Mendozzzersss

After New Year’s Eve we slept in until about 3:30 ate a fantastic breakfast with Gerardo. Sat at the beach, and then headed back to Santiago…

The last few days I spent in Santiago were amazing. Devon and I filled up our days with a lot of relaxation and getting to know/ hanging out with my host brother Joel… He is awesome.

On Sunday January 4^th I finally packed up all my bags, ate one last dinner at my home in the southern hemisphere and said goodbye to my host family and took an overnight bus to Mendoza.

The bus ride to Mendoza… not so good, an elderly woman conveniently located in the seat right behind us had some problems with her respiratory system, and when she was awake she would wheeze non stop and when she was asleep she would snore… really loud. Alrighty now for Mendoza Round 2.

Highlights

Bike and Wine Tour Round 2: Devon and I decided we needed to do the famous Mendoza bike and wine tour, since it was my second time doing the tour we decided it could only be done the right way, with a tandem bike, then cruise through the many vineyards in Maipu on our tandem wonder… our dreams were shattered when we arrived at the bike rental company and saw they had no tandem bikes left. Either way the day was fantastic.

We went on the tour with two Canadians we met in our hostel, Steve and Conor, and one American, Zach.

The group @ Tempus Alba

The first vineyard we went to had a huge museum and a very informative tour about the wine making process, I stayed around and listened to the information on the tour while my co bike and wine adventurers tested how well La Bodega Rural actually produced their wine. Their consensus was, the cabernet sauvignon was great.

Next we went to a Chocolateria, a place where chocolate and many different types of liquors are made. They have chocolate liquor, dulce de leche liquor, orange liquor, absinthe, tia maria, whisky, vodka, pepper liquor, chocolate con café liquor, and a bunch of other stuff. After a quick tour we paid 10 pesos, 3 dollars to try a variety of their chocolates, 3 different kinds of sauces they produce, and a sample of one of their liquors. Most the group members were very bold and decided to try the absinth, which is made of 60% alcohol. I ate a bunch of chocolates.

After the Chocolateria we road our bikes on a very small and cluttered street towards a very fancy small scale vineyard called Tempus Alba. Tempus Alba was definitely my favorite place we went to. Upon arrival we were greeted by a beautiful Argentinean who told us to take a walking tour of their vineyard then, to head upstairs to sample some of their great wines. We took the tour… everyone in the group ordered the 3 cup sampler of wine, a basket full of olives and some cheese and crackers. We sat on an the deck of the building where their wine was produced sipped on fabulous wine, and in my case lukewarm water, talked about politics, different types of cheese, and we spent a decent amount of time talking with the owner of the vineyard a very friendly Italian/ Argentinean. We spent roughly 1 ½ hours at Tempus Alba then went to Vina Cerno.

Vina Cerno… not cool, NEXT!

The last vineyard we went to was quite the experience. The vineyard, Di Tommasi, offered a tour and a tasting for 10 pesos, 3 dollars. Most the members of our group were sufficiently buzzed, but decided this would be a great place to finish up our wonderful day. Although the picture displayed of our guide from Di Tommasi don’t quite do her justice, she was absolutely gorgeous… seriously she was Schgreat. I am sure every person with a chromosomal makeup of XY, aka men/ boys, had never paid as much attention to a wine tour as they did on this one. I wish I had a picture of everyone’s face, I am pretty sure no one even blinked… not even once. After the tour we headed upstairs to try some of the award winning wines Di Tommasi produces. Devon, being the great friend that he is drank all my tasters. Not only was he being a good friend by drinking my tasters, I think the extremely gorgeous guide was very impressed with his display of pure manhood. He was chugging the tasters like an 8^th grader chugs four shots of Skol Vodka in their parents basement before sneaking out to TP someone’s house at 11 pm. Anyways, the girl was seriously mad flirting with Devon… actually she wasn’t at all, but anyways her and Devon were sending real good vibes back and forth until Devon attempted the most amazing wine tasting feat, ormaneuver ever. He tried to drink the red elixir from both my glass and his glass simultaneously; this resulted in a lot of Malbec on his bright yellow T-shirt.

I was very interested in her... wine expertise

After the tasting, every guy from the tour… minus Devon and myself bought a bottle of the most expensive wine the vineyard had to offer. A 2004 Malbec, which according to the best wine guide ever, was one of the best wines that particular vineyard had ever produced. I’m pretty sure she could have pointed to 20 dusty boxes of White Zinfandel made by Franzia and said it was Di Tommasi’s top wine and every guy on that tour would have forked over the money to get their hands on that wine… because somehow buying wine from this girl, who just as a reminder is very good looking, would obviously make her to more partial to them. Devon and I decided not to fall for her trap, and we made it out without buying a 30 dollar bottle of wine, and Devon got her to laugh by lip-syncing Jesse Mac’s Leavin.

Overall Good Day.

The Parque: Devon and I went to the park in Mendoza not once… but twice. The park in Mendoza is huge…During my last trip to Mendoza I decided it would be a good idea to run through this park, and I got lost for 3 hours. It’s safe to say the park won that fight by TKO first round.

I did not want to lose another battle with the park so this time I came well equipped, I had a map, a friend, water, some snacks, and a cell phone. It’s safe to say Devon and I walked all over that park. During our strolls through the park we saw a lot of neat things.

1. Trotters: Argentineans put their own style into their jogging technique… they don’t quite extend their legs long enough to really Jog… so they trot. Trotting is very similar to the more conventional and well known activity called jogging, but trotters generally do not move very fast, nor do they truly pick their feet up of the ground. We saw a myriad of trotters throughout our walks in the park.

2. Trees/ Grass: The park had a lot of trees… and a lot of grass.

3. Cerro Gloria: This Cerro was awesome and had an incredible statue on top of it.

4. Rally Car Fanatics: On our second stroll some really big rally car event was going on there were people everywhere… it was crazy.

5. Health Clubs: There were a lot of health clubs in this park.

We did some other things in Mendoza… but my explanation of the bike and wine tour was far too long, so I am going to close the Mendoza chapter of this blog. It was fun.