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Published: December 29th 2009
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Mendoza, 11th to 15th December
We arrived in Mendoza at around 10am and checked into the Puertos Sol Hostel. The hostel was basic but had everything you needed including friendly staff, however the owner seemed to be two steps behind everything he should have been doing. We explored the local area and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling at the hostel. That evening we wandered into Mendoza’s main plaza where there was a big stage set up with an orchestra who were warming up. There were chairs set up to watch and there were people starting to gather, something was definitely about to start! We sat down on the grass and Doddy had a quick game of hack with some Dutch people before the concert started. The concert began and was great. Two hours of an orchestra playing tango music on what was a nice balmy evening. After the concert we wandered around the plaza and had a look at the market where local crafts were on sale. We then retired to bed after a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
We awoke bright and early ready for our wine tasting day! Mendoza is a massive wine producing region and makes
75% of Argentina’s wine. We caught a bus to Maipu where we would start the wine tour.
Doddy writing now…
Mr Hugo’s was the name of our wine tasting tour company and upon arrival Mr Hugo himself was there to meet us and supply us with the bikes and free wine prior to us heading off to navigate our way round the various vineyards and better still, chocolate factory. Having enjoyed a glass of wine with a Dutch couple we met, Jerome and Julia, then briefly tried having a ride on a tandem bike but quickly decided that it was going to be difficult enough riding a bike on my own after several glasses of wine, never mind sharing a bike!
Bikes sorted, snacked on empanadas and wine drank we were on our way to our first destination which to Bowks’s great enjoyment was the chocolate factory which also specialised in liquors and olives. It was great, we tasted an assortment of liquors, olives, chocolates , chutneys and finishing off with a shot of 75% proof Absinthe and quickly realised that the day had the potential of getting messy and I was going to have to pace
myself. We left the chocolate factory with goods in our baskets including a very tasty olive and blue cheese pace and a very nice bottle of banana and chocolate liquor that we thought would be very nice for Christmas day.
Second port of call was the wine museum where we had a look at all the old methods of making wine. Some of the big barrels smelt great as they were really fruity. Next stop was our first winery where we sampled 4 Malbecs (the red wine Mendoza is most famous for) and learnt about how the time in the barrel affects the taste of the wine. We could definitely tell the difference and am now beginning to worry that I may never be able to drink a $2.99 bottle of wine again! We picked our favourite, the 2002 Malbec and settled down on the terrace outside the winery to enjoy the glass with Jerome and Julia and got chatting to 2 other people, Jane and Hannah. After about half an hour of chatting we all got on our bikes and headed to the next winery and it wasn’t until we’d cycled the 6kms that we realised that we
hadn’t paid at the last winery. The four of us had tried to pay when we’d finished the tasting but he said he would come and get us and we were so busy chatting we had completely forgotten! (Don’t worry though, the man came and hunted us down and was waiting for us when we returned the bikes so we could pay our dues!)
Next was another vineyard where we had a short wait before our tour and tasting began. What shall we do? Let’s buy a bottle of wine! Great idea! So we ordered a bottle of wine between the 4 of us which we enjoyed thoroughly. Then we had a tour where we again tasted a variety of Malbecs and Sauvignons and looked around the winery and learnt of its history. After our tastings we decided with very straight heads that we should buy a bottle of decent Malbec or two as it would be very nice for Christmas day (I’m looking forward to Christmas day!) which also went into our basket. We checked our watches to see the time, it was 6 in the evening, talk about time flying when you’re having fun! We decided that
with most of the vineyards, well in fact all the vineyards shut that we would head back to Mr Hugo’s on what was a bit of a wobbly ride!
We made it safely back and to celebrate our completion of the vineyard tour we…well, take a guess…that’s right, enjoyed a glass of wine with the friends we’d met on our way until the sun went to bed so we all piled into a taxi and headed back to Mendoza city centre. Having had a great day we decided to finish it off by going for a meal with Jane and Hannah where we ate a BBQ style meat fest, then feeling full we went and chatted in the garden at Jane and Hannah’s hostel before walking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back to our hostel and climbing into bed.
Next morning we were feeling surprisingly spritely and we had planned to go and see the hostel owner’s fruit farm as promised, however he was running late on a number of things he was trying to do that day and kept delaying our departure. After 1.5 hours of waiting we decided the likely chance of us actually getting
to the farm was thin so instead we headed out to enjoy the sunshine and take a trip to the main park where we meandered along the lake. It was a hot day so we soon headed back to the hostel to get out of the mid-day sun and have a wee siesta. That evening we enjoyed a glass or two of wine on the roof terrace of the hostel with a couple of the other hostel guests, hostel workers, live in residents etc laughing and chatting about different accents and trying to learn new Spanish words.
Next morning, the 15th of December 2009 we awoke for what was our last day in Mendoza and Argentina as that day we would head to Santiago, Chile. So with breakfast eaten we said our farewells to Puertos Sol hostel and its Faulty Towers ways and headed to the bus station where climbed aboard our bus to Santiago, farewell Argentina!
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mandy
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oh my god!so jealous!
think i probly keep sending you similar messages as i never have much time, happy christmas and new year, just having giggly memories of last year in weymouth! and several bestivals, love you lovelies! miss ya enjoy your travels,ove love love,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx