Medoza - Wine Wedding Aniversary And Rugby
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
90
133
Trip End
Nov 01, 2005
Mendoza,
Argentina
Monday, June 20, 2005
We arrived in Mendoza and got to our hostel (Wincas) about 8am. They gave us breakfast and we waited around as it was National Flag Day and therefore a bank holiday - aaaaaaghhhhh. We had to get a deposit paid for the Galapagos so we ended up having to spend ages dealing with Western Union on the phone in the UK - what an expensive hassle. We then walked through the square in the centre of town which for a change wasn`t called San Martin but this time it was Indepencia. However, the town has a famous association with San Martin and there is a SM square, a SM park and a SM Museum. We went up to the General San Martin Museum to learn more about this famous man - to find it shut for construction works. After that we headed for the foundation area where the old centre of the city was based. Mendoza was almost entirely flattened in 1861 by a huge earthquake and in this area some of the few surviving sections of buildings are preserved
01 Mendoza Fountain
. We went round the museum and then visited the old (now subterranean due to the earthquake) fountains. Afterwards we passed by a lovely brick church (closed) and found some of the other squares in the town. After lunch we headed over to see a rather unusual form of museum (with a dog following us as Stewart fed it the sausage which arrived unexpectedly on his veggie lunch). Along a street block little dioramas of different periods and themed street scenes are displayed. After that we headed out to an office to buy some rugby tickets for tomorrow and stopped at a famous chocolate shop on the way back to the hostel - fairly tasteless chocolate but some nice wines. Earlier in the day this shop had a huge queue which reminded us of last minute Christmas shopping at home - we`re told it`s Argentinians returning home after spending the bank holiday weekend here. We headed back to the hostel where we found out that there had been an error and someone else had been given the double room - so we spent the night in a dorm. We had a nice meal where we met a Welshman and an Englishwoman over for the rugby - he was an ex-Lions player and she was the physio for the Welsh Under 21 Rugby team (nice job says Gillian).Day 234 Tuesday 21/06/05 Mendoza
It`s our second wedding anniversary..............
02 Medoza Brick Church
. awh shucks. We dropped our stuff into the laundry (7 pesos, or 2 euro), changed a flight time (for free), bought our next bus ticket and spent some time on the internet. We then had a quick café meal before getting a taxi (after much waiting) out to Mendoza Rugby Club for an afternoon of rugby. The U21 World Championship is on here and there were a couple of games which caught our attention! First up was Argentina v England.. and we confused the crowd - English speakers cheering for Argentina! After the very very long Argentinian anthem we were "treated" to a dismal game of rugby but which had a good result. Argentina won 20 - 6. Two English lads turned up about 10 minutes into the first half and they were the only ones in the entire crowd that we heard cheering England on - and they kept going very bravely even when they were being taunted a little and being told to shut up. It seems to be ok for the Argy crowd to whistle loudly when England take a kick but not for the lone English supporters to do anything when the Argy kicks. After the good result we waited half an hour (in which time the weather turned a little drizzly and very cold) and the next game came around - Wales v Scotland. There was quite a good Welsh support (Wales colonised parts of Argentina and in some parts Welsh is still spoken) and besides Stewart there were some other folk cheering for Scotland - about 6 kilties which we later found out were families of the team. Stewart`s "Gainst Who" was very loud during the "Flower of Scotland" anthem
03 Medoza Street
! The game was excellent - Wales had a very fast and powerful running team, the Scottish defence was superb and Scotland managed to capitalise on some Welsh errors to in the end run out easy winners at 43 - 25. During the match the sun poked its head out for a brief spell - the first sunshine we have seen in days - we haven`t yet seen the mountains which surround Cordoba! We left the stadium with the 2 English lads to share a taxi - but Gillian cheekily thumbed down an almost empty car as we walked out of the stadium - it turned out to be the stadium announcer who was extremely friendly and very kindly drove us back into the centre of Mendoza. After moving rooms (where our double room turned out to be twin bunks!!!! - for a wedding anniversary!!!), we chilled for a while before heading out to one of the best restaurants in town for a slap up meal. We had been warned that the portions weren´t large and it was true - Gillian actually managed 3 courses for the first time in ages. The food was nice but maybe not worth the money they charged - still cheap compared to home though [grin]. The restaurant is more about the wine and we pushed the boat out and spent 10 euros on the best white they had - and it was lovely! A "Scottish" family sat down beside us - the father is Scottish though through construction has worked overseas since 1981, the wife is South African - their eldest son AJ MacFarlane plays for the U21 team, is good friends with Stewart`s second cousin Alan Bulloch and he is studying at Glasgow Caledonian University to be a QS!
