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Published: August 22nd 2010
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We got into wine country early with the trio intact. Due to the group only forming recently we were booked into separate hostels for our time in Mendoza. So after hopping off the bus and finding an all illusive tunnel we headed for our separate hostels. Clinton and I's hostel was a quiet charming little place. Quickly dropping our bags down we were informed our room wouldn't be ready for a few hours. So we had a quick seat in the living room and went about doing some emails. It only took a few minutes for us to make our first friend (believe it or not) and met her other friend who's birthday it happened to be. They were going on a half day wine tour for the day. Wanting to quickly hit up some wineries we decided it sounded like a great idea. Not long after that the power decided to go out. So we were left unable to email Simon and had no means to call him. So Clinton and I set about just exploring the town and grabbing some food. Steak sandwhiches again which has become a stupidly cheap lunch option on this trip.
Unable to contact
Huge
Bottles and casks. Simon we were left to go on the wine tour with our new hostel friends. So after all jumping in a minivan we were off to Maipu a wine growing area of Mendoza. The tour would take us to two wineries and a olive oil producer. The first winery was a large scale mass producer of wines mainly for the Argentine market. We were taken around with the rest of the Spanish speaking group. The tour guide devoted about two thirds time to Spanish we got a short translation tacked on to the end. Again I was thinking I should have learnt more Spanish before coming here. After the tour came our first wine tasting. I have discovered that I clearly either have no idea about wine or that wino's are talking absolute bullshit. Either way the wine was ok but not the best we would taste on our time in Mendoza. Oddly I believe tne first wine turned out to be Clinton's favourite but he has stated many times he dislikes the taste of wine. Next stop was the olive oil place. Due to it being out of season the tour was very brief and not all that exciting.
Pretending.
We really do like wine. But we did get to try some with bread and dried fruits. The last winery was a small family run winery. The smaller production meant that they took more care with their product. The wines were very good and I am still at this moment carrying a bottle of their Malbec in my bag. It will have to get drunk sometime soon.
That night due to it being American girl who's name I forget birthday we got together for a big hostel dinner and some drinks. One great thing about cooking for eight people is that it was incredibly cheap for the whole night. We had a lovely communal dinner of steak and veges plus a fair bit of the free wine provided by the hostel. Feeling a little under the weather I headed to bed early but not before singing happy birthday and cake and all the regular birthday proceedings.
The next day Forster awoke with the anticipation of a little school girl before something that would make a little school girl excited. It was the day that Geoff and Ian would arrive. We had spent our time in the Pantanal sharing a bungalow with the boys
Forster
Mmmmmm wine. and it was good to catch up. We had been and still are travelling the same route. They are a couple of days behind us currently but who knows may run into them somewhere along the way. So after a quick catch up with the boys we headed out to meet up with Simon and some other friends we made in Bunoes Aires. The plan for the day was simple rent a bunch of bikes and do some tours of some wineries.
Mother this is the part you should probably start ignoring. It might involve me breaking several laws in Australia and being just a little bit silly. We all met up at the hostel where they were staying. Being the fact there were girls in the party the departure took a little longer than expected. But during the meantime we singed up for a massive bbq and beer session at their hostel for that evening. Finally we got under way and headed for the bus. Oddly this turned out to be a more difficult exercise than expected. The bus only took coins and the fare was about $1.80 pesos. It's almost impossible to get a decent amount of
coins in Argentina. So none of us had the correct change for the journey. Luckily for us there is a simple solution. It involves finding a random mormon from Utah to tap you all on with his card. Ok so not the most likely of solutions. We arrived back out to Maipu and quickly made our way to Mr. Hugo's bike rental. This guy has somewhat of a reputation for people travelling to Mendoza. Basically he sits you down pours you some wine gives you a map while making jokes in Spanish. So after having a glass of wine we are off on our bikes to go try so wine. We decided since it was about lunch time and we were spending the afternoon drink riding food would be a good idea. So we headed off to our first winery for some parilla and wine. The ride turned out to be a bit more difficult than hoped. While Clinton and I could work one of these bike contraptions the others had some troubles. But eventually after a slow ride we arrived at our first winery. While the wine was pretty average the food was good and we were content to waste away the afternoon slowly there.
Realising that we only had a few hours left before the wineries would close we set off for stop number two on our drink riding adventure. The second stop was another large winery like the one we had visited the day before. It had under gone massive works on the buildings. The winery itself looked amazing. We were unfortunately too late to do the tour of the winery but we were able to do a tasting. So we headed up to their balcony overlooking the vineyards while we waited. Forster ever the camera man of this journey ask a guy waiting there if he could take a photo of us all together. To cut a long story short (plus the fact think this blog is already way too long and detailed) they knew each other from London through dating a girl that the other happened to live with. So after that we sampled some more wine and were on our way again.
Since it was late and we weren't going to make another winery we headed for a craft beer place just down the road. The place looks like it was built by a guy over the weekend. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that turned out to be true. But it was a great place to finish the afternoon the added bonus being that the beer was actually really good. Sad that my hightlight of Mendoza was some dudes back shed and home brew. I guess I'll always be a beer man. The day was done so we headed back to Hugo's got some more wine fed to us and got the bus back to Mendoza.
That night was the BBQ we had organised earlier in the day. For a BBQ at a random hostel it has to be said it was amazing. Huge chunks of steak and sausages brought around the the table for us to gorge on. That and top off the fact that the bartenders idea of a drink was 75% spirit and the rest mixer made for a good night. We whittled away the night with Geoff and Ian and the group from Buenos Aires. Overall a very successful day. I stumbled home through the dangerous streets of Mendoza (not because of crime but because of all the open drains) late into the night and left the guys as they headed out for one last beer. The next morning we would have to get up and get a 20hr bus ride to Salta.
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