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Published: March 18th 2009
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Up early the next morning to catch the bus back into Argentina. Apparently the scenery between these two places is one of the most amazing in all the world. It is lovely, crossing the Andes and seeing the change in landscape from mountains to the treelined foothills. I did manage to sleep through quite a lot of it though!!
Passport control was fairly painless, just a bit of a wait, but it was quite nice to get out of the bus and stretch my legs.
Once in Mendoza, hostel was located and food was sort. I bumped into a spanish girl called Laura who I met in El Calafate which was a bit bizarre as I thought she had gone home. Still nice to see her again. Sarah and me went back to the hostel and got drunk in the bar, heading for bed around 1am.
When we arrived at the hostel in the afternoon we were taken to the room and shown 4 empty beds for which were told to pick which ones we wanted, so I did. Anyway I must have been asleep for a while, when I was awoken by a girl talking in a low
voice "you fkg btch you stole my bed" This went on for a few minutes, including climbing up into the top bunk and shaking it and mumbling the same thing as she went. She carried on saying the same thing for a bit longer and then obviously I had to retaliate!!
Sarah had earplugs in so had missed the beginning, but it was a picture seeing her jump out of bed to see what was happening. I never did find out how I was possibly meant to know she had chosen the bed I was in, when she hadnt put a sheet on it, and never used one the whole time she was there. (and these mattresses arnĀ“t shiny new ones from a showroom believe me!!)
So anyway, slightly hungover, we decided we catch the bus to where the wineries are and cycle round sampling the local fare. One thing about Argentina is no-one ever has coins, apparently they cost more to produce than they are worth so there is a shortage, which is ok most of the time, you tend to get your small change in the shape of sweets, although I met one girl who was
given an aspirin! As I said, this is fine until you want to catch a bus, which have ticket machines on which take only coins. So we spent probably an hour or so buying crisps and things at odd prices to get enough change together for the bus.
40 minutes later we arrived at Miapu. We crossed the road to Mr Hugo, who appears to be known all around the world as the place to go to hire your bike, so we did. Met a couple of other girls there called Kate (Oz) and Martina (Sweden) and off we set. Now I thought this was going to kill me seeing as I havent ridden a bike for more than ten years, but it was fine. We cycled about 6 kilometres and stopped at the Familia di Tomasa. This is a family run winery using traditional methods. We had some lunch there, then did a tour of the cellars etc, finally testing out about 4 different types of their wine.
Next stop Tempus Alba, where we only did wine tasting. This is a winery on a commercial scale. We each had a flight, 3 full glasses of different wines and were feeling decidedly squiffy by the end. We were told we could catch the bus and leave our bikes if we wanted, but having been told the only reason the police are there is to protect us we figured we ought to let them.
Sarah got a puncture on the way to our next winery, and also managed to take a wrong turning trying to find it. So we didnt make it to the third, but we did meet some kind argentinians who tried to fix the puncture, giving Sarah a glass of beer and even getting a JCB involved at one point. There were four of them and a JCB in the end but they didnt manage to fix it, so we took turns to ride the bike back, which I can tell you was really hard work!
Once back at Mr Hugo we were plied with more red wine for an hour or so, we all caught the bus back to Mendoza, promising to meet up the next day at the same time.
So the next day, we did it all over again, visiting Vina el Cerno and Trapiche. All the wines were very nice but the best for me has to be (now I am an expert) a mid aged Malbec.
The following day Sarah and me walked upto the Park, and managed to get lost. Still not a bad place to get lost it is massive and beautiful. How big? well we never did find the football stadium built for the 1978 World Cup, but apparently it was in there somewhere.
That evening our friendly room mate left without saying goodbye and that was Mendoza.
Tomorrow La Rioja
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Chrissie
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Bwitches in Argentinian hostels
Well, you met one mate! Glad to see you fought your corner and the tasting sessions sound lovely, am salivating at the thought. Miss ya xx