Hiking, Biking, Wine and Absinthe

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Left early on March 2nd from Santiago, for a short 7 hour bus ride into Argentina. I was pretty dissapointed to have to cut the Chile portion of my trip so short, but with the Earthquake, the roads going South to where I originally planned on heading were closed. With no luck finding an organization to volunteer at, and the devastation of the area, I was ready to leave Santiago.

The bus ride was so beautiful, we drove twisted roads up and over the Andes, with the border being right at the top (or so it seemed), with stunning views of jagged, ice capped peaks surrounded by dancing clouds. It was a great way to enter Argentina.

I got to Hostal Lagaras in Mendoza, which was great and spent the first day, like most first days, wandering around exploring the city. I have to say that I was slightly dissapointed with the city itself. It is very commercial, streets lined with shoe and clothing stores, there is even a walmart here. Although I did get lured in and bought a new dress and tee shirt, which I am sure is essential to my wardrobe 😊. Not to mention, it only cost me about $8. The city itself is lacking the culture of the other places I have visited so far. The setting is gorgeous though, it sits in a dry valley, surrounded by Andean peaks (including Mt. Aconcagua, the highest Mountain in the Western Hemisphere sitting at 22,841 ft) and miles of grape and olive vineyards. The region is known for its quality red wines. Currently they are preparing for the annual wine harvest festival, so the city is bustling. They nominate a wine queen. On the streets there are large, life-size cardboard cuttouts of beautiful miss-america-type girls in formal gowns, who are competing for the title.

I booked an all day tour for my second day to climb Sand Mountain in the Cordon Del Plata range ( I cant remember the name in spanish). My tour guides picked me up from the hostal and we drove for a couple hours to the small town of Uspallata, Argentina. After dropping a few people off for their horseback riding tour, we continued up a windy, bumpy dirt road to a quaint little mountain lodge where we started our hike. The area is very dry, and it is full of tiny plants with miniature flowers, small loose rocks and gravel, wild guanacos, a small ski lodge with very dodgey looking chair lifts, and massive colonies of lichens overtaking the rocks. I enjoyed the views very much, and we hiked up to around 10000 feet. The downside of this tour was that it was a very, painfully slow pace. The group looked pretty fit to me, so I had higher expectations of them. They were all pole-hikers (using the ski-like poles, which Im not dissing, just not my style) I literally had to reduce my step size to prevent myself from stepping on the guides heels. Everytime my muscles got good and warm, ready to charge, they made us all stop for a 10 minute break. I grew very frustrated, and tried to focus on the scenery. The overall hike took us about 5.5 hours, and I am sure that I could have done it in 2.5 on my own. It has completely turned me off to guided trekking. Next time, I will be going alone, or with a friend who has hiking ability. When we got to the top, we were surrounded by fog, so we missed the high snow capped peaks and lakes surrounding us, but we got a little break for a couple minutes to see Uspallata below. One great bonus was the superb veggie sandwhich they made special for me, with roasted onion, peppers and eggplant.

After returning to the hostal, I was pretty tired, even though we were going so slow, It was a nice workout. I stayed in with some newfound friends, drinking a couple beers and playing cards. I convinced a group to book the bike and wine tasting tour with me, and then found out that a huge group from the hostal was going as well.

The next morning, we got three taxi cabs to Mr. Hugos bike shop. Apparently, Mr. Hugo is quite famous. I can understand why, he has a great attitude and provides a great service. We were given our bikes and a map of the surrounding wineries, and took off. We first stopped at an off the map place, tasting our first glasses of wine at around 11am. They are anything but stingy with the tastings, it is at least a half a glass of wine, maybe more. Because of the size, I shared 2 wines with Jill, a solo-traveller from San Diego. We then got a tour of the vineyard, a talk about wine processing, climate requirements. We also got to see huge, 150 year old olive trees. I learned that green and black olives are from the same plants, much like bell peppers, the color changes with age. Black olives have to stay on the branch about 2 months longer. Another fun olive fact, they are not palatable right off the tree, they are cooked (or soaked?) in salt water for at least a month before they are edible.

