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Now we're getting to the heart of it, Mendoza and the Maipu Valley, it's all about the vino! We arrived in Mendoza after a bit of a nightmare bus journey. Our first bus had no air con, so we switched buses at a depot to a seriously posh one, leather seats and everything, things were looking up only for the fan belt on this one to go. So back to the depot to swap again. Emma had a bit of a shock when we swapped buses again as an Irish lad came up behind her grabbing her bum and giving it "Hola chica!", a case of mistaken identity he assured us, red faced, as we finally got underway for Mendoza.
My life it was hot. After 2 months travelling Patagonia and the Lake District waking up to 25 degree heat is a bit of a shock. We padded around, sweating, and finally found a cheap hotel for the night, a cold shower was needed. We took a wander down to Parque General San martin, a huge park in the city centre, housing a zoo and big rowing lake. Deciding it was a bit much to explore the whole thing the first afternoon we sat ourselves in a café to watch the rowers from the boat club. We were enjoying the sunshine when who should come wandering past but Jer and Dave, complete with a new member of the Cork Contingent, Victor. They recommended a couple of hostels and we took the plunge and booked ourselves into our first dorm room on the pretence we could move into a double the following day. We took in the café culture that evening, lapping up the fact we could sit outside in shorts and tees at 10pm.
Off to the hostel the next day we had to share the damn dorm, what a liberty! But thankfully the place had a pool, which was needed in the heat. We dumped our bags and headed for the bus stop so we could get out to the vineyards. Comedy faffing trying to pay the driver who was pointing at a coin operated ticket machine onboard, only we had no coins. Thankfully the lovely locals were at hand to generously sub us the fare and pointed out our stop when we arrived, you certainly wouldn't get that on Devil Dykes road!
Rented some bikeds and off to the first stop, the wine museum, not so interested in the museum, but the free wine was good! Outside again one of the bikes had developed a puncture, so had to walk back for a new bike. Nearly lunchtime we peddled off to a vineyard / deli for some fantastic pasta and just as fantastic Rose amongst lush gardens. Our boots filled and escaping a group of 15 or so others who had just turned up for lunch we headed for a small family run vineyard and tucked into a selection of young Malbecs, Cab Savs and Syriahs. Lovely.
Literally across the road was the more established and very much bigger vineyard of Tempus. We settled on a glass of rather good Malbec and Cab Sav. A little light headed we climbed back on the bikes and headed off to the liquor bodega. Leaving the strong stuff to last was a good idea as we ended up having about 3 shots each, dulce de leche, banana and mint chocolate. All very nice!
The afternoon on the sauce had taken its toll and despite our bravest efforts to push on through, we called it an early night… only to be woken up at 6am by returning revellers. Oh well, we had to get up early to white water rafting anyway. Dumping our bags at reception for the anticipated move to a double room, we headed off up the Rio Mendoza Valley for some 3 rapids. Had a boat full of novices, who all obliged with a dip in the freezing river, not for us for a change!
Back at the hostel our double didn't materialise (bl**dy idiots!) so back to the dorm. Determined not to be woken at the crack of dawn we thought the best way was 'If you cant beat 'em, join 'em!') It was Friday night after all. Downstairs for Caiprainhas we were introduced to the full force of Murray, aka Muzzels or Murray Mint. Yet another Cork man who's 15 minute lecture on all things minty left us all in stitches. Off with the Cork lads, Karolyn and Axel we headed for Las Tanacas, but after an hour of queuing for the restaurant we gave it up a bad job and grabbed a pizza before picking up a few more people and heading for the clubs. After much comedy shape throwing and camel watching (glitter balls and strobe camels) we called it a night and headed home and Jona dived in the pool for a quick dawn swim.
A day of recovery by the pool and then off to Las Tanacas (again) determined to get in this time. The restaurant is a Parrilla libre, all you can eat meat plus anything else you could think of from salad to pasta to seafood to puddings, apart from chicken curry, as Victor pointed out. Stuffed, we headed out for a club to dance off all the food. A rather strange place out of town, with a transvestite show in the basement, acoustic guitar in the main room and empty upstairs. Murray wasn't happy with the 'sauce' they put in his Cubre Libre and by the time we had convinced him there was no sauce in his drink, just rum and coke, the place had all gone 'electronica' and we boogied into the wee hours with some occasional tree hugging from Karolyn.
Recovering from 2 days on the hoy we spent the next couple of days picnicking in the park by day and cooking up a feast on the parrilla at the hostel thanks to Jer's culinary and Victors BBQ skills, and listening to Liam expertly bang out a few Irish fold tunes on the guitar. It wasn't until our last day and Liam and Alex had already left that we discovered that Liam was the perpetrator of the bum grabbing incident.
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