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Published: April 25th 2009
We took an eight hour bus back across to Argentina to a city called Mendoza. Mendoza is famous for the nearby wineries. Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. Many backpackers come here for the ¨bike and wine¨ tours of the area. We decided to relax and see the city the first day. There was not much to see in the city, but we walked around, saw the city squares and went to a huge park they have here. We went to dinner with a Swedish guy and Hadyn (a Brit that has been with us since Valparaiso) at another amazing steak place. We decided we needed a few more excellent steak dinners in there before we left Argentina and once again this one did not disappoint. Other than that... nothing special.
The next day we were off to the wineries. We decided to do the wineries independently instead of going with a tour, which worked out to be a great idea. We had met a couple girls in the hostel that
decided to come with us so we had a great group of five people. Courtney, was an Aussie from Melbourne, and Joy was from San Diego which was super ironic! The five of us set out early to catch the bus about 40 minutes outside of Mendoza to the start of the wineries. Once we got out there we were going to rent bikes and bike from winery to winery. This is a really popular option and tons of people we knew had done it and loved it. We had heard to rent our bikes through Mr. Hugo so we asked the bus driver to drop us off in front of his place. We were dropped right off and Mr. Hugo and his wife came out to greet us. They got us all set up with bikes, a map of the wineries and a bottle of water. We were set!
We decided to bike the furthest distance first and then work our way back. We wanted to get the furthest distance out of the way before we had too many glasses of vino! It took us a little under an hour to get to the first winery: Carinae. This
was a larger winery, but still family owned. The owner loves the stars so all the wines have constellations on the labels. We took a tour of the winery and were able to see where they actually press the grapes to get the juice. We also saw tons of wine bottles without labels. There is a woman who works at the winery that puts all the labels on by hand! They produce about 100,000 bottles of wine per year so that means that woman has to put 100,000 labels on 100,000 bottles of wine! I would not want her job! The wine there was ok so we bought a bottle there and shared it between our little wine crew.
We then went across the street to the olive oil factory where we got another tour and did some olive oil tasting which was yummy. Especially after some tastings and a shared bottle of wine.
Then it was time to bike to the next winery. It was a few kilometers down the road, but nothing bad compared to what we had already done. It was called the Familia Di Tomaso winery. We got another tour of that winery which
was pretty interesting because they used to age the wine in these giant brick storage containers. I have seen oak and I have seen steel, but I had never seen brick winery storage. The inside of these giant containers had crystals in them from the wine being aged in there for so long. Again... we all shared another bottle of wine after our tasting out in the vineyards. By this time the day was wearing thin and we had about an hour and a half to get through two more wineries and a chocolate factory.
We decided not to do the tasting at the third winery because there was a wait, but we met two Canadian boys and bought a few bottles to do our own tasting. It was actually cheaper doing it that way with seven people. Then we were already so late we missed the last winery, but we still had the chocolate factory to go to. The factory made all types of liqueurs. We sampled chocolate mint, dulce de leche, banana and coffee plus some different chocolates. I loved the chocolate mint liqueur so I bought a bottle we could all share later. I had this
brilliant idea of mixing with champagne because the almond champagne and chocolate liqueur mixes so nicely at Wilson Creek winery in Temecula, but my idea did not taste as good.
We returned our bikes to Mr. Hugo’s and had a few empanadas to curve our appetite. Mr. Hugo even gave us a free glass of wine at the end of the day. It was a really fun day wine tasting and meeting new friends. Back at the hostel, we decided the five of us winos would go out to ANOTHER proper steak dinner. Hadyn (the Brit) and another British girl from our dorm room decided to join us as well so the group of seven all set out for another amazing steak dinner. It was fun to have a little crew of people to go with as well. We all came back tot he hostel and it was great because we were all sleeping in the same dorm room so we just stayed up and hung out in our room. The only outsider was a weird guy who slept above the British girl. We all went to bed late, but the odd man out came home even later. I
woke up to Chris telling the guy to clean something up. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on at this point, but I knew the guy was trying to get into bed and Chris was being stern with him to clean something up. Well, the guy had come home and vomited all over the floor of our room and wanted to just leave it there and go to bed. Chris had to insist a few times that he get up and clean it. Luckily the dorm had hardwood floors and not carpet. The next day we found out from the front desk that there had also been vomit all over the bathroom and in the hallway and the poor British girl had some in her bed. It was a first for the trip! No one had ever thrown up in a room we were staying in, well besides us and that was when we were very sick and at least we made it to the bathroom! This just gave our little group one more reason to be closer!
The next day we did some practical stuff, but nothing too exciting. We did manage to cook up a pretty
nice pasta dinner with all our new hostel friends, but that was about it. We took off the next night on an overnight bus to Salta. Hadyn (the Brit) decided to come with us.
