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Not the last blog about Argentina...but I guess the last blog published outside of Buenos Aires....end of June is coming pretty fast.
After 18 hours on the bus, we made it to Mendoza from Salta. I knew there was not a lot to see in the city. The fun here is just outside town. Regardless, Mendoza is a very peaceful city...full of gorgeous restaurants, I would certainly not mind moving here for an exstanded period of time...you've got the wine, the food, nice people...and some serious fun to have around...ski, golf, rafting, horseriding, tec, you name it, it's here! just forget about the architecture!
Mendoza is named, the "Capital of Wine of Argentina"...well, when it comes to wine, I have to admit, I prefer the sleepy Cafayate...Mendoza area has too many wineries...too many tourists...well...I came too late!
So over the next few days, I visited three main wineries...Catena Zapata with Leslie, Luigi Bosca on my own, and Trapiche with Leslie and Tiffany.
Catena Zapata has a beautiful winery, and some serious wine. I love their simple DV Catena Zapata Cabernet-Malbec, seriously cheap prices in Buenos Aires for that level
of quality...the Catena Zapata Cabernet Sauvignon is also pretty impressive. Sadly, our guide was too much full of herselve to make the visit interesting. We were still lucky to have a Grand-Dad and Dad from Savannah with us to spice up a little the visit. Interesting point also when they asked if Leslie was tasting...I told yes, where I come from, 12 years old learn to develop their taste....not their shooting skills...imagine the look I received back!
That aftenoon, Tiffany and Leslie went to cinema, while I was enjoying another winery...this time Luigi Bosca. I used to know the importer in China, so that was quite fun, even if their wine are not the most impressive. Visit was booked in English...but once there they didn't care, I had to brush up on my castellano...nice guide...good I could understand 90% of it. For the wine, well, there is better...
Next day we made it to the Andes...around an hour drive out of Mendoza...for some serious fun. I would have loved to have a day of rafting, horseriding and zip-lining, but that looked a little too much for the organisation to handle...so we settled for a
morning of rafting...and an afternoon of napping in the sun...and zip-lining...
No pictures from our morning rafting, as I forgot to take my diving housing....and we have way too many pics of our rafting to start purchasing another DVD which we look at only twice.
The Rio Mendoza is a class II++ at this time of the year, but they told us it would be fast as they have a lot of stones...well...I wanted to see it before I made my opinion...it was 50 minutes on the river and very cheap, so no reason not to try. The end result was a fun outing. We were with four young belgians, all first time rafters and had a great time. The river was indeed fast, and full of stones as the level of the river was very low. It made us paddle a lot from right to left...and right again....but without much of a scary time. The water was way too cold for Tiffany...and Leslie could play the "big one" sitting in the front. Another river for us....3rd for Tif, 5th for Leslie....and 12th for me...we love rafting!
Next, zip-lining, a first
for Leslie and Tiffany...and for me the third time after Bariloche years ago, than in Chiang Mai few years back too. Here they have only 6 lines...dirt cheap also....but two of those lines are above the Rio Mendoza...one being of 350 meters, the next of 450 meters, up to 65 meters up....that was a garantee of serious fun, and serious speed!
Tiffany, due to the fact that she is too light had to have the company of a guide on all lines...while Leslie only needed it on the last main line. It's really not the place to be stuck in the middle of it alone just because you are too light and will not be able to reach the other side of the Valley in a single go.
I cannot tell you how much fun these too little guys had that afternoon...and for me...well, what can you ask for more....two happy children...and some seriously fun adventures!
On our last day in Mendoza, we went by bus to Maipu to rent bicycles. Same issue as always...they didn't have the right size for Tiffany...so we had to settle for a tandem...will do the
job. We went ride for few hours....and stopped at Trapiche for our last little wine stop.
The visit was 40 pesos and Trapiche is an industrial winery...let me tell you, I wasn't expecting anything....well...how wrong was I.
We stay a good 90 minutes at Trapiche. Our guide, Luciano was simply amazing. And this not only in English, but in Castellano and in Portugese...and for the 40 pesos, we had the latest Iscay, the Medaillon Trapiche and a Single Vineyard Malbec. I was expecting a low quality visit...and it was actually by far the best in Mendoza area (Trapiche is in Maipu).
For your info, most bodegas do produce here their own wines out of their own vineyards...for Trapiche, they own less than a 1/3 of the vineyards from which Trapiche wine is coming. Also, Trapiche is 10% of all wine export of Argentina...not a tiny bodega!
This was it for our last week of exploring Argentina outside of Buenos Aires...the kids are now back to school for the remaining few weeks...and I'm in Congo...not really the same thing...
So you guess....next entry...coming soon...with some bubbles...and
hopefully some serious sharks...
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Adventures indeed!
"12 years old learn to develop their taste....not their shooting skills...". Love it! I can't help thinking that Tiffany and Leslie must be the two most fortunate kids on the planet - broadening their knowledge of the world (and the wine!) with their Dad.