a glass of sherry. This was followed by a 3 course hot meal, unlimited wine, then coffee with a choice of liquers










Throughout the trip we have had two bad meals and they really stand out as being super digusting. One meal was in a fast food joint situated between the bus and train stations in Santiago, the other was called Rock Chicken. So we got what we deserved. All the rest have varied from good to fantastic.

In the poorer countries the meals are simple but made from delicious ingrediants. Did you know there are over 4000 varieties of potatoe in SA - they can be the most tasty part of a meal.

Chile and Peru have some superb sea food. In Argentina the biggest problem is eating too much meat. Whether from cow, sheep or goat it is superb. Apparently when the Spaniards came their cows escaped and thrived on the Pampas. They are still left to run wild so we are getting wild organic steaks.

Best food and drink

• Cerveche - Raw fish and shell fish marinated in line juice in Peru


• Sea food empanadas (like cornish pasties),


• Sea food soup and conger eal in Con Con Chile
• All you can eat Parrillas in Ushuaia Argentina

• Pisco Sour in Pisco Elqui where they grow the Pisco grapes



• Micro breweries especially the one in Baraloche that had 8 different types of english beers



• Meat empenadas and fresh orange juice from the street sellers in La Paz Bolivia



• Any wine in Mendoza



• Any of the meals on the Antarctic trip