Hey guys and a feliz dia de madre to our mums and nanas!!! Wish we could have celebrated with you.


GRIPE PORCINA

After leaving Valparaiso, we were in for probably our most interesting bus trip yet. In order to get to our next stop, Mendoza we had to head east and pass through the rather large marker which essential creates the border between Chile and Argentina - the Andes! After winding through some pretty sea level towns which dotted a big river, we started to see some very large mountains. I woke Ryan from his slumber because this was really something to see. As we approached Ryan said "Oh my gosh do you see that? That's the road!" Because of the huge ascent the road zig-zagged up the mountain ahead of us for miles. Most of the other vehicles on the road were other buses or big trucks transporting goods from Chile to Argentina and vice versa. Eventually we reached a pass and just beyond this was immigration where we glimpsed our first face masks (on passport officers) and thanks to being the only extranjeros (foreginers) on the bus, faced a few questions about our travels re: swine flu. Luckily we answered correctly and were able to re-enter Argentina unabated. We saw some amazing rivers and canyons from the bus after this and then quite a bit of boring pampas before we arrived in Mendoza in the early afternoon. Here, we were very pleased to score a private room, with double bed, air-con, cable t.v., and private ensuite for the least amount we had paid for a bed on our trip so far!

TERRAMOTO

The next day we decided to spend some time just exploring the city. Mendoza was razed by an earthquake in the late 1800s and rebuilt with very wide tree lined streets to prevent similar damage and death should another one occur. Well nothing as bad as that one has come along yet but that kind of infrastructure sure makes for a pretty town. So this morning we had some coffee sitting in the main plaza and people watched before heading to the town's main park. It's funny how when we're in big cities we always seem to find our way to the biggest park- always looking for a bit of green! We wandered around here for awhile, taking in the lake and huge decorative gates amongst other things. In the afternoon we took a trip to another favourite place in every town- the food market! We had Mexican for lunch there, read our find of the day (an English language newspaper) and managed to find everything we needed to make a delicious Moroccan Chicken/ Chickpea stew dinner- including spices! We also chatted to some of the stall holders in Spanish- it's slowly getting better guys!


WINE COUNTRY

Day two in Mendoza, and we headed for one of the area's biggest wine regions, based around a small town half an hour from Mendoza called Maipu. Here, we had decided to rent some bikes for the day, and do a self-guided cycling tour of some of the best wineries in the region. One funny thing about this was, in direct contrast to back home, there appears to be absolutely no problem with riding a bike while under the influence - it's actually condoned with tourist police patrolling the area! After being asked by the lady at the bike rental place if we knew how to ride (seriously, she proceeded to tell us about one Israeli couple who didn't and ended up in a canal!), we set off to our first winery which had quite a bit of history, and along with our free tasting of a local red, we got a tour through the wine museum on the premises. This included viewing some fascinating artifacts (such as enormous animal hides, in which grapes were stomped from the 16th century) and hearing some interesting facts about the lives of slaves working on the wineries. One practice included providing the slaves with tokens for their labor (usually measured in baskets of grapes), which could be redeemed for food and shelter provided by their masters. A form of this system is still used today, however the exchange is typically for money. Another interesting fact was the migration of seasonal workers today, who travel from as far away as Bolivia and Peru, and number some 16,000 during peak harvest. Afterwards, we jumped back on our bikes, and headed down the road to our next stop, a place specializing in chocolates, preserves and liqueurs. Here, after sitting for a moment amongst the various fruit trees in a small patch on the property, we received a quick tour of the site, followed by a tasting of some of the delicious treats made there. We couldn't resist purchasing some dulce de leche liqueur along with a jar of preserves made from capsicum to put on our sandwiches for lunch - que rico!

