Mendoza - wine tour

The cama bus from Cordoba to Mendoza didn´t dissappoint, I had to be shaken awake in the morning and made to get off! No champagne though...I suppose that´s what happens when you get the cheapest option. We found a hostel eventually, right in the center, called Hostel Independencia. It´s really nice, relaxed and organised. We slept all morning and then went and sat in Plaza Independencia which is more like a park than a plaza. Apparently there was an earthquake here ages ago and so they rebuilt the city with huge plazas and wide streets to act as evacuation points should it happen again. For dinner we cooked with David (a German guy we had met in Cordoba) and had amazing steak, salad, bread and wine followed by an early night.

The next day I slept in and missed breakfast which was upsetting! I had a slow start and didn´t really do anything until a group of English invited us out for lunch. There were four of them, Kyle, Ben, James and Katherine. Kyle and Ben quoted "The Office" continuously....reminded me somewhat of 2nd year uni! Afterwards we picked up David and all went to the huge park together and lazed around all afternoon in the sun.Our German friend, sunbathing!

We had another quiet evening, refusing the drinking games that seem to occur every evening in our hostel! The next morning we got a group together to go and do a tour of the vineyards. We had an Ozzy couple, Aaron and Carolyn, an English girl, Erin, and David. We all got the bus out to Maipu and went to "Mr Hugo´s" to rent some bikes. First stop was the museum and industrial vineyard where we managed to get a free wine taster and the boys managed to blag 2 glasses. We met some Ozzys there, Sonia, Paul and something hard to remember who joined us for the rest of the day.

We then cycled 3km to Familia Di Tomaso (because it´s the cheapest) where we had an interesting tour and sampled 3 reds and a dessert wine. We were lucky enough to have another day of gorgeous blue skies and sun so we sat around eating our picnics before headed onto Carinae vineyard where we tested another three reds. None of us knew much about wine but it was fun to attempt to distinguish the difference. I don´t really think we were given anything of much quality to try!

Museo del Vino La Rural:

Scenary on the cycle ride:

Familia Di Tomaso:

Carinae:

Next we went to the olive oli producer across the road and had a quick tour, some sundried tomatoes with olive oli and bread and olives. Alexa and I then bought a kilo of olives! The were only $10ARG which is sooo cheap! We had a second lunch/early dinner of olives and bread.

It was then already 6pm so we cycled all the way back to Historias y Sabors which was a liquor and chocolate producer. We got to pick a spirit to try each so we shared them: Chocolate and coconut, lemon, chocolate and mint, dulce de leche and absinthe (David´s choice!) Aaron then somehow managed to charm the women into giving us a free shot of conac as well. We had chocolate and then sauces, honey, jam, pickles etc to try.

We then returned the bikes to Mr Hugo and he gave us all a couple of glasses of wine before we jumped on a bus back to town. Not long after we headed out to a bar called Decimo which was on the 10th floor of a tower block. It had awesome views over Mendoza and was rather posh. The English guys from the hostel in Cordoba joined us, Chris and James, which was cool. After another bottle of wine we called it a night. All in all, a very fun day!

We chilled out for our last day in Mendoza, again having a late start, followed by coffee, ice cream, window shopping, sitting in the plaza and a late lunch.