Bikes and wines

We boarded our last Argentinian flight to Bariloche, still in awe of our glacier experience.  This town, although clearly geared to more upper market tourism, was still pleasant and quite beautiful.  Our inexpensive hosteria was sited on the edge of Bariloche´s famous Nahuel Haupe lake and we enjoyed stunning sunsets and moonlit water from the comfort of our room.

Lago Nahuel Huape - muy bonita

We visited another national park and though it was postcard pretty the excess of tourists did take the edge off somewhat.  We did learn a lot about the flora and forna and I gave a tree a well deserved hug. The next day we decided to enjoy the scenery on horseback.  Led by a genuine gaucho twosome our first job was to round up the horses which are normally left free to roam. ¨Stand hear¨ the gaucho said, ¨dont let them cross the river if they come this way¨.  Sounds simple enough but ten minutes later, as ten large and wild looking horses approached me at pace I felt rather uneasy.  No fear I thought and I held out my arms to make myself large and said sternly, STOP.  Thankfully they obeyed. 

Butch and Sundance

Continuing at this more gentle pace we caught our next  bus to Mendoza.  Argentina is famous for beef and red wine and Mendoza provice is wine country.  There are, we learned after many many, many visits, over 1000 wineries (Bodegas) in Mendoza..... lets get cracking TC said!

We started off in the Maipu*  region by hardy bicycle (*pronounced ´my-pooh´, honest!).  All the bodegas, traditional or modern are impressive and ask for little or no money for wine tasting (degustacion).  Thus, after enjoying the hugely informative tours we politely obliged. Now I am not to blame if spitting vessels are not provided at the bodegas, clearly tis not the custom here and quite frankly its just wrong to waste such good malbec. Lets just say that we realised the failings of bicycles for such an occasion and decided to use public transport the next day.

Yasmin, Malbec, Andes

Wise you may think but the region of Lujan de Cuyo has a public transport system that is quite special.  After an arduous journey in which we eventually ended up hitching a lift on a packed tourist coach we managed to visit only one of our intended five bodegas that day.  However, bodega Tapiz was the most informative and hospitable and well worth it.

Suffice to say there were many fine wine experiences and I don´t want to bore you but I drank well and I think the pictures tell all.

Onwards north.....

Jaf x

I like wine

Gaucho twosome

Natural?

Caballgatos

Is that a phalus I see in the distance?

Bariloche chainsaw masacre!

Droopy

Minus the good stuff

Make it....yes

I like wine too

Bodega Ruca Malen

Yasmin, Malbec, Andes

Bodega Tapiz - fantastic!

Garden restaurant - Maipu

Pimms o clock

Happy days

Another TC arty pic - how is my focus?

More comfortable on the table than the horse

Los Turistas