Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
What better ending to our South American adventure than visiting the Wine county of Mendoza! As the cliche always says...'save the best for last' and thats what we did :)
Dave our host picked us up from the bus station and dropped us at his apartment where we were able to chillout, catch some zzz's and share a bottle of wine over a yummy veggie meal. The 1st day was spent browsing around the city, looking for wine tours and trying to sort out our onward travel to Santiago Airport to catch our flight into NZ. As always, plans change and we had to splurge on a flight as the bus takes a route through the Andes and is often closed at this time of year due to heavy snowfall. However, the flight only takes 1hr whereas the bus would of taken 7 so we weren't complaining too much.
We enjoyed a leisurely stroll through San Martin park which is HUGE with a network of roads that run through it. Sat by the lake and watched the row club practising their techniques, urged on by a very scary voice on a loud speakerphone! Reminding Maz of the times she spent in Jo's garage on the row machine :)
Of course a trip to Mendoza would not be complete without a visit to the wineries. Researching the pick of the crop we arranged 2 visits, one to a very big industrial winery which had been voted as the best in Mendoza and the other, a small family run affair. The only way to reach them was by car so we hired a VW Golf for the day and brought Dave along. Tupiza winery was set in a really big open space with a breathtaking view of the Andes. We were met by a guide and given a tour where she explained the history of the winery and the whole winemaking process, very interesting. Enroute to the tasting room we witnessed a steel tank breakage, gallons of red wine seeped into every nook and cranny, the smell was intoxicating!! Several different types of red wine were sampled and we purchased a bottle for memories (we've drunk it since! hehe).Â
Our 2nd Winery was more of a food gourmet experience. Due to mis-communication we had been booked in for an exquisite lunch accompanied by the wine tour. Once we'd seen the banquet laid out for us, we were easily persuaded, turning out to be one of our best food experiences to date. The food was really scrumptious and enough to feed an army! We were waited on hand and foot, our professional waitress who set the scene perfectly, soft south american folkloric music, and constantly aware of our needs.  As we were in no rush we gently paced ourselves and worked our way through 4 courses, accompanied by lots of side dishes, unlimited wine and polished off with a delicious almond ice cream delight. To end the dining experience our waitress presented us with cigars and coffee.....taking the cigars as a souvenir! We then made our drunken way ( maz being the elected driver with only a couple of glasses under her belt) to an olive oil factory....unfortuntaley it was closing for the evening having spent an hour to find it...sods law! We travelled back to the city under the failing sunlight and approaching night.....the city looked amazing....even though its placed in a desert, its well developed, on the banks of the Andes with a wonderful irrigation system providing fertile land. Its just approaching autumn, allowing us to appreciate the changing of the delicate leaves, painting the area with browns, oranges and yellow....truly beautiful.
Our overall stay was marvelous......walking miles daily, hiring a car and appreciating the surrounding landscape and finally travelling out to the Andes with David who knows the terrain well........a hike that last 4 hours travelling along the river bed....exploring and sweating in the temperamental climate! David and Maz made a mad last dash to the top of an onlooking mountain...Maz proudly displaying her scrapes and scratches!
David dropped us off at the airport, saying our goodbyes to him and Mendoza. Our flight took us over the border to CHile. Arriving 10hours before our departure to New Zealand, we took our time...ate, shopped, drank and but still got a little restless. Upon boarding they tried to take the Mendozian wine we had purchased as gifts and personal consumption, thankfully Maz presented the receipts required to take these items abroad.....and so we boarded the plane for a peaceful nights sleep.. (even though 6am in the morning Dal found Maz intensely involved in a game of "Who wants to be a millionaire".....some things never change!) ...... :)
- comments