After a couple of days back in Buenos Aires where we broke with tradition and ate at the rival of Desnivel's, Don Ernesto (steak was better, but no chimichurri so it lost points there) we headed off to wine country - Mendoza - to sample what the country has to offer wine-wise.
Things were headed down hill from the beginning. Firstly, we couldn't find our hostel when we arrived. My crappy map reading skills headed us in totally the opposite direction from where we should be going. Five blocks the wrong way later, a nice passerby noticed our clearly obvious looks of confusion and pointed us the right way. Things didn't improve however in our hostel hunt. Our street was in two parts, two parts that we're labelled on my now not so favourite Lonely Planet map and shock horror, we went to the wrong end, making our trek, back packs in tow, about 10 blocks longer than it had to be. We were exhausted, aching and cranky by the time we arrived.
At our hostel, we were greated by a crazy, very fast and not a word of English speaking Spanish lady. Ranting in Spanish, with us following having absolutely no idea what she was telling us, she took us up to our room. Woo hoo - bed I thought. That happy thought didn't last long. We had booked a 4 person dorm. Apparently only 8 bed dorms exist - annoying. Fine, can deal with this. Examining the room a little closer - crap - there is only one window, and a measily two fans for the eight people in the room. We absolutely baked that night. By the time it was bed time, people who had already gone to sleep had directed the fans onto them, and although they swiveled, I got barely a breath of air all night. I hate fan hogs. To make the night more interesting, there was something biting me all night. I was forced to drown myself in DET in the middle of the night to make them stop, but still couldn't budge the feeling that something was crawling all over me and biting me.
With plenty of time in Mendoza, we had a lazy first day - we caught up on sleep and generally blobbed around town. Being a Sunday, there was nothing much open. We found a cafe across the street from the main plaza that did really nice food and had a long lunch, sampling my first taste of Mendozan wine. Our afternoon wanders led us to a stupendous super market that rivaled our Asian supermarket find in Belgrano - it had everything, from lab coats (?!?!!?) to bay leaves, which we haven't seen anywhere else. We decided to take advantage of our discovery and cook dinner for once - spag bol. So good to have a home cooked meal again.
The next day we decided to do a do-it-yourself tour of a wine region not really ventured to by tours available at the hostel - Luján de Cuyo. We thought we'd started off really well - we got bus numbers of the lady at the front desk (so helpful we mistakingly thought) and went hunting for the bus stop. We can do this!! However after 30 frustrating minutes of wandering around where the front desk lady said the bus stop would be we'd still had no luck in locating it. We luckily stumbled across a tourist information counter at the local council with a really helpful guy. Turns out that bus would not have taken us where we wanted to go. That would have been interesting. He pointed us in the right direction, and gave us ample supply of maps to get us there and around Mendoza.
The wineries not clearly marked on our map, we decided to head to yet another information centre to enquire about the best way to see them. "Do you have a car?" the guy asked. Uh-oh. Turns out the wineries in this region are very far apart - too far even for our very accustomed to walking very long distance legs. He pointed us in the direction of a couple of wineries and a restaurant that weren't too far away. Shock horror, we couldn't find the restaurant. Absolutely starving, and with a cab passing by at just the right moment we decided to cab it a winery mentioned in Claire's guide that offered lunch with their tastings - Alta Vista.
We pulled up at the massive automatic gate, greated by the security guard. "Do you have a reservation?" Oh shit. "No." He chatted away with someone on his walkie-talkie for a good 30 seconds before letting us in. Thinking only of my stomach, I quickly asked if there was a restaurant. "No." Bugger. Lunch consisted of the rest of my packet of mints as we were shown around the winery. This is where going to wineries here differs from Australia - they give you a 20 minute tour of their facilities before the sampling begins, and then they only give you 2 or 3 wines. Stingy! The first few tours are interesting, but after about the third tour I was over it. The same vats, just on different scales. Bring on the wine. I did learn something interesting - Mendozan wine is all natural and it has to be by law. There is also a law that champange and wine cannot be made on the same premises, cause this would mean that they would have to have sugar on the premises - not allowed. Absolutely starving by the time we made it back to Mendoza, we wandered up to the main restuarant street where we had really good steak at La Lucia. A massive slab of lomo, cooked to perfection with a good bottle of red wine - the day was finally looking up.
