Stop thief!

  Mendoza, Argentina
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

We raced to find our bus at Buenos AiresŽ massive station and so we were quite hot and bothered when we climbed aboard, our mood soon lifted though when we discovered that we were travelling in Cama Suite class to Mendoza. WeŽd seen it written on our tickets, but hadnŽt wanted to get our hopes up, so when we saw the comfy leather seats that reclined so far they were almost flat, we were very excited.

Then things got even better - we were treated to a game of bingo! This was great fun and passed the time before our three course meal, wine, champagne and movie. We went to sleep feeling very happy. Things started well the next morning too - breakfast was good, we arrived in Mendoza on time and managed to buy the last two bus tickets to the Chilean town of Valparaiso for two days time. We even got pulled out of the massive taxi queue and offered a free lift to the hostel weŽd booked, but then our luck ran out.

01 This is what Cama Suite looks like

We waited patiently in the reception of the Internacional Hostel Mendoza while they dealt with someone else and then stepped forward to claim our room. As it was coming up to Easter, Jim had had to foresight to book a doubleroom a fortnight in advance. HeŽd received a personally addressed confirmation email and yet the bloke behind reception told us there was no booking in our name. He was quite rude actually asking if we were sure we were in the right place and saying all their doubles had been booked solidly for two months.

As we werenŽt able to produce the email and he said he had no beds left we got him to call around other places. He eventually found us two beds in a dorm somewhere else, but be warned the INTERNACIONAL HOSTEL MENDOZA DOES NOT HONOUR BOOKINGS!

09 Lorry loads of grapes

The place we moved to was OK, but I was feeling a little hard done by, until we bumped into Dawn and Steve, and English couple weŽd first met in Puerto Madryn. This cheered me up no end and after a picnic lunch together we planned to take a bike tour of some vineyards together the following day. We spent some time lounging around the hostel and then set off for a walk around town.

Now weŽd both been looking forward to coming to Mendoza, everything weŽd read had been positive and we thought we were in for a peaceful stay in a nice city. That was before we were fell victim to the townŽs evil thieves... I had my brand new leather handbag snatched while in an internet cafe in the city centre - there was no money, cards, passports or phone inside just our indispensable guidebook, our onward bus tickets and our gorgeous little laptop which has been with us everywhere since Hong Kong :-(

11 Disco camel - spotted while out in Mendoza

The internet cafe guys called the police and reviewed CCTV footage with us, but the culprits were long gone. We got to ride to the station in the back of the police car - very uncomfortable metal seat it turns out and had a "fun" time trying to fill in the crime reports. The duty inspector seemed to be of the opinion that if he spoke very loudly and slowly in Spanish weŽd suddenly be fluent. Thank goodness some other guy in the station acted as translator for us - were still not sure if he was an off-duty cop, a victim of crime or a criminal.

Thankfully the laptopŽs insured but itŽs a bugger travelling without it, especially as all the places weŽve booked have free WiFi and it seems that Colombia may turn out to be the ideal country to spend the evenings catching up on the O.C.!

04 Wine tasting on bikes

We had to spend over an hour in another internet cafe changing all the passwords to our accounts just in case those thieving bastards turn out to be computer whizzes and so it was really nice to come back to the hostel and meet Steve and Dawn again. We had a good old moan over some beers and felt much better by the time we went to bed.

03 Wine tasting

We were both determined that the theft shouldnŽt spoil our bodega tour the next day and so once weŽd warned the other people to be wary of their belongings we tried to forget all about it. It turns out we werenŽt the only ones whoŽd fallen victim to the evil Mendoza crime ring - we heard of at least to other people whoŽs had stuff stolen including one girl who lost her whole backpack with her passport inside!

02 The first wine bodega we visited on our bikes

The tour weŽd chosen to do was one where we got driven to Maipu, a short distance south of the city, and then weŽd cycle between the places we were to visit. We started at an old fashioned family run organic winery - the tour was really interesting, although the woman didnŽt speak a word of English. Fortunately we had an American woman on the trip whoŽs been living in Uruguay for six months so she acted as translator. The wines we tasted were excellent and bought a bottle to drink later.

From the Checcin Bodega we cycled a short distance to an olive oil producer. There we were shown the process involved in extracting the oil - they process their whole crop in just 72 hours in order to get the best possible quality. We tasted their oil and some of the dried fruits they process there too.

06 Giant wine bottles - on our wine tasting tour

Next came lunch - huge steak and cheese sandwiches to line our stomachs presumably before we wobbled down the road to Bodega Lopez. This is one of the biggest name vineyards in Argentina, but they only export about 10% of their wine, so we werenŽt familiar with any of it. The place was much bigger than the first one and they had lots of local tourists taking tour too. The wine was nice, but not as good as the first place so we decided against adding to our backpack.

07 Inside a chocolate and liqueur factory

The next stop was a liquor and chocolate making place. This was really interesting as it was started by the owner as a hobby and it wasnŽt until 18 years later that he decided to make money out of it. That was two years ago and business seems to be going well - he makes all sorts of booze including vodka, port and whisky (he blends his own with a scotch single malt he imports) as well as loads of wacky fruity and chocolately liquors. Then there are the jams, sauces and sweets. We got a generous sample of a liquor of our choice and even though they were delicious as we werenŽt travelling straight home we decided travelling with a bottle of port was just to dangerous.

Our last stop of the day was at one of the most famous vineyards in the whole of Latin America. La Rural has a really impressive wine museum and unlike the second vineyard actually had vines growing right outside the bodega. We wandered around marvelling at how winemaking was done in the 16th century and then were brought right up to date in their massive state of the art facility.

08 The vineyards at winery number 3

The tasting was very good (we were getting the hang of it by now!) and as we were sipping away we noticed the different labels they had on the walls - including some for the Hilton Buenos Aires and Harrods Argentina (yep thereŽs one in BA, our guidebook says people used to go and marvel at a full size London bus and a live Indian elephant while they were doing their shopping there!), apparently itŽs no longer linked to the one in London though.

La Rural was our last stop of the day, which was just as well as the heavens opened while we were inside and the prospect of negotiating potholed roads in the rain wasnŽt appealing. We drove back to Mendoza on the minibus and asked to be dropped at the bus station in order to try and get out tickets to Valparaiso re-issued. While the man seemed willing to help, after a few phonecalls he told us we needed to come back in the morning half an hour before we were due to travel.

10 Barrels for aging

We spent the next couple of hours traipsing around town trying to buy a book in English to replace our beloved Footprint South America 2007 Guide. We looked everywhere without much luck, including several second hand places (I was desperately hoping weŽd come across our own book the thieves had already sold on), but then we found a FodorŽs Guide to South America - it was a bit dated, but beggars canŽt be choosers.

Next on the list was to see if we could replace my beautiful handbag - IŽd only had it for 24 hours before it was rudely snatched. I was planning on posting it home from Santiago and was only taking it out on a test drive as it were - itŽs just too sad! We found out there were 3 branches of Prune, the shop I got it from in Mendoza, and we visted two of them. Neither had the lovely dark green leather bag IŽd had originally, but Jim helped me pick out an equally lovely replacement and promised to have a look to see if they do mail orders .-))

After that it was back to the hostel and then a wander to see if we could find some dinner, we bumped into Dawn and Steve again and so had a really enjoyable meal with them. One bottle of wine over dinner, then lead to two more back at the hostel and before we knew it it was gone 3am. Even though Steve was keen we drink another bottle, we said goodbye to them both with promises to catch up again in Blightly, if not in Ecuador, and then retreated to bed. We had to be up early in the morning for our bus journey over the Andes into Chile.