Mendoza, Argentina
Walked back to the Valparaiso terminal and got on the bus for Mendoza, which is just over the border in Argentina. The border happens to be the Andes ranges. 7000km long, 500km wide.
The bus over these mountains was incredible. The road was either still being built in places, or in a constant state of repair. It seemed very makeshift. And we were a little edgy at times. Immigration at the top of the mountain took a while. The drive after that was pretty easy. About 8 hours all up. We made for the recommended hostel.
We had a 12 person dorm to ourselves; and the backyard, and the pool. Standard check-in procedure for us is to find the nearest beer and food. So a hot dog with about a thousand different topings and 2 local long necks helped us comply there.
Being the wine capital of South America, we decided we needed to go for a classy meal. We found a good looking place and had some steak and some local wine. It was all 5 star and only cost about $70.
4 countries in 1 week! Boom!
Day 2
Not heaps of sleep due to the Mendoza party atmosphere lasting till about 5 (we bailed long before that).
Went and checked out the massive park which has a lake and roses - awww, roses. Did some reading and drank 2 litres of water in preparation of the day's activities... WINE!
The dude from "bikes and wines" picked us up and took us out to Maipu; one of 3 or 4 regions within Mendoza. He gave us our bikes and a map and we went off with our new Brazilian friend Eduardo (who spoke about a thousand languages, a good bloke to know).
First stop was Domiciano wines; a small, new winery running out of an old old house. The girl took us for a tour and told us everything about wine making, so we are experts now. Only having so long though, we wanted to taste some of the sweet nectar. We tried a Malbek, Argentina's famous red, specifically Mendoza. It was... pretty average. Critics (6 of us doing the tasting) all giving unfavourable scores. The syrah (shiraz) was mildly better. Anyway, slurp-slurp and off to the olive tasting place thing.
Courts being a little shakey on the bike, and South American drivers showing a similar flamboyance on the roads as everywhere else, I was a little concerned about safety (being the responsible guy I am). But we powered on cautiously.
The amount of olives and effort needed to make a 1 litre bottle of olive oil seems hardly worth it but when we tasted this extra Virginia olive oil, we can see why they persevere.
We stuffed ourselves silly on the olives, olive oil, tapeneades (which were to die for) and basalmic vinegars. We then moved on to the marmalade table, no way near as good as the olives, and then to the liqueurs.
We all got to choose 2 liqueurs each, flavours ranging from Irish cream to sangria to absinthe. I went with the sangria, naturally, and a strawberry vodka. Jeff and Eduardo went with absinthe. Naturally. The guy did the flaming sugar trip and then the boys downed them. 'Warmed the insides' they said.
Onto another winery - Trapiche, a much larger, more established winery. The tasting was great, delicious Malbek.
The guy left us with the opened bottles at the end and told us to help ourselves (one bottle being about $80 worth!). We did. Got merry, and bought a bottle only available at the cellar door. Will it make it home?
Last stop, a beer garden which was basically a bar set up in someone's back yard in the middle of the wine region. Mismatched chairs and couches all over the place with a very kick back and relax feel to it. Perfect end to a strenuous day of bike riding and wine tasting
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We sampled the pale and red ale and $1 empanadas!
This left us with 10 minutes to travel the 20 minutes back to the bike base. Eduardo decided to stay with 2 girls who were following us around the wineries. Good luck to him
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We made it. Had a shower at the hostel and boarded our bus for Buenos Aires, about a 14 hour trip over-night.
But we were effectively in business class on a plane. The leather seats retracted way back and we slept the whole way.