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July 4th 2008

Published: July 7th 2008

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El Scook Y Natalia

Maipu, Mendoza

Another place we could happily move to

What´s red, sticky, stains most of your clothes and turns a pleasant pootle on a bicycle into a death defying danger sport? Well, wine of course. More specifically I´m referring to Mendozan Malbecs.

We arrived in Mendoza from Bariloche grateful for the vast improvement in climate ("I can feel my fingers! I love you, fingers!"), and ready to take on the best that the region has to offer... Out of a bottle.

Mendoza, while not as pretty as Bariloche, is still quite beautiful. It has large, tree lined streets, and is chockful of lovely plazas and parks. It turns out that this is all conscious earthquake proof design. Luckily nature was in one of it´s forgiving and benign moods on our visits. The sun was out, the sky was blue and cloudless, and neither of us plunged into a gaping ground-based chasm rent in the earth by seismic shifts. The town is also surrounded by lovely snowcapped mountains, which the sun helpfully turns a lovely pink colour on sunset, but is otherwise quite flat. Perfect for a trip round the neighbouring wine growing region of Maipu on bicycles.

Excessive boozing, however, can turn a pleasant bike ride into

Fondue : Smiling...

but our arteries are crying.

a 6 month period in traction with itches that you just can´t scratch. After 5 or 6 vineyard visits, with 3 or 4 glasses of the good stuff in each, this seemed to be where we were heading. As your confidence soars, your motor functions head the other way. Lucky none of our assembled wine tasting crew took a tumble on the way home, which is probably due to the thoughful bike-only cycle lanes that have been installed in these parts.

As a tasting, it´s fair to say we were probably a bit of a disaster (Nat: "mmm, this one tastes like tasty wine!"), but as a day out, t´was a great success. We consumed a lot of wine in the sunshine, and got to know some really nice folks. I´d like to say more about the day, but for some unknown reason something appears to have impeded my short term memory.

But it´s not all been quaffing. We´ve also found our running hoon again (perhaps something to do with spending a week in a chocolate producing village followed by a wine region?!), been for a hike, and I went abseiling - or rappelling as every other blighter

Parque España

Mendoza... Moorish!

in the world calls it. I can, by the way, vouch for the fact that the later stages of a hangover are not such a great time to have your first go at this. Bang. Crash. Owch! Waterfall, meet Scook. It´s true I´m no natural at these danger sports, but I keep chipping away... And they keep chipping away at me - my elbow is still killing! Still I was persuaded to go by some frankly bonkers Dutchmen that we met. One of whom decided to do his hike and abseil in white leather disco loafers and drainpipe jeans.

Bye for now!
Si xx

By the by... if you´re reading this is Mendoza and thinking of moving on, San Juan gets a great write up in the Rough Guide, so we decided to check it out. From our point of view it was somewhat bleak, shut, and altogether lacking in charm. Disappointingly we´d also booked into a "small, personal" hostel that was more prison like than anything else! Small personal hostels may sound great, but then it rather depends on the personalities involved... This one was run by a grumpy lady who took great offence at our lack