Mendoza - Argentina

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Sunshine, good food, good wine...without a doubt I can easily say Mendoza has been my fav place so far (we still have Buenos Aires, Patagonia & Rio to go so it could easily change!). We have had just under a week here and i could easily stay longer.

Again we haven´t been up to too much as Matt was quite ill when we first got here so I forced him to do nothing to get better (otherwise it spoils my fun!) so we took it easy.

Mendoza was detroyed in the late 1800´s by earthquake and fire so as far as the buildings are concerned it is modern, low and on wide streets that are tree-lined. There is obviously a bit of money in the town so it is really pretty. It is also full of cafes with outdoor seating (yep really hate it here). It reminds us alot of Adelaide, especially as the town centre has 5 squares (plazas), one big one in the centre with 4 smaller ones on the outer corners of the centre. Mind they do them alot better, they are prettier with fountains, seating, flower beds, mosaics, well lit at night and well used by the local at all times (and no not in the same way as Vic Sq!)

Then there is the food, in particular the steaks, but also the chicken, the schnitzels, the sandwiches, the platters - all good. Oh then of course the wine....as Mendoza is the home of wine here in Sth America, it was all good!

Anway so what did we get up to here?? Well you can do alot, you can trek, climb, white-water raft and ski in winter. we did plan to go white water rafting, but with Matt ill we decided against this.So our day consisted of the following:
- wake up
- breakfast
- go for a swim (hostel had a pool)
- sunbake
- go for a walk/explore the town
- sit in a cafe and have a drink
- have lunch
- explore (read: walk off lunch)
- seista/ swim / internet
- go for dinner & drinks
- sleep

As we said Mendoza is really pretty so it is perfect to wander around and explore. They also have a MASSIVE park (one of the best in Argentina) with everything in it, lake, clubhouse, stadium, camping ground, theatre, zoo, tennis courts & other sports fields & of course gardens and ´park´areas.

But back to the wines, of course we had to do a tour of the bodegas. the wine area itself is a few km´s out of Mendoza, so we figured we had to do a tour to see them. In our hostel there was a flyer for this company bikesandwines. So we did that.
This local guy (Gason), who is probably around our age or slightly younger, started the business only 3 months ago (he´d noticed people either walked or rode from Mendoza). He is based in the area and hires the bikes for half/full day and you just hire them and go where you want. He does offer a guided tour with lunch if you want too. We just wanted to do our own thing so he recommended a few places (it was great as you can hear and see the genuine enthusiasm Gason has for the area). He doesn´t just suggest wineries but other places such as an olive place and a liquour & chocolate place which we would not have gone too normally but was amazing - they have the best chocolate liquor ever! it was like drinking real melted chocolate...mmmmm. Anyway we did a tour around one of the large wineries plus a smaller botique winery, both of which were excellent (they actually show you around the winery, telling you how they work, their history etc and then do a tasting) and well as seeing a few other spots. Once we dropped the bikes back we had a delicious platter of local delicacies with a bottle of local rose.

Anyway it is now another overnight us to Buenos Aires, which we can´t wait to see! It is only for a few days before we fly down to Patagonia for a week then go back to BA for a week, which then hopefully we will see a football match, some tango and a Pearl Jam concert!

Speaking of football, we had looked at going to Uruguay for the World Cup Qualifier, but decided against it, we did watch the match here and hey at least it wasn´t a bollocking like last time.

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