We left the first place and I noticed right away, my tire had gone completely flat, but we were already pretty far from Mr. Hugos and we still had 2 places to visit before going back by his place, so I trudged on, jamming to my ipod. We then stopped at a wine museam. We skipped the guided tour but walked around. It was very cool. Hallways packed with massive oak barrels, I could have lived in one. They had to be 12 feet in diameter. There was also a section with all the old tools they used to make wine in. The best item was a leather, hardened, bottom section of a bull skin, mounted up on a wooden frame. Girls used to press the grapes in it, with the juices convinently flowing through the tube that was once the bulls, ahem, manhood. I couldnt find the dates that this technique was used, but it makes you think about drinking any wine that is too vintage. 😉

The next stop, was danger zone, mach 5. A distillery, chocolate, and oil making establishment. For a mere 10 pesos ($2.50) we recieved a very brief tour and then tastings of bread and oil, bread and various tapenades, olives and jams. Even though I hate hate hate olives I tried one, because the new mantra for our group had become "When in Argentina...." Well, lets just say that I have reconfirmed my hatred of olives. gross. They then lined up about 10 bottles of various liquors, with every flavor from banana chocolate, tabasco, chocolate hazelnut, and absinthe. While they allowed as many samples as you would like, I was instantly drawn to the absinthe. They presented a shot, placed a spoon with sugar on top, dipped it in the shot, then lit the sugar on fire for a minute or so. Then they mixed it together and handed it over. I got a friend to take a photo. Before: me holding the shot smiling, very happy to have my first taste of Absinthe. After: Me cringing, with puckered lips and tendons straining out of my neck, with a horrible face. It is a great shot, too funny, and I will share as soon as I get to a computer that is not from 1987. The absinthe was discusting. but strong. very strong. I think straight everclear would have tasted better. The sugar did absolutely nothing. I was very responsible (well, as much as you can be when wine and liquor tasting) and declined trying any other liquor, even though they looked tasty. We then recieved chocolate samples, and I tried a couple small pieces, ignoring the fact that they probably had milk in them. They were muy muy bueno!

So, at that time, It was 12:30 and I had already had 3 half glasses of wine, and a shot of absinthe, riding down the road with a flat tire with crazy South American drivers wizzing by. We then had about 6 miles to go to the next area of wineries, so I swapped my bike out on the way by Hugos and charged down the busy street, without a care in the world.

We visited 3 more wineries, with similar itineraries, stopping at one for lunch. The trip back to the bike shop was, umm, a little difficult. Also, my chain fell off the gears on my second bike, so I had to do a quick flip and repair on the side of the road. When we arrived, we were greeted by, guess what, more wine. Oh geesh. They were not stingy half glasses, actually full plastic cups, with probably twice the amount of a glass in each. We sat there for about an hour, trying to cool down (I was very sweaty from the heat, drinking and riding) and they insisted on keeping our cups full the entire time. When I left, I had to leave a full glass behind, because, I was simply done with wine.

Back at the hostal, a quick, cool shower and I was feeling very refreshed. Jill, another swiss girl Danelia, three british guys, a zimbabwian and I decided it was either 7pm bedtime, or that we had to just keep going. Not to mention I was going to be missing the wine festival because I didnt realize that it was they day I booked my bus for. So it was my last night out in Mendoza. We played cards for a little bit and then went to the other side of town to meet up with two aussie girls, Mel and Lauren who were riding with us. After snacks and a shared bottle of vodka and some red bulls, I was more then ready to go dancing. Around 12:30, Jill and I grew a little bored of waiting around for the group, so we walked up and down the strip looking for a happening place. To my suprise, everybody was very relaxed mostly just sitting and eating. We finally asked a hostess where we could go dance, and she gave us a wierd look, informing us that people dont really start partying until about 3 am. WHAT? These Argentinians are crazy. How do they do this every weekend. To my surpise, we actually made it up that late and I got a good two hours of dancing in. The locals seemed impressed with my dancing, because they were all very subdued and I was flailing around like a maniac as usual. I had fun dancing with a bunch of local girls who couldnt understand me and vice versa. The Aussie girls tried to convince me to stay out and go to another place, but I was ready to sleep at that point.

Looking around for my group at close to 5 am, I realized it had diminished to Danelia and the Zimbabwian guy, they were sharing a drink. We caught a taxi home. The driver of the cab tried to rip us off buy driving many blocks in a circle right around our hostal, and I was getting upset about it and made him drop us off several blocks away, and we walked.

It was a long day, to say the least, and I slept like a rock.... at least until 10am when I had to clear out my stuff and check out of my bed. Oh well, I will sleep when the trip is over right? So the day has been slow, and I actually feel quite fresh, just not too active. Tonight I get on the overnight bus to Bariloche, finally, Patagonia!!! Also, my good friend Cassie is to meet me on Sunday there, so I am really looking forward to seeing a familiar face and have a travel buddy for at least a couple weeks.

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