Mendoza
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2008
1
34
68
Trip End
Jun 15, 2009
Mendoza,
Northern Argentina,
Argentina
Monday, February 9, 2009
Next stop was Mendoza. Unfortunately there wasn't a direct bus, so we had to spend a night in Tucuman on the way. There wasn't much happening there, but we did get treated to a free drag queen show in our hostel. Seems some of the guys staying there were in town to party drag queen style and didn't mind putting on a performance for us.
The overnight bus was ok, but oh my god Argentina is expensive for bus travel. The hostel we stayed in was right in town but wasn't that great, very squishy. Everything here in Argentina is expensive so Dave and I have been relegated to dorm rooms, here we had a nice 8 bed one. Jo and Jozza were arriving in a few days time and we wanted to do a wine tour with them so we decided to check out the city.
Mendoza is quiet a nice place, but really just another city. The main plaza, plaza independencia is really lovely and we spent lots of quality time hanging out in the shade here. We also checked out the park. I think it is meant to be one of the biggest parks in the world, but all this tells me is that it is too big for them to look after. It was really a disappointment, lots of the area was fenced off and huge big busy roads ran through it. Still we had a nice little picnic here and chilled out for a few hrs. Then we got lost and spent the next hr or so finding our way back into town. Not like us at all! We met Jo and Jozza that night and decided to do a bike tour the next day.
We had to get a local bus out to Maipu where the vine yards were and then we rented a bike from there. We went to a company called Mr. Hugo and the guy who ran it was really friendly. He was a tall large older man and he greeted us warmly saying in a big voice "Hello, I am Mr Hugo!" shaking all of our hands. It turned out to be a really great day. The wine we tasted was great, and we brought some olives and sun dried tomatoes from an olive grove. We sat under a tree in a vine yard for lunch and opened a nice cold bottle of Rose. It was sunny, the area pretty, and well we were all getting a bit tipsy. We also stopped in at the liquor and chocolate factory, but the chocolate wasn't very good.
All in all I think we road about 25kms, but it was flat roads and very easy. When we got back to Mr. Hugo's he gave us a free glass of wine for our trouble, and then another and if we hadn't left when we did I am sure we would have spent the night there! We had another picnic in the plaza with a few beers that night.
