Mendoza

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Mendoza wasn´t at all what we though it would be like. It is the wine region in Argentina so we were expecting to get off the bus into a beautifal wine region covered with vineyards, but actually Mendoza is a massive, busy town and the wineries are 40 minutes away in the bus and even there they aren´t that pretty as it is very dry there and again there is lots of traffic.

We also had another awful bus jounrey from Bariloche to Mendoza! The direct bus was full up so we had to change busses at Neuquen. The second bus we got on was awful, the food was gross and they put on the worst movie ever made. It was a Nicholas Cage film called The Bad Leuitenant and was about him going round taking drugs and having sex. It started really late too so made it hard to go to sleep.

We spent our first day in Mendoza exploring the town, which isn´t very interesting! They have a nice park which is full of runners and people on bikes. Also it has a big lake which people row on.

The next day we did the Mr Hugo wine tasting tour. it is on bikes and you ride from winery to winery (kinda like what we did in NZ when we got engaged but no-way near as pretty!). First we went to the wine musuem, where you get a tour of how wine is produced, then to the chocolate and liquor place where people did shots of absinthe (including Ian!). After this it was a long bike ride to the next place. It wasn´t a nice bike ride as you have to ride down a really busy street and the car drivers are generally idiots and beep at you and drive really clos to you even though they don´t have to. We got a bit lost too and nearly went completly wrong but luckily some local guys stopped us and showed us where to go (they were laughing at us being English and saying we were drunk!).

We stopped at a winery and had a traditional lunch of parrilla, which is where they BBQ loads of met )chicken, sausage and steak) and give you bread and salad. It was so good! Next we went to Tumpus Alba where we sat for the rest of the afternoon drinking on the balcony, while they played some sweet tunes! Could have stayed there all night but they shut so we hd to leave!

The drunked ride back to Mr Hugos was much better then the afternoon ride. I think it is cause there are lots of police around to make sure the tourists don´t get run over and so the drivers are much better!
At Mr Hugos we drank far too much free wine, which was horrible. We were the last people to leave and had to be put on the bus by Mr Hugo. I have no idea how we got home but Ian managed to get us back. At the hostel I went staright to bed and could hardly talk but apparently Ian wanted to carry on the drinking. Luckily the rest of the group also went to bed so Ian didn´t drink anymore as about an hour later he was being sick everywhere. Our nextdoor neighbours in the hostel who shared our bathroom were so worried about him that they called the hostel staff over to make sure he was ok! So bad and it´s like we are 18 again! He was fine but he had the worst hangover ever the next day. Luckily we had planned to be hungover so we did nothing apart from sit around the hostel.

The moral of this story is don´t down cheap nasty wine just cause it´s free! It´s not good for you and we really should be old enough to know better by now!

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