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Published: April 5th 2013
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Set in the heart of Argentina's wine region, the beautiful city of Mendoza was the next stop on our journey. After another night bus, we arrived at 8am and walked the short distance from the bus terminal to our base for the next three days, Hostel Mora.
We were greeted with a breakfast of pancakes while we waited to check into our dorm. It was a nice gesture as we hadn't stayed there the previous night and so immediately we were won over by this warm and welcoming, family-run hostel. After a long, hot shower we headed out to explore the city with our room mate, a German guy, Norman. We strolled around and discovered that Mendoza has a number of beautiful squares, including Plaza Independencia, the largest with water features, monuments and an amphitheatre. Later we met up with some friends of Norman's for lunch before making our arrangements to visit Mendoza's top tourist attraction - its vineyards! There were many options in terms of organised excursions; half day, full day tours, with lunch or without but what appealed to us was the more adventurous, cheaper approach of taking the bus to the Maipu region and hiring bicycles to
visits different bodegas and taste the different wines independently.
We'd planned a quiet night and a feast at the hostel to prepare ourselves for our bike ride the next day. We'd bought steak and salad from the supermarket and a bottle of red wine. However, when we returned to the hostel they had organised a free wine tasting evening. Yes, free wine. It would have been rude to turn it down and besides maybe we could learn a few things before our tastings the following day. The three of us were joined by a group of three Swedish guys, amongst a number of others. They were by far the life and soul of the party with a thirst for a good time, a great sense of humour and some interesting travelling tales. The group of us stayed in the courtyard of the hostel until the early hours sipping red wine and singing along (dreadfully) to songs on the guitar.
Our planned early start didn't materialise. We didn't even make it up for breakfast. Eventually the three of us dragged ourselves onto the number 10 bus to Maipu and once we arrived hired our bikes for the remainder of
the day for 35 pesos (a little less than £5). This was a hell of a lot cheaper than the tours we'd looked into the day before. We were given a map of the local bodegas, a wedge of discount coupons and away we went. Sonya looked super cool with her blue and white bike, complete with a basket and red helmet! We cycled about five kilometres to our first stop, a small vineyard called Mevi. There we tried three wines each; a mixture of young, cheaper wines and the more expensive, reserve varieties that had been aged in oak barrels. All the wines were delicious and we put to good use the tasting tips from the night before; watch the wine, smell it and then take a good glug! It was all for effect, I didn't have a clue what I was doing but at least the tasting part was easy. We got talking to another German guy, Mathieu and from there the four of us headed down the road to our next stop, a larger bodega called Tempus Alba. Here we took a tour, seeing the rows and rows of grape vines and learning about the different stages
and processes of wine making. I think we were all just eager to get this out of the way and drink another three wines a piece.
Six glasses of wine later and we'd not had lunch yet. We decided it might be an idea to find something to eat to soak up all the vino tinto. We got on our bikes and cycled towards a beer garden which we'd heard did some tasty snacks. Cycling after a few glasses of wine seemed a lot more fun and less strenuous than when we were sober. Thankfully we weren't too wobbly but we did get a police chaperone for last kilometre or so of the journey. At first we thought we may get pulled over and given a drink driving fine but instead the officer on his motorcycle asked us if we needed directions and proceeded to escort us the rest of the way to the beer garden. Phew! We finished off the day with a pint of home brew and a lunch of pizza and empanadas before returning the bikes and getting the bus back to the city. The wine had taken its toll though as we napped the whole
ride home and the saddle hadn't been to kind either, from the bus stop I did a good John Wayne impersonation all the way home!
We spent our third and final day in Mendoza sunning ourselves and picnicking in the Parque General San Martin, a large green space in the west of the city with a forest and a lake. It was a lovely, lazy day and just what the doctor ordered after the copious amounts of wine consumed over the past two days. That evening I cooked a feast of marinated chicken and grilled vegetables for dinner and we chatted the night away with a cool Dutch couple who had replaced Norman in our dorm.
Sonya and I really enjoyed our time in Mendoza. It's a charming and laid back city with some fantastic wine and what's more, we'd met some great people there to share the experience with. We exchanged details in the hope that our paths may again across as we made our way around South America. From Mendoza we were taking a night bus (surprise surprise) to Salta in the north of Argentina, our last stop before heading to Bolivia. I'll let Sonya fill
you in on our time there.
Thanks for reading, Jon
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Brendan Vermillion
I am enjoying your blogs
Hi, I have read several of your blogs and wanted to say that I am enjoying them. You have a great way of describing what you see and do. Thanks for taking time to write and post your great pictures. Enjoy your travels!