Postcard No.5 - Argentina 🇦🇷

Jan 05, 2026

Hi friends,

I hope you’ve had a lovely festive season!

Stuffing yourself silly and spending time with people you love (even if they grate on you after a while).

How is is that Christmas already feels like months ago?

We’re three weeks into Argentina now and it’s been a whirlwind so I’m glad that we’re settled in one location for the next 2 months.

Postcard No.5

When: December 2025 & January 2026

Where: Uspallata & Mendoza

Weather: Hot! Early 30s and sunny.

It’s a dry heat though which makes it manageable and the mornings and a perfect temperature.

Highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Uspallata - which is a small town about 2.5 hours from Mendoza is where we spent Christmas.

Glamping in The Andes mountains was a really special experience. Especially having come from busy Buenos Aires.
Uspallata is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains, lakes and horses. It was peaceful, spacious and calm.
We went horse riding, hiking and eating our body weight in Argentinian food and local wine.

Mendoza - a small city in west-central Argentina that boarders Chile.

We’re living in Mendoza for 2 months so we’ve just been getting settled.
I’ve joined a nice co-work, been cooking lots from our apartment and exploring the area.
We did a free walking tour which was actually soooo interesting!
Our guide, Marcelo, shared a lot of information around the history of Mendoza and Argentina, to cultural, financial and political insights.
I knew Argentina’s financial situation has been tricky for decades but I didn’t realise how wild the inflation has been. Sometimes up to 400% in a year, and YOY it’s consistently high.
At one point in the 90s, unemployment was over 30%.
One thing I have noticed is how incredibly generous the people are towards those in need. They are always giving money to the homeless.
Many of the original buildings here are single story because of earthquakes.
The city is littered with trees, none of which are native to Argentina. Because it gets so hot here they planted them to create lots of shaded areas.
Mendoza barely gets any rain, their water mostly comes from snow-capped mountains. And in some towns outside the city, during summer, they have no water. Which is crazy.

Of course lots of cute cafes, restaurants and very good food.
I sampled Mate, a traditional Argentinian tea. It was gross, like an extra strong green tea. It’s drunk from these special cups with a metal straw, but traditionally from an empty pumpkin!
We did nothing for NYE.