We took an overnight bus and arrived in the afternoon finding an amazing hostel complete with a pool. The city itself is beautiful. It is right at the base of the Andes and has this great atmosphere everyone would enjoy. All the streets are lined with trees, and there are 5 city squares or parks in the center of town. The main park has statues, fountains and a huge stretch of booths of an outdoor flea market. Next to the park is a pedestrian mall filled with outdoor cafes and tons of boutiques and shops. Erin and I sat for a while and people watched, then headed back to go to bed early... we were going wine tasting the next day!
We went on tours of 3 different wineries. The first one was the largest of the 3. The coolest part of this tour was seeing the HUGE casks they use while making the wine. Erin says they are the biggest she has seen, normally they are about 250 liters, these were taller than us! The largest one (which Erin is helping herself to) is the 3rd largest in the world.
Normally the smaller casks last 5 years before they are recycled into furniture, floors, serving platters, this large one can last 250 years! The wine from Weinert was ok. We had 3 different tastings and my favorite was the dessert wine that had a strong honey flavor.
The second winery was Vinniterra. The guide for this was a hoot. He was very knowledgable and gave a great funny tour. This winery was pretty new, the owner used to be one of the head honchos of a huge commercial winery but sold his stake to start his own smaller family company. One of the neatest things I learned was for some of the fermentation process, they put the wine in steele barrels and add logs inside in order to get the oaky flavor. The wine here was really great, Malbec was our favorite.
The last winery was Carmine Granata. It was the smallest of the 3. It was more artesinal and independent. You could definitley tell a difference between this and Weinert. The wine here was pretty good too, but we only got to sample 1 type, their Malbec aged 6mos.
The best part of the day was lunch. We had this great spread of cheeses, meats, little dishes filled with snacks. Olives, beans, corn, artichokes, just a table full of food. And all you could drink wine. Who doesnt like that?
At night, we went to dinner with a group from the hostel. It was pretty fun, most were cool peoople. Erin and I shared the parilla aka Argentine BBQ and it was great.
When we got back to the hostel we got a great suprise! My cousin Ryan was waiting for us! He came over from Santiago to party with us for the weekend. And we definitley crossed that off the list. Erin went to bed around 3a, Iturned in around 630a and Ryan about 8a. We ended up hanging out with all the people that work at the hostels bar. (They chill in the backyard when they´re finished working, about 4a). Before we knew it the sun was coming up!
The next day Ryan and I went to a huge park on the west side of town. It was beautiful and reminded me of Golden Gate Park in that it was fairly large and had tons of activities to do. Clearly it was a great hangout for everyone. Kids doing bike tricks, soccer games galore and families having picnics. While Ryan and I were at the park, Erin was helping out a fellow American traveller from our hostel. She spent the day translating for the girl at the police station and hospital. Not a fun job for anyone, but she did a great job.
We decided to make our last night quiet. We had a great dinner and hung out at the hostels bar. Erin went to bed around 1a after being exhausted from her day of working as a translator, I went to bed around 3a and Ryan made it home as we were waking up. This kid knows how to party!
As with all South American citites Sunday´s are slow days. We found a place for breakfast along the pedestrian mall and then found a place for Ryan to get his haircut! The men down here have a classier version of the mullet that everyone has. Ryan mentioned wanting one and when we walked by a barber we convinced him it was now or never.
The rest of the day was spent lounging by the pool waiting for our bus to take off. Mendoza was great but we were ready to head back to BA to enjoy our last week in Argentina.
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