Not Drinking Wine in Argentina's Wine Country

After 2 intense weeks in Buenos Aires, hanging out with old friends and drinking until 4 in the morning, we were ready to explore the tamer side of Argentina. Hopefully we'll be able to come back soon and visit Cesar and Magda, since they don't have much chance of coming to New York with the US's strict visa requirements. According to friends of friends who visited Miami years ago (OK, this might not be totally accurate...), to get a tourist visa they would have to provide a wedding invitation (or some other justification for visiting), show that they own property in Argentina (which would make them likely to go back home and not overstay), and have thousands of US dollars in their bank accounts... very steep requirements for the average Argentine. And this, of course, doesn't include the roughly US$700 airfare, which is equivalent to several month's pay. When we do come back to Buenos Aires, we've been asked to bring Nintendo Wii's (which are under US$250 at home but are selling for US$700 on Calle Florida!), laptops and other electronics that are cheaper in the US. We may have to tape several iPods to our bodies like drug mules just to get through customs! (Haha, just kidding... US Customs, please do not create a file on us for future reference!).

Mendoza

We decided not to head south, since Patagonia would be freezing this time of year and our warmest clothes were lightweight hoodies we bought in Buenos Aires (called 'kanguritas' -- like the animal). Mendoza is known for its vineyards and sounded like a good place to relax (and detox, if that isn't too contradictory). Our timing was pretty bad, since we arrived via overnight bus the day before 'Dia del trabajador´(labor day), a federal holiday that sees almost all business and many restaurants close down. The street activity dropped to zero and we realized we couldn't go to wine country, since only one bodega was reportedly open. That left us with an entire day to kill in a city where every store and internet shop was closed. Yikes! We ended up taking a bus to an enormous mall, which was also closed, but contained an open cineplex. We saw Wolverine and ate a huge tub of popcorn and stale M&Ms for lunch... and we were seriously hoping the restaurants would reopen the next day! While waiting an hour at the highway access road for a bus back, we noticed a clump of fur by the bus stop and went in for a closer look. It was a decomposed dog, with nothing but bones and fur remaining! It seems like local sanitation doesn't remove road kill from the grounds of luxury shopping malls.

The food in Mendoza was good, inexpensive and easy to find. The main pedestrian street is lined with cafes offering promotinal menus for AR$19.90-- usually including a main course, drink (sometimes wine or beer) and a dessert (usually flan or packaged ice cream). There are also at least a dozen vegetarian restaurants, none of which was ever open during normal business hours... they were tempting us at every turn with photos of tofu locked behind iron window grates.

We found a great hotel after checking out several in the center. Hotel Alexander (located at Patricias Mendocinas 1602, www.hotelalexandermza.com.ar) is run by an Argentine couple who lived in Australia for years and speak English (the wife speaks perfect English and the husband is harder to understand). For AR$130 a night, our room came with AC and cable TV, and all of the furnishings looked brand new. There was only one other couple staying in the hotel; despite being a much nicer hotel than its neighbors, and charging the same price or a little less, it seems they haven't gotten the word out yet.

We had heard that the Mendoza bus system used cards instead of cash, which seemed like a logical idea consideing the nationwide coin shortage. We bought a card (a AR$3 start up cost) and loaded it with enough cash for a few fares. The system is actually not as easy as it seems, since some kiosks require you pay with exact change for the fare you are loading onto the card (since they have no coins... meaning you still need to have coins available or you will end up with money left on the card). Plus, on Dia del trabajador we couldn't even find an open kiosko that had the ability to add money to a bus card. The receptionist at our hotel said he would buy our card back from us before we left, so we could recoup the AR$3, but then he wasn't the one at the desk when we checked out. It may make sense to pay with exact change on the bus if you are visiting Mendoza for a short time, instead of buying the card. (We found out the hard way that the bus machines don't give you change if you insert large coins).

Wine tasting

The next day, Saturday, we took a local bus to Maipu, home to Mendoza's vineyards. We rented two bikes (AR$25 each per half day) and set out for the lush green vineyards and wine tasting in romantic chateaus. Then we realized that Maipu is a semi-industrial city, and we would be biking along a concrete highway with no shoulder and frequent passing trucks. Plus, dozens of other, equally clueless backpackers were clogging the streets on their own bikes trying to figure out where to go. It was not quite what we had expected. We couldn't find 'La Rural', the first bodega marked on the map, so we kept cycling down the deserted street thinking we had not reached it yet, until a grissly local man on a bike warned us to turn back because there was nothing on the road except 'ladrones'(robbers). He said he had just warned another group of tourists who were also lost. Maybe Mendoza could consider putting large signs on the road which announce these major tourist attractions and include distances? Just a humble suggestion...

We discovered that the bodegas were miles apart when we headed for our second destination. This path brought us through a concrete jungle of closed empanada shops and vacant lots. At this point, we were tired and hungry (since no restaurants en route were open) and decided to do a tasting at the next bodega-- just one-- so we could say we accomplished something. The bodega's tour consisted of a 3 minute talk describing the wines it was selling, and then we found out the tasting cost AR$15 per person for 2 sips of wine (and it was mandatory that each person pay for a full tasting, with no sharing allowed). Since I only drink white wine, and only 1 Chardonnay was on offer, this was an even worse deal, so we skipped it and decided to head back. We did not actually drink any wine in wine country! But we did get a glass of white wine with dinner that night, so it wasn't all a loss.

A suggestion for the wine lovers out there...

Later in our trip we went to Cafayete, another wine town in the North West, and had an amazing experience. If you can only make it to one of these wine destinations, definitely chose Cafayete! It was a small, pleasant town with centrally located bodegas within walking distance of the town square. The tourist office was very helpful and provided maps, hours of operation and prices of the bodegas. Plus, many bodegas offer real tours of the grounds (at no cost), and tastings are free or low-cost (many refundable with purchase of wine). Cafayete manages to be less touristy, but more tourist friendly than Mendoza... definitely check it out!

Escape from Mendoza

Our next stop was Tucuman, a large city and the gateway to the northwest. We ended up renting a car for a week and exploring the countryside (including the other wine town, Cafayete). It was an awesome trip and one of the highlights of South America so far. More to come...

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Part of trip: Round-the-world Trip

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