Next up was something a little different - a vodka distillery! Here we received another brief tour - this time in Spanish - on the very interesting history of alchemy, and its contributions to the world of distilling. Afterwards, we got to sample some of the establishment's fine product - four different types of fruit infused vodka. There was one made from malbec (a local type of grape, more commonly found in wine), membrillo (quince), pera (pear) with the last being a combination of the three. After chatting to our tour guide, while slowly sampling each of the four vodkas, we got back on our bikes and very carefully cycled to our next bodega about three minutes up the road.

Here, we arrived at our ultimate destination, and the fanciest of the lot. This location was over 100 years old, and abandoned until 2006, when Trapiche wines (which you may come across in Australia, as 55% of their production is for export) took over the site. Since then, they have invested some 10 million dollars in the property's restoration over the last three years. The result is simply amazing. The old architecture (including a restored original wooden floor, designed to make rolling wine barrels easier) combined with new features (a glass pyramid, borrowing its style heavily from the one at the Louvre) make for a very picturesque setting. We began with a video introduction, followed by a tour of the grounds itself, and then most importantly the tasting. Our guide, Fernanda was fantastic, giving us lots of details on the tour, and taking us to certain places she wasn't supposed to and even gave us a bit of a lesson on how to taste wines! When it came to the tasting, we were supposed to get three glasses for the $20 pesos we paid, but Fernanda generously kept topping up our glasses, as well as letting us sample some really fantastic wines all of which were highly unique to the region. The first was a Torrontes, a fairly sweet crisp white wine made from a grape grown only in Argentina. The next was a Malbec (the grape is again, one specific to the country) a dry red which is possibly the most popular type of wine in Argentina, and nicely compliments a traditional asado. The final wine we tasted was the most special of the lot, largely in terms of its uniqueness. It was a fortified wine, made from the Malbec variety of grape and was only sold at the Trapiche winery (as there is not a big market for fortified wines in Argentina). At 50 pesos a bottle it wasn't the cheapest, but was so good, we aaallllmost considered a purchase! After very soberly cycling to a small patch of grass just near Trapiche, we had some sandwiches (with aforementioned tasty capsicum spread) for lunch, and afterwards had a small waterfight (Hayley lost… badly), before returning our bikes and taking a very sleepy bus ride back to town.


MENZIES BUILDING?

After this well spent day we had only one more in Mendoza. We started off by going to a museum which focused on the town before the quake- it has some great pics, artifacts and even housed the foundations of the former Cabildo (government building). We then walked most of the way across town to find some kind of Mirador we'd been told about (in Spanish mind you) Not being able to see any discernable hills, we eveeeentually figured out the Mirador was on top of a building (which looked remarkably like the Menzies building at Monash!)- and closed dammit! So after lunch in the loveliest plaza in town (Plaza Italia with its amazing blue and yellow tile work) we headed back to our hostel.

OK good news!! Because we've been so slack recently this entry incorporates two cities. I know you're excited!!!

THE DAY I ATE A BEE

So the next day we took a bus to Cordoba and Hostel Baluch. It was pretty cool staying here because it was waaay bigger than all of our other hostels and we got to meet a lot of other travellers with some cool stories. Definitely reminded us how much more of the world we have to see. (Mongolia anyone?) Oh and it had an AMAZING roof top terrazzo with awesome views. Lovely So Cordoba is north east of Mendoza and is even older than Buenos Aires (it was the original capital of Argentina). Thus a lot of churches and amazing old government buildings. SO our first stop on our first day was the Cabildo, the former seat of government in the city. Set right on the main plaza, it's a huge white building with lots of intricate iron work on the gates etc. We wandered the surrounding cobbled stone streets for awhile and began to love this city of churches (we even found a big pink one!) We also found a very fancy part of town with a Dior store amongst other things and visited one last church- seriously the most amazing one I've ever seen. It was covered in the most incredible statues (and pigeons!) of gargoyles, saints, men holding up different levels going stories and stories in the air. Incredible! After a disturbingly religious tour of Cordoba it was time for lunch and we went to the disappointingly brown Parque Sarmiento. However all was not lost as much to Ryan's delight, during our picnic I swallowed a bee. Yes I left the top off my bottle of Diet Coke and as I took the last big swig I felt something chunky and spat a whole mouthful on to the ground….just as Ryan mentioned something random about a bee (was the bee planted perhaps??? Food for thought! Or maybe, bee for thought?) Luckily it was well and truly drowned but I was quite disturbed and thought its stinger was going to sting me in my belly. What excitement! So next we visited the market and got some great fresh produce BUT we were missing one vital ingredient for our dinner - coconut milk. Do not ask me why we thought this would be easy to find in South America but after the market and several super markets I gave up on the search and returned to the hostel. However Ryan continued for an hour and a half (man he's dedicated to his cooking- I was going to call the police in the next half hour!) and returned having been sent on a wild goose chase half way around the city but with some what of a substitute- peanut paste to make satay sauce. We'll still be on the look out for coconut milk though!


