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Published: August 4th 2008
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The Tour de Mendoza
All ready for the long cycle to the wineyards. The land of vino and the Andes.
After departing Beunos Aires we set out on our journey to Mendoza in the west of the country. We went with Cama Suite on our overnight bus out of Buenos Aires, this is first class of buses, the seats go back into a 180 degree angle, you get a 3 course dinner with wine included and also a glass of champagne or whiskey after your dinner, if we could travel like this all the time we would!!
Mendoza is renowned for its wines and especially for the malbec grape.
Its possible to hire bikes out for the day where you can cycle around to all the vineyards. There are two different routes to take so it depends on which vineyards you looking for. The route we choose was 12km in length its not too bad but the bikes are not the most comfortable and a tub of sudocream is advisable for when you get back to hostel, lol! Unfortunately, for us it was a little disappointing as there were only three vineyards open,(wrong season) so after all our efforts in getting there the promise of boozie roads home did not happen. The first
vineyard on our route was a museum, this was quite nice, you could look around the inside and get a tour in Spanish and then the best part drink as much wine as you like, for free, woo hoo, but because it was 11am in the morning we thought that may be a glass or so should suffice at this stop (how we regretted that later).
On we went to visit more closed vineyards until we got to one that was opened alas our hopes were risen again, we did the tour again in Spanish and basically got the idea of how wine was made here, we did not sample any vino and made our way to our final stop, this time we were lucky to get a tour in English and for 15 pesos we were able to sample the wine. We ended up buying two bottles there for 30 pesos each and brought them back with us or more like Anthony brought them in his saddle bags, yes he came prepared hahaha-sucker. Thanks Anthony if it were not for you we would have being unable to bring wine back with us, and to show you our gratitute, from
this day forth you will be known as lord Anthony SaddleBags. So we all sat around tasting the wine at the bike rental shop and this is where Sean discovered that Richard and Caroline were the victims of kindness.
That brings us to the "blond Belgian", basically this fraudster faked being robbed of all his possessions and pretended to be Belgian trying to make his way back to the embassy in Buenos Aires. So due to the generosity of Caroline and Richard they gave him the fare, this was fine until Sean read from a local magazine to be aware of the fake "blond Belgian", this guy is a pro and has being at this game for the last year, so be warned.
The next day was Saturday so the thought of doing any activities like horse riding was definitely null, the bikes had ruined us. We ventured around the town and tried to visit all the plazas. Mendoza is a nice town but its not the safest. Sunday was our big night, this is where we were leaving all the guys ahhhhh. Ciara, Anthony and Sean were heading on ahead of us to Salta and Caroline and
Richard were heading down south to Patagonia. So as you can imagine this was a big night out, once again copious amounts of vinto tinto were consumed, lets just say we felt it the next day. Although, this did not stop Kevo and Sean from doing their paragliding, 2500meters above sea level, not bad for boys who had being on the lash the night before, isnĀ“t that right Sean.
There is also an olive oil factory to visit along with a chocolate factory on the vino route. Unfortunately we did not visit the oil factory but we manage to do some sampling of chocolate liqueurs, yummmm!
Although there is a chocolate factory that Ciara and Claire did visit in the town. You are able to get a free tour of the factory and watch the chocolate being made and get to sample it also, its quite cool to see and takes about 5/10 mins to compete.
On our second last day in Mendoza, we decided to do a trek in one of the peaks in the Andes. This trek was 3500 meters above sea level and it was well worth it. There is snow and in parts ice
on the mountain but you make your way up their at your own speed. We had a guide so he lead the way and we followed. The views of the Andes are so amazing that if we were ever back in Mendoza we would do this trek again but maybe on a different peak.
There is lots of activities to do in Mendoza so if you are not a wine expert you will definitely not be bored with all the outdoor activities to enjoy. The Hostel Largos was also a excellent place to stay, the staff are great and so helpful, definitely recommend it as a place to stay in Mendoza.
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