04 Wedding Anniversary - we enjoyed the match!!
! Small world.Day 235 Wednesday 22/06/05 Mendoza
We caught a local bus out to Maipu which is the heart of the wine growing area. This whole region was basically desert but they provided irrigation from the snow filled mountain rivers and it was just the perfect conditions & climate for wine growing. Wine growing here started to produce wine for the Catholic mass - it`s a very Catholic country. You can do an organised tour of the area or you can do it yourself - very cheap but more hassle. The area is quite industrial and is the ugliest wine area we have ever seen - very dry and dusty roads, open sewer drainage & crap pavements (if any at all). Our first stop was the Museum of Wine - sadly we missed the English tour and after a fairly average glass of wine we left to continue elsewhere. We had been told you could walk between things so we tried! After the first walk of 3km or so we came across a lovely family company called Historias y Sabores which produces liqueurs, chocolates & jams. The very friendly guy talked us through (in Spanish) the production process for the various liqueurs before letting us sample 6 of them - from tobacco to milk coffee. Slurp. We bought a bottle and some chocolate and when we asked if he could call us a taxi to the next vineyard he decided to drive us himself - he brought us 5km down the road which was just so nice of him. The vineyard we went to was Vino El Cerno - a boutique winery which only restarted about 10 years ago, though it was originally set up in 1916. They produce on a fairly small scale and utilise much of the original old equipment - the tour was excellent and we learned more new stuff even though we know a fair bit about wine production by now. After sampling 3 of their wines we caught a taxi back to the Museum Of Wine and caught an English tour
05 Maipu Vineyard
. Again the tour was excellent. The vineyard is La Rural and is one of the bigger manufacturers - the difference between the old boutique winery and the new stainless steel style was very evident and was a lovely contrast. While finishing our 2nd glass of their average wine 2 people we had met in Buenos Aires came in! We went off together and went to the vineyard immediately next door. It was tiny. A lovely woman talked us through the history of the vineyard - they are the 5th generation on the property and produce wine (a miniscule 3000 bottles a year, only Malbec), olives and sun-dried tomatos & raisins. The cellar is under the house and about 12 people would be a snug fit! They have a lovely cosy little cottage for rent (www.freesheye.com.ar/cavagnaro) which isn´t that much more expensive than the hostel we are in, at 40 pesos per person - if you head this way we`d recommend a night here - an ideal base for exploring the many vineyards round this town. We headed back into Mendoza and after some TV watching we headed out for a Greek meal. Nice change but very small portions and not a huge choice on the menu.Day 236 Thursday 23/06/05 Mendoza - Bariloche
We walked up to the huge San Martin Park (yes him again). It's a lovely park in places and we began by walking round the lagoon that has a decaying Mississippi style paddle steamer floating on it. It also houses the rowing club and a large selection of birds live around the lagoon. Sadly large parts of the park are fenced off to protect buildings that are also housed here - the stadium, the velodrome, etc. After heading through the indigenous area of the park (scrub) we caught a taxi back into town and had a fabulous meal at Facundas (hake & steak with the usual Argy choc mousse). After catching up with emails on the internet we relaxed in the hostel and then caught an overnight bus to Bariloche which took us 20 hours. The bus had huge big comfy seats and after a ropey film we got to sleep ok.
