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The Valley Below Aconcagua Pass
Beautiful, I think you'll agree?After a quick over-nighter in Santiago (which we'll return to and blog at the end of our South American adventure) we took a bus to Mendoza, crossing the border into Argentina. The crossing itself is a delight, passing Chilean vineyards, alpine-esque valleys and taking you up into the Andes, where snow and ice lie on the side of the road. Ski chair-lifts from the Chilean/Argentinian ski resorts in the area, swoop over your head and you also catch a glimpse of Aconcagua, South America´s highest mountain at 6,962 metres above sea level. We also had the pleasure of watching a Jamiroquai concert DVD on the bus and happily sang along with the funky basslines of such huge hits as Cosmic Girl and Love Fool - it's amazing how uplifting a bit of music can be.
Mendoza is a great place to start in Argentina as its famed for producing fabulous red wines and there are numerous wineries or Bodegas that can be visited. As you can imagine, the first thing we did was book our tour to a couple of vineyards (and a couple of chocolate factories thrown in for glutonny´s sake). The size of some the oak casks, used
to store wine during the maturation period, is incredible (see picture). Just imagining the quantity of wine inside one of those giant casks, could get you inebriated! After much wandering and explanation from the guide about the process of producing the wine, the obligatory taste-tests take place - it's why we're all there after all! The tasting obviously gives you a chance to quaff some free wine and whilst doing your very best Jilly Goolden impressions but also it was also genuinely educational. Even though the guide gave us just a brief explanation on the process of testing the wine, what to look for in terms of clarity, colour and taste and which grapes have which properties, it has already proved useful in helping us make our choice from the vast wine lists, in Argentinian restaurants. Lets face it though, for us Brits as long as it contains alcohol we'll drink it - watching people spitting out the wine after tasting, simply appalled us! Anyway, we're recommending a San Telmo Malbec 2004 from Mendoza if you clap your eyes on it in Oddbins/Threshers - Tom assures me that it goes brilliantly with a big bloody steak!
We also had
the misfortune of witnessing the Argentinians lose to Germany in the World Cup. The streets of Mendoza were generally silent - not one car and only empty buses with grumpy looking drivers (as to be expected as they were missing the game). The only havens for noise were to be found outside an electronics store where hordes of young Mendozians crowded round the window watching the game on the giant array of televisions in the shop. Quite a weird sight to be honest - you probably wouldn't get that in England - hundreds of people flocking to Dixons waving flags, blowing horns and chanting footy songs. We ended up watching the penalty shoot-out whilst choffing down mountains of grub in an "all you can eat" restaurant. As to be expected the Argentinians didn't take it awfully well - their passion for steak is rivalled only by their hunger for football and I think most lost their appetite for another steak or postre, when another World Cup run came to a disappointing end. The deadly silence that followed the match was in stark contrast to the racket they were making during it! It comes as a real shame for us as
we were pinning our hopes on either England or Argentina making the final (or both) so we could soak up the atmosphere here. Little did we know that England´s fate would be similar in a day´s time!
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