Where the Wine flows Like Beer.
Trip Start
Feb 14, 2006
1
18
104
Trip End
Ongoing
Mendoza,
Argentina
Sunday, May 7, 2006
We then started on our way to find a Hostel or suitable hotel. Once again, the all knowing Lonely Planet has let us down. Hotels that were supposed to cost $12.00, now cost 25.00. Now this might not sound like much to you at home, but for the budget traveler, itīs a pretty penny. We finally found a Hostel that looked quite nice and were please to find out that the owner spoke English. In fact, she spoke American... I asked her where she was from and she replied "Chicago". I was really excited about this... Turns out she was born about in Edgewater, went to high school in Skokie, and lived in Andersonville. We had a cup of coffee and talked excitedly of home. Mona Lisa had started up this hostel with her boyfriend Fernando about 16 months ago and was waxing nostalgic about all things Chicago. I canīt tell you how fun this was.. although it did make us a bit homesick. You meet people in the strangest places sometimes.
We got settled in our very comfortable room and then went out to explore Mendoza. I like Mendoza. It is a very nice city.. itīs got a million people in it, but you would never know it. The streets are very wide and lined with massive trees. The parks are clean, the stray dogs friendly, and the people are polite and remarkably good looking. In fact, while Iīm talking about astethics. Argentineīs have to be the best looking people in the world. They are very image conscious and always look good. You donīt see a lot of people in sweat pants, unless of course, they are working out. Other wise, they look like they live in the J Crew catalog.
We strolled though the city past huge beautiful mansions with no front yards. This is actually pretty common, and I think it makes sense. Most houses of any size have courtyards in back in place of front yards. When was the last time you used your front yard? Itīs just more to mow and keep your neighbors dog shit off of. We didnīt see any regular houses of any kind, only these big gorgeous houses. Where to the regular people live, we wondered.
Eventually we stumbled on to San Martin Park. This is without question the biggest park Iīve been to ever. In fact, Kel and I walked around for hours looking for the zoo, which was supposed to be pretty large, and never found it. It was full of people exercising, drinking mate, making out, or just generally doing nothing. Iīm telling you, Argentineīs live a great lives. This was during the middle of the day, keep in mind. We noticed a lot of high school aged kids there as well, which made us wonder if they just have a huge hookey problem. As it turns out, the kids only school for four hours a day. Some go in the morning, the rest in the evening. This seemed odd to me, but I guess itīs working out. Most everyone seems to be able to read, and judging from all the newspaper stands on every corner, does so often. Kelly and I eventually ended up outside the park, due to a series of wrong turns, and ended up walking very close to a huge shanty town. I guess we found out where the have-nots live. Funny that the mansions and these sad, sad, shacks were literally about a kilometer from each other. Also, funny to me is that these shacks all had piles of junk on their roofs. Thatīs something Iīll never quite get. Okay, youīre poor. I get that.. but why donīt you throw away your garbage? This seems to be the case everywhere.. from Argentina to West Virgina. Anyway, I digress.
The rest of the evening was spent goofing off in the hostel, making dinner and drinking wine. Which by the way, if I haven't mentioned before, is excellent and extra cheap. A mid grade bottle was about three bucks. We also signed up for a wine making tour the next day.
Our tour started at 10:00 and we promptly met our tour mates. Folks from Ireland, Israel, Australia, and East Germany. Our guide explained to us why Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina. They only get 200 mmīs of rain per year, but due to irrigation systems that date back to the Incas, they are able to grow all kinds of things. Mostly grapes and olives though. Our first stop was to a big winery which was cool to see all of the barrels and the bottle corker machine. That machine reminded me of the beginning of Laverne and Shirley. Pretty cool... the machine, not Laverne and Shirley.
We then went to another small winery that specializes in quality wines and a liquor factory. We got to try a bunch of liqour and wine and we left these places feeling pretty good. From there we went to yet another winery for lunch. When I say lunch, that would be the understatement of the year. This spread was like none that I've ever seen. They must have had 35 different kinds of food, from olives, to pumpkin, to 10 different cheeses, 6 different sausages, and every other kind of food that you can think of. Plus the wine was flowing freely. Well, not freely, but we had already paid for it... so we wanted to get our money's worth. The German guy and I kept making jokes about how we felt like Ceasar. It was a good way to spend an afternoon.
That evening, our hostel held a BBQ, which in Argentina means that they cook up the equivallant of an entire cow. Basicly the entire hostel showed up and we got to meet all kinds of people this way. Of course, more wine was consumed, and Beer, and any thing else we could get our grubby little hands on. Dinner finished at about 1:00 in the morning, which is somewhat normal here. We then rallied a crew to go to the bars. Again, heading out at 2:00 in the morning is normal here.. it takes some getting used to. We bounced from bar to bar meeting all kinds of strange and interesting folks. Including this guy who was playing the guitar for Kelly and I. I asked if I could play his guitar, in order to try out my healing wrist. It didn't go all that well... but I was able to get through a song. When I was done, this guy tried to give us his first song that he'd ever written. He just thought it would be a nice thing to do I guess. We of course, couldn't take this guy's first song.. but I thought that was an incredibly nice and generous thing of him to offer.
One thing led to another and Kelly and I ended up walking home at 9:00 in the morning. The bad thing was, that we had to check out by 10:00. This was painful in so many ways, I could never hope to count them all. Kel took a nap and I got a shower and packed us up. The next day was one of the most painful I've been through in a long time. Hangovers are a waste of time. Which is such a drag, because, I don't feel the same way about bar time. We hung out at the hostel all day watching movies and praying for a speedy death. That evening we went to Rosario.. but that can wait until next time.
