Mendoza June 9 - 14

Our flight arrived in Santiago in the early hours of June 9th and we were told it was only five degrees outside. Not particularly inviting when you have arrived from sunny Ecuador! We headed into the city to find the bus station and were lucky to catch a bus to Mendoza, Argentina not long after arriving. Ideally we would have flown into Mendoza but the budget would definitely have been shot to bits!

The bus journey was ok; I think it was about seven hours or so, passing through the Andes which were full of snow and pretty amazing, before arriving in Mendoza late afternoon.

Mendoza was originally built as a trade route through the Andes connecting the rest of Argentina with Santiago in Chile. It is now known for its pretty plazas, great food and nightlife, along with its proximity to the biggest wine region in Argentina.

We had been recommended a hostel by fellow travellers and on arrival were greeted by someone trying to get us to stay at that exact place. Usually this puts us off but he gave us a really good deal so we couldn't say no! It seemed fine on arrival so we settled in, had a siesta (we seriously need to have these in England) and decided to have a relaxing evening and eat at the hostel. The food was Caribbean style which was tasty but I think they got confused somewhere along the lines with the Caribbean aspect! We were persuaded to have a bottle of wine between us and chat to some of the people that worked there and some random man who was 52 years old but not even staying at our hostel. The 52 year old became a bit peculiar and was ordering champagne but insisting on taking pictures of us which became a bit freaky. After a while a couple of the staff members also got a bit close for comfort so we made our excuses and headed to bed! It's crazy to think that some naïve travellers actually fall for this supposed 'charm' which is tried on with every female in sight.

The following morning we had a nice lay in, only woken up around 10.45 by the guys in our room panicking as they were supposed to check out by 10am. In the afternoon we wandered around the city, taking in the various plazas (Italia, Espana, San Martin and Indepencia) all of which had their own charms, but annoyingly all had their fountains turned off. It was also siesta time, so many of the shops were closed, but this meant we could window shop without spending money.

The next day we had planned to go on a cycling wine tour but Zara wasn't feeling too great so I headed to San Martin park for a walk. It is an enormous park which has some nice gardens, a boating lake, various cafes, two football stadiums, one of which is a dump and currently being renovated (although it didn't look they were doing much work to it), a zoo, various statues, a medical University and numerous offices! It was a very random park. I must have walked for miles but was disappointed to see that half of the park was awful, completely overgrown with rubbish dotted around so I headed back to the prettier area and spent more time there! Upon trying to leave the park I realised that a football match was about to kick off at Club Independiente and as a result of this most of the exits from the park were closed except for one. There were riot police and cops on horseback everywhere and I had no choice but to go against the crowds of Argentine men to get out of the park. This was a bit intimidating being on my own with sleazy men shouting things, but at the same time it was interesting to see the immense atmosphere that was unfolding. Once I escaped from the park I then saw numerous buses drive past packed to the rim with supporters that were chanting and playing drums! And that's before any of them even get inside the stadium so I can only begin to imagine what it would be like during the match.

That evening we went to a restaurant down the street from our hostel and I indulged in some Argentinian steak! After almost ten months away it was definitely the best steak I have had in a long time, probably the best in years, it was huge and so tasty, I will definitely be having another one before leaving Argentina!

We were initially going to leave Mendoza for Cordoba on the Sunday, but after giving it some thought we decided that we really wanted to do the wine tour so would hang around for a couple more days and either skip Cordoba or have a flying visit on the way to Buenos Aires. Therefore, I booked myself onto a horse riding trip on Sunday afternoon. I was the last one to get picked up for the tour, so had no choice of where to sit on the minibus. I took my seat and started a conversation with the girls next to me (Germans) who gave me one word answer and then started their own conversation in German. Apologies to those Germans we have met that have been awesome, but they were just rude! Needless to say that when we arrived at the ranch in the mountains I left their sides and found some nicer American and Dutch girls to chat to!

We hung around the ranch for a while admiring the vast amounts of beautiful horses, numerous goats, dogs and chickens before each being assigned a horse! Most of them were pretty huge so I was pleased when I jumped on slightly smaller one. Upon asking my horses name the Spanish guy made a joke and all the locals started laughing, I still don't quite know what the joke was as the English translation didn't make sense and I never did end up knowing her name! We were told very briefly how to ride a horse and this was fairly different to any instructions I'd ever been given in westernised countries, so this along with not wearing a helmet made me feel a bit nervous about the ride ahead! We hacked up and down the mountains, watching the sunset behind the hills (whilst attempting to get photos, which was not very successful) and clambering through many bushes and around numerous rocks! My horse seemed to like being near the back which resulted in the guy from the ranch whipping my horses ass regularly to make her move quicker! The guy himself was crazy and just kept galloping off into the distance with a permanent cigarette in his mouth!

The next morning we got up bright and early (for us anyway) and headed out to Maipu with the Columbian girls from our room. On arrival we were greeted by Mr Hugo himself who seemed like an awesome character. Proper beer or wine belly, cheery and just generally amusing. He presented us with our beautiful bikes, baskets included, gave us a map and sent us on our way. We headed for the first winery which had a museum and tasting which free which was an added bonus of course. Our first glass of wine was in hand at around 11am and for someone that doesn't drink red it was quite nice and light. Unfortunately I have no idea what it was called.

Next stop was a chocolate, jam, dips and schnapps place. We had to pay a small fee for this, but I got to have lots of bread dipped in oils, various other spreads which was really tasty, especially one of the sundried tomato ones, this was followed by sweet spreads, then chocolate and finally schnapps. Zara was being careful with the alcohol after being ill so just took pictures of the faces I was pulling. Other cyclists were having absinthe as they had never seen it before, but it was a little too early in the day for me!

As expected we visited a few more wineries, enjoyed the cycle past red coloured vines (due to it being Autumn) and found ourselves in a beer garden. We thought it would be best to get some food in us to soak up some of the alcohol but for some reason ended up with a pint and some crisps! Oh well….more wine would follow! One of the best and most picturesque vineyards was the last one we visited where a taster just happened to be three full glasses of wine. After this we realised we needed some real food so ordered some meat whilst enjoying the views!

We then had to cycle back to Mr Hugo's and at this point found out that it was about 8km along one road. Somehow it seemed much easier and quicker after a lot of wine and we were kindly greeted by Mr Hugo and a pitcher of wine as the sun was setting. A nice end to a great day!

Our final day was spent wandering around, taking in more of Mendoza before heading to the bus station for our night bus to Buenos Aires. We were pretty gutted when we booked out seats as all the seats that reclined to a flat-bed were sold out so we were stuck with what they called an executive seat which only cost about seven pound less. As per usual my seat was broken and barely reclined so I knew I was in for a sleepless night and there wasn't anything I could do about it!