Mendoza

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We were both pretty excited about going to Mendoza - the centre of wine country in Argentina and at the gateway to the Andes mountains. The bus journey started well with a jolly steward who gave us blankets and cushions and we soon curled up to catch up on some sleep. However, we were awoken for breakfast which was another Argentinian culinary masterpiece - dry crackers (with some jam to dip them in if you wished), a white chocolate covered wafer bar and a white chocolate alfajore (a very popular biscuit sandwich containing dulce de leche - caramalised condensed milk - and covered with chocolate (for the JLP people, these were what I brought back for TST last time from Argentina, and unfortunately the dulce de leche had gone mouldy! H.)). We waved most of this diabetics dream breakfast but were pleasantly surprised that they hadn't presugared the coffee on this bus.

Unfortunately as the day went on, I began to feel decidedly odd and, after 8 hours, was feeling pretty ropy when we arrived into Mendoza. H bundled me through the bus station and into a cab and I was soon tucked up in bed in a lovely little B & B that we had booked. I was shivering and generally a little achy along with a(nother) dodgy tum and left H to go out and find himself some dinner.

Paracetamol helped me sleep but it was not a good night and, although a little better the next morning, I decided that I was not going to wait days before seeing a doctor after last time so we spoke to the lovely lady in the B & B and she arranged me an appointment with her doctor. By the time we saw the doctor I was definitely feeling better and she confirmed that she thought it was just a virus that would clear up on its own but recommended that I get some tests done just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately this was Friday and by the time I had dropped the test off at the lab later that day they could not let me have results until Tuesday evening thereby making our decision about how long to stay.

So, we had 5 full days in Mendoza which were rather uneventful for me as I wanted to be fully recovered before we left. Even more unfortunately, we had booked a gourmet wine tasting tour for the Saturday and it was clear that this was unlikely to be of much benefit to me so I was left behind for the day while H went with the guesthouse owners son and another guest for a day of indulgence - I'll let him tell you about that -

The first bodega we visited, Alta Vista, was medium sized. They made a point of using concrete fermentation tanks for their premium wines, reserving the stainless steel tanks for the cheaper reds and their white Torrontes which they made with grapes transported from their vineyard in Cafayate. Their early concrete tanks were raised off the ground so that they could light fires underneath them, but now they maintain the temperature by circulating water through internal radiators so later tanks are at ground level. Their Torrontes was excellent, so much so that I had to buy a half bottle even though my pack was already straining under the weight of wine bottles, not such a great problem in the end as we've already drunk it!

The second bodega, Archaval Ferrer, was very much a boutique wine maker. Our guide was originally from Bordeaux and the head winemaker is an Italian who comes over to Argentina every year to supervise the fermentation. Just before their grapes start to ripen, they cut back about 90% of the grapes, so that the remaining grapes get a really concentrated flavour. We tried their blended wine, both recently bottled and from the previous year (ready for sale) and the improvement in taste in the older wine was very marked. We then got to try a couple of their single vineyard wines, both Malbec wines from the same year, but from grapes grown at different altitudes in different terroirs. We really could taste the difference. Grace, the other guest on the trip, was very taken with one of them and wanted to buy a bottle, that is until she found out that it was about 70 pounds a bottle!

The third bodega we visited, Ruta Malen, was by Javiers admission as much for the food as for the wine. The food was excellent, and the wine we had matched to each course wasn't bad either.

Our final bodega was started from scratch a few years ago, hence the name Finca Decero (literally from zero). It's owned by a Swiss man who made his money in concrete, he already has vineyards in California and Australia, and clearly money was no object in creating Fica Decero.

Back to S -

The only thing I achieved all day was a hair cut and that involved me waiting nearly 1.5 hours with wet hair for the hairdresser to be ready resulting in H not being able to get back into our room when he returned cos I wasn't there.

One day we took a long walk to the large park on the edge of the city. It was a beautiful sunny day and we could see the snow capped Andes from the park. There were lots of very active people out, many apparently training for the upcoming Mendoza marathon. From the route we saw it appears to start in the mountains and run downhill all the way into the city so I'm not sure it would be allowed to count for any records!

After a day or two it was clear that, whatever it was, was not serious and I was soon eating properly (when we could find somewhere decent!) and the day before we left we managed a short trip to one of the bodegas in a nearby suburb. Bodega Escorihuela is one of the oldest in the city and is famous for it's huge carved barrel from Nancy in France. The tour was rather short and in very fast Spanish but we had obviously seen others so understood much of the process. Much more time was taken over tasting the red, white and rose wines....hic!

I was quite disappointed that I hadn't managed to make the most of Mendoza and we had hoped to get out into the mountains either walking or on horses but it was a very pleasant city to spend a few quiet days in. The central plaza is huge with fountains, statues and trees and at 4 equal points from the plaza are 4 smaller ones, all different but all very attractive. All the streets are wide and tree lined and there are some impressive buildings. The area around the B & B was quiet and clean and the weather was like a beautiful sunny autumn day at home.

It was therefore a big shock to us to meet a young, very upset, Belgian guy when we were on our way to the bus terminal to book our next bus a couple of days before we left. He was looking a little lost and first asked us if we knew where the main square was. It seemed an odd question as we were some way away and he did not have anything with him so we assumed he hadn't just arrived in the city. It turned out that he was a backpacker who had arrived that morning, around 10am, and, while walking from the bus station to the city centre, had been attacked by a couple of guys with knives who had taken everything leaving him in just the clothes he was wearing. He had been at the police station most of the day but his embassy in Buenos Aires was closed because it was Sunday and he had no money, not even enough to pay a hostal for a night and, without a passport, no hostal would check him in. It was early evening and he was heading for the square in order to wait there for the night. He was clearly very shaken and we talked through a few suggestions. He had phoned home from the police station but Western Union could not get money to him without a passport. He really was utterly alone and stuck without anything in a strange city and it sounded like the police had not been much help. We asked him what we could do to help and if he could check into a hostal if he had some money. He said he could so we gave him the equivalent of around $40. He was hugely grateful and rather tearful at this and said that it would be better for him to get an overnight bus back to Buenos Aires so that he could go straight to his embassy in the morning.

We asked him to come to the bus terminal with us then but he had to head back to the police station as they had still not finished his police report. We said that we were happy to go with him but he insisted that he would just go back and spend the night at the police station until he could catch a bus and was just grateful that we had been able to help him. None of us had a pen on us but we told him our email address and he said that he would find a pen straight away and write it down.

Of course you can never be certain that you're not being made a fool of in those circumstances but, if we were, he was a very good actor, with a strong Belgian accent, a ripped jacket where they had waved the knife and had absolutely nothing on him. He was also wandering in a rather unlikely spot if he was hoping to find gullible tourists. Although we have not heard from him, I have no doubt that he was genuine and actually feel that we did not do enough for him. The poor guy had been travelling for a year and was due to fly home (from Santiago) in a few days but at the end of the trip had lost everything. I can imagine how that would feel. But we always have each other at least, he had nobody and nobody seemed to want to help him. I can only hope that we gave him enough so that he did not spend the night on the streets and managed to sort out a temporary passport to get home.

As you can imagine, that scared us a little and we dashed into the bus station rather quickly, sorted our tickets and got a cab home.... The tickets were for our final long distance bus from Mendoza to Santiago in Chile....but more of that next time.

Hope you're all counting the days to our return?

Lots of love

S + H xx

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