We decided to try and change our luck by moving to another hostel - we changed the following day to a HI on the restaurant and bar strip we'd been at the night before. While only 6 people in this dorm, the room could fit no more than the 3 sets of bunks it held. Our two bags on the floor took up most of the available floor space. And still, no air conditioning. Luckily, we managed to get the two bunks next to the window. Wouldn't say that it helped much. It was another night spent in a sauna.
Our bad run continued. Our new hostel had no room on their wine and bike tour of Maipu (yes, that's right, it's pronounced my poo). "You can do it on Friday" the grumpy woman at the desk suggested. So handy when you leave on Thursday. We headed to the hostel next door to see what they had. Finally, something went our way. We booked a bike and wine tour with the works - pool, lunch etc for the following afternoon - woo hoo. When we turned up the following day however the company had cancelled on us because 3 others who were supposed to be on the tour as well had pulled out. CRAPPPP. Can this week possibly get any worse?!?! The helpful guy at the desk quickly did some calling around and managed to get us on a bus tour for the afternoon. Better than nothing I suppose.
We were taken to one enourmous winery, a family winery and an olive oil place. The wine at Lopez, the enourmous winery, was disgusting. I would liken the brand to something like Wolfblass - a mass manufacturer of wine, where they care less about taste and more about affordability. Other people seemed to like it though. We sat on the bus waiting for a few people who were buying up big. The second winery, Don Alberto, was much better. Located on a tree lined street out in the country, Don Alberto had old country style houses, gazebos strangled with vines and an old fashioned way of making wine. They used water of the Mendoza river to cool the wine and original techniques to separate the grapes, stems and skins. Whether it was the environment or the care they put into their production, the wine tasted so much better. Though the region is famous for its shiraz, the Don Alberto shiraz was unpassable - we bought two bottles, a splurge on a backpacker's budget.
That night, we came back to the hostel from another delicious dinner and a few drinks in the midst of deciding whether to kick on or not. Our minds were quickly made up however when on our way past the pool to our room we were sweped up by our overly friendly hostel desk guy and his mate and thrown, fully clothed, wallets in hand, into the pool. Fully drenched, we decided bed was the best option.
On our last day in Mendoza we braved the local buses one last time to go and see Valentine's Day at Palmares, an outdoor mall (think Warringah mall style) in the burbs of Mendoza. We got there no problems, however the movie wasn't on (even though I had carefully researched movie times etc). We decided to ask to see Valentine's Day anyway, but getting to the counter and asking for "Dia..." and then forgetting the rest, we were given tickets to some random new Jamie Foxx movie Dias de ira (Law obiding citizen). Not really my cup of tea. Once inside, we found the cinema with Enamorándome de mi ex (It's Complicated) playing and saw that instead. A good romantic comedy if you're in the mood for one.
Woo hoo, finally time to leave Mendoza! Boarding the bus at 7pm (not the VIP bus we were promised), they fed us a mint and then jumped straight into the movies - 'Benjamin Button' - must be a bus hostess' favourite because this is about the third time we've seen it now. For those of you that haven't seen it, Benjamin Button is a looooooong movie, about 3 hours. By 9pm, almost half way through, they had dimmed the lights although they still hadn't fed us. I was starving, and the rocking of the bus was putting me to sleep like a baby. I somehow managed to stay awake, though it was really pointless because the movie froze. Too lazy to try and rectify the problem, the hostess simply turned the movie off, 20 mins before the end. Great for those who haven't seen it. Then, with everyone asleep, they served dinner. Who plans these things?!
Finally, we're back in Buenos Aires.
Apologies for my ranting. Hopefully I haven't put you off Mendoza and hopefully our luck picks up....
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