Blogs from San Rafael , Mendoza, Argentina, South America

Le moment que tu sors de la région de sept lacs, la pluie s'arrête et le paysage devient de nouveau tout sec. Là, on a fait des kilomètres et des kilomètres, sans voir grand monde. En fait, on voulait absolument arriver à notre prochaine destination le plus rapidement possible : le région du vin en argentine. Si tu demandes à quelqu'un avec un peu de connaissance du vin de l'argentine, il va te dire que le vin est produit à Mendoza. En fait, c'est vrai, mais Mendoza est plutôt la province du vin; l'endroit précis s'appelle San Rafael. Donc après un couple de journées à la dépêche, sur une route franchement, qui ne devrait pas s'appelée une route mais plutôt une carrière (le pauvre Kangoo!), nous sommes arrivés à San Rafael. On a commencé par le ... read more

Suzanne here... We arrived at San Rafael at 6.20am. It was a bit early to try and find somewhere for breakfast so we decided just to stay at the bus station and read. All went well for about an hour or so, when some old guy decided that out of all the deserted seating he needed to sit right by us, and listen to his crappy music on his crappy phone. As I've mentioned a million times, playing sound on your phone speaker is a surefire way to get me to mutter a curse of painful death upon you. The world is loud enough. Use some f*!&ing headphones! After moving, we read a bit more before heading to the hotel about 9am. We'd both slept a little on the bus and didn't feel too bad, but ... read more

4:55 p.m. The new Pope was just declared! Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires from the Metropolitan Cathedral, which we visited a couple of days ago. Martin is so excited he has goose bumps. (He has seen the Archbishop many times.) Victor, our Mendoza guide says the new pope is very simple and humble. Of course all the TV stations are covering the story. This afternoon was “compulsory nap” for our late evening at a winery. Indeed needing a nap, I watched TV long enough to see the url=http://abcnews.go.com/International/white-smoke-pope-black-smoke-nope-conclave-smoke/story?id=18719208white smoke. (Who needs Spanish!) Then my nap. Fortunately, I woke up soon enough to wait for a few minutes to watch the announc... read more

After a week of not having any contact with the outside world, here I sit in a swanky hotel in San Rafael with the sun streaming in the windows and thoughts of Finca La Rosendo swirling about in my head. To describe the finca after being there only 6 days would take pages and pages. Here and now then, the highlights. Situated about 20 minutes south of San Rafael, tiny little Finca La Rosendo gets lost amongst all the heavy hitters in the region. On the short bus ride to get there, all you see are hectares and hectares (miles dont exist down here, see?) of grapevines. La Rosendo has those too, but they chose to do things a bit differently. For several years now on-again, off-again couple Virginia and Alejandro have accepted WWOOfers to stay ... read more

A paisagem árida e plana se estendia a perder de vista, acompanhando os retões intermináveis da Ruta 40. No caminho, algumas passagens por pontes revelavam leitos de rios completamente secos. A Cordilheira dos Andes escondia-se no horizonte por trás de nuvens de poeira, que conseguiam diminuir a visibilidade mesmo naquele dia de céu incrivelmente azul. Achava até difícil de acreditar que estávamos na região de Mendoza, o grande pólo viticultor argentino. Até o momento, minhas experiências com a Argentina se limitavam ao cenário deslumbrante dos lagos andinos, na região de Bariloche, e ao charme decadente da capital Buenos Aires. Para o restante do país, tinha algumas imagens pré-concebidas na cabeça, baseadas em livros, blogs e em minhas próprias convicções. No entanto, não precisei nem pousar no aeroporto de Mendoza para descobrir o quão erradas estavam minhas ... read more