Salta is a city in northwestern Argentina and the capital city of the Salta Province. With a population of 464,678 inhabitants, it is Argentina's 8th largest city. It is also pretty close to the Bolivian border so this is when we actually started to feel as if we were traveling again. We were some of the only gringos on our bus and most of the people had various children with them on the bus. We got sat in the very back next to two families with kids (not a good thing for an 18 hour bus!). The kids were actually pretty good and well behaved that night, but as of 6am they were awake and shrieking. Plus, while one of the families was changing a diaper the little girl decided to keep going to the pee puddle just happened to get stopped by my purse which was on the floor between my legs. Definitely a first for this trip. I guess its been a lot of
first for bodily fluids in the past few days. We arrived in Salta late afternoon and took it easy that night. We had a wonderful BBQ at the hostel and woke up semi-early the next morning to do our sightseeing.
Salta is situated in the Lerma Valley, 1,152 meters above sea level, at the foothills of the Andes mountains. It is nicknamed Salta la Linda ("Salta the Fair") and has become a major tourist destination due to its old, colonial architecture and the natural scenery of the valleys westward.
We decided to take the gondola to the top of Cerro San Bernardo to see better views of the city and the surrounding mountains. The scenery was really nice and the city itself was a lot bigger than the small center we were discovering.
This is the first city in South America where I felt the religious vibe. There were so many old Catholic churches and nuns around the city. It is also the first older city we had been in and things started to feel a bit foreign to me. There were two amazing cathedrals that stuck out to me: the red and yellow (Alemany colored) San
Francisco church and the Iglesia Cathedral that was located right in the center of the city. That one was pink and white. The cathedrals were brightly colored and definitely stuck out!
The city also has some great museums that we decided to go to. The most important being the museum of high altitude archeology. The museums exhibit a wide range of artifacts and art work from the native civilizations that flourished in the area (Salta is located in the Southernmost region of what was the Inca empire, belonging to the Collasuyu, one of the four areas the empire was divided until the Spanish conquest), as well as from the 16th century Spanish conquest and the colonial and post-colonial periods. The most impressive thing at this museum is ¨Los Ninos De Llullaillaco." Llullaillaco is a volcano not far from Salta where a team of archaeologists, led by American archaeologist Dr. Johan Reinhard, discovered the perfectly preserved bodies of three Inca children, sacrificed approximately 500 years ago. This is the highest Inca burial so far discovered in Tawantinsuyu and the world's highest archaeological site. The mummies are those of a 15-year-old girl, nicknamed "La doncella" (The maiden), a seven-year-old boy, and
a six-year-old girl, nicknamed "La niña del rayo" (The lightning girl). The latter's nickname reflects the fact that sometime in the 500 years period the mummy spent in the summit, it was struck by lightning, partially burning the preserved body, as well as some of the ceremonial artifacts left with the mummies.
The site was pretty amazing. Only one mummy is on display at a time so that they can be preserved longer. We saw the maiden (the oldest and one of the better preserved). She looked like a wax statue or as if there was an actually person sitting there. There was no degradation of the body and it was amazing to see. When I first saw her I just said ¨wow.¨ I could not believe that this person had been dead for 500 years. It was insane to see. She was found wearing a magnificent headdress and also wore a brown dress, which are both perfectly preserved and looked like she got dressed yesterday. Here hair is braided and other than a little greasy, looked fine. I was shocked by the hair because usually that is one of the first things to go. She and the others
are believed to have been drugged with chicha, a maize beer and cocoa leaves before being abandoned on the mountain.
The boy went through a terrifying end, his clothes were covered in vomit and feces, indicating a state of terror. But it is believed that he died from suffocation, due to the wrappings being so tight on his body. He had a cone shaped disfigured head that means he was of a higher stature and most likely of an elite family. So did the little girl. We couldn’t take photos, but it was an amazing site.
The children were sacrificed as part of a religious ritual, known as capacocha. They walked hundreds of miles to and from ceremonies in Cusco and were then taken to the summit of Llullaillaco given chicha (maize beer), and, once they were asleep, placed in underground niches, where they froze to death. Only beautiful, healthy, physically perfect children were sacrificed, and it was an honor to be chosen. According to Inca beliefs, the children did not die, but joined their ancestors and watched over their villages from the mountaintops like angels.
This New York Times article I found has some photos of it
if you want to see. It also gives a little more detail. The one shown here is the one we saw. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/10/science/20070911_MUMMY_SLIDESHOW_index.html
We enjoyed our last city in Argentina and liked that we began to feel a more Incan/South American vibe. I can tell that the further north we go, the more this will start to change. Things felt less European and it was a bit more difficult to travel. Nothing like heading in to more challenging places for our last few months of the trip!
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mom
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Wish I was there!
Wish I went wine tasting with you. I would have done 2 things differently: I would have hit that last winery and I would not have mixed the chocolate liquuer with champagne. Wilson creek uses Chocolate Port Wine (not liquer) and Almond Champagne!