LEMON TREE

So the next day we had decided to take advantage of one of the abundance of activities on offer through the hostel and go trekking/abseiling! After being told we would leave at 9, I got up at 8 only to be told we wouldn't have to leave till 12- Ryan was appreciative of the sleep in! So us and another girl (Catherine from Quebec, Canada) found our guide Maxi and his car and headed out into the mountains surrounding Cordoba. After about 2 hours we reached a small town called Tanti and parked the car. We followed a river and saw some cool waterfalls and after about 40 minutes reached our abseiling wall! After all relevant safety precautions were taken, me and Ryan prepared to abseil down the cliff at the same time. It wasn't too scary with Maxi cheering us on and we made it down safe and sound- fun. However we weren't quite prepared for the next abseil- face forward- yes SWAT style facing down the cliff. This was a little more nerve wracking as you could see where you were going but there's really no fear of falling when you abseil cause you're so firmly strapped in. We got to the bottom again safely and watched Catherine successfully seeeeill down as well! We waded across the river and back to our trekking path. We hiked for the next hour or so with Maxi telling us all about the local flora and fauna including condor-like birds and cactus (one's nick name was Spanish for 'Seat for your Mother in Law'!) We reached our lunch spot soon which was also a swimming hole. Even though it was coooold we jumped in and attempted to jump off a rock Maxi called the gorillas head because of its shape. Yes Ryan and Catherine were both eventually successful (we will DEFINITELY be posting a video of this) but I just couldn't shut my brain off for long enough in order to jump the 10 or so metres to the water below Damn survival instinct! Oh well, I'm sure there will be other rocks to jump off later in the trip! After a yummy late lunch of sandwiches and sangria we trekked back to the car, chatting all the way. On the trip home (while sampling more Sangria, this time out of sawn-off water bottle cups) we listened to the songs from Maxi's Ipod and when he said we were welcome to come to an asado at his place that night, all three of us naturally said yes please! So we stopped off at the hostel briefly to change and headed awhile out of the city to Max's house in the beautiful little town of Biallet Masse. After much preparation and conversation in our best broken Spanish with Max's friends, we ate a HUUUGGGEE barbecue of meat, chicken, sausages and vegetables roasted over the fire plus salads and breads at about 1 o clock in morning (Crazy Argentineans!). There was alllll kinds of meat (much to Ryan's delight), from pork chops, to beef steak, blood sausage and chicken chorizo. Ryan was even lucky enough to try cow's intestines! Delicious! As the night wore on we played cards and at one stage realized we were and had been talking only in Spanish for quite a while (even while teaching each other card games - no mean feat!). Really, really such a fun, random night and a great opportunity to meet some people and practice Spanish. And whenever we hear that terrible 90s song "Lemon Tree" we will now think of Biallet Masse, Catherine and Maxi!!

After all that food, drinks and an extremely late night, the next day was restricted to only staying in the hostel reading and relaxing (OK we briefly left to find a McDonalds- we were successful!) before we left for Rosario on the Monday.

Until next time!

Ryan and Hayley