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8th May 2013
We arrived in Mendoza around 10am after an uncomfortable bus journey and jumped into taxi direct to our hostel. We were greeted by the energetic hostel manager Caroline who Josh had been emailing in Buenos Aires. Whilst going through the different excursions we were provided with a glass of red wine as promised! After booking the winery and Andes trips we were the provided with a second glass! Instantly I fell in love with Mendoza, I mean you can't beat a place that sees drinking wine in the morning as acceptable! Fito, the receptionist showed us to our 6 bed dorm and provided us with sheets. We couldn't be further away from the reception however it didn't really matter. It was just Josh and I in our dorm and we had our own bathroom. Feeling exhausted from the long bus journey we both got into bed and had a quick power nap before going out to explore the town.
Fito had provided us with a map and also advised us where to visit. We walked up the main street, San Martin along the nearly non existent man made river before arriving at a cheap cafe. We sat in the sun sharing a bottle of water and a salad box taking in the rays, it was beautiful! When we could be bothered to move we then walked towards the big park towards the west of the city. It was gorgeous, so much greenery and a beautiful lake which surrounded a small island which Josh and I went and sat on. We sat for a good while watching the numerous people canoeing down the lake before walking back to our hostel.
We had booked to attend the 'unlimited' pizza and tequila party that was hosted at one of the sister hostels. So Josh and I quickly freshened up before returning down to the social area and started drinking in preparation. After a couple of beers we felt a bit tipsy due to the lack of food. Caroline sat with us for ages, telling us about how she's from Belgium and that he ex boyfriend was an Argentinian which is what brought her to the area. It was clearly to see that she loved the hostel and after recently being given the manager position wanted to do well.
We moved towards the bar area and met Lee and Nic a couple from the Merseyside area who had traveled Asia, Australia and were now doing a quick tour of South America. They were attending the Pizza party too so we decided to take a taxi together to the sister hostel. We also met two guys Ruben from Germany and a French guy that I can't remember his name, something French anyway!
We arrived at the sister hostel and were given a large bottle of beer between the four of us to share and get started. It took ages for the pizzas to arrive so we filled the time with more beer and getting more and more drunk whilst they arrived! To be fair it was unlimited, however at the start there had been olives and meat on the pizza but towards the end it was just unlimited Margareta's. Josh did a good job of getting our money's worth! I didn't do too bad myself however it's hard to compete with Josh who sees unlimited as a 'Man Vs Food' situation!
We were sat next to the most annoying 19 year old girl from London, she hung on to Josh every word trying to impress him. She hadn't paid for the pizza but stole pieces anyway and sat drinking her bottle of red wine. Nic commented on how young she was to like red wine as it wasn't a taste at 26 she had acquired herself. She informed us she had been drinking it in park since she was 14, then quickly retracted her comment as soon as she realised how ridiculous it sounded. Maybe London is more upper class then Solihull but we stuck to cheap cider or vodka to entertain ourselves at that age! I don't think I even attempted to drink wine until I was 18 and that was Rose with lemonade!
We were then informed that we had half an hour to shot vodka! The unlimited tequila didn't exist and they didn't even own a bottle. Josh and I had an early morning due to the winery tour so didn't participate. To be far no one did, I think for most people the thought of shouting vodka makes then feel slightly sick! We all made our way back to the hostel walking to save the taxi money this time. To be fair Mendoza centre looked quite busy, I don't know why but I didn't expect it to be much of a party town. But to be fair a town that drinks wine with breakfast I shouldn't of been so suprised!
9th May 2013
We woke up around 8.30 am after a comfortable stay in our dorm to ourselves. After a good hostel breakfast including boiled eggs we went to wait for our tour guide to pick us up. Lee and Jess had checked out their private room and into our dorm, at least it was someone we knew! We hopped on to our tour bus which took us along with several others to our first destination, a family run organic winery. I don't know why, possibly my love for wine but I thought that the fields of grape vines were pretty and added to the landscape. It helped that it was a gorgeous day at around 26 degrees and the sky was bright blue. The young lady who was giving the tour offered it to us in both English and Spanish. Over half the group, two French Canadians, a Brazilian and a Mexican opted for Spanish however Josh, a Vietnam born Texas guy and I opted for English. The poor lady had to give each explanation in both languages. The winery, Checchin was founded and family run from 1959 however based in a large building from the 1800's. As it was organic they didn't use chemicals to prevent insects from eating the grapes, instead they had lots of large orange trees to try and waiver the insects attention. Also they had cleverly planted olive trees to help guard the wind, and also used the olives to produce other products. Due to being organic they can't actually predict how much wine they will produce as with out chemicals etc you can't really fully control nature also the weather. We were shown around the building and she talked about each step of making the wine, until finally we were taken to the oldest part of the building where they sold the wine and there was the tasting! We were given a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc and shown how you should taste it. My hangover from the previous night disappeared and although morning I was quite happy to drink it but gave my last gulp to Josh. We were the provided with a Malbec which we discovered meant 'bad taste'. The French had named it as they thought it tasted bad, that was until Argentina grew Malbec grapes and proved that they could produce the best Malbec in the world. The wine was so nice and you could actually dance the difference as there was a minimal amount of preservatives, however this meant a bottle needed to be drank within 10 years. Not that it would matter, I don't think I've kept a bottle of wine past a week from purchase before! One of their wines didn't have any preservatives at all which meant you could drink as much as you wanted and get drunk but no hangover, oh my god that would be heaven! The lady informed me that their wine was sold in England under the name Twig and provided me with the bottle sticker so I could look for it when I was home.
After we had finished looking around it was then time to cycle to the next winery! We were all given reasonable red bikes and told to follow the tour guide Marion. So off we went cycling through the vine yards it the scorching hot sun, it was lovely! A few hiccups when I rode over the occasional bump in the road and nearly went over head first! However other then that the bike journey was glorious. After a 20 minute cycle we arrived at Visdantes, a more industrial winery where they produced a lot more wine and did use chemicals and a lot of preservative in their products. It was interesting to see the difference between the winery's. Visdantes was much larger and had more of a commercial theme about it. They told us that they produce around 200,000 bottles of wine per year with the facilities to produce more. Again we were shown around and shown the process of making the wine before it was time for more testing! This time we got Camere a wine I hadn't tasted before which had be voted the 5th best of its kind in the world, a Malbec and a Merlot. Perfect amount of wine for our bike ride to the next winery!
After another 20 minute cycle whilst feeling a little more light headed we arrived at a small winery which was more of a shack. It was also family run, and a lady who I presumed was part of the family gave us a talk about the winery and the history before giving us the choice of wines to try. I chose the Sirah which I hadn't tried before and Josh chose the Merlot. Josh's Merlot was lush! My favourite wine by far anyway, but was even better tasting it where it was actually produced!
We were then taken back to our hostel feeling very happy! Josh and I decided to take a walk to the bus station to plan our next step also to clear our heads slightly! We decided to sat a further night after our Andes trip the next day and take and early morning bus ride through the Andes to Santiago, Chile. After what felt like a long time in Argentina we were moving onto the next country. Chile hadn't been in our original plan however after months of research we couldn't not go. After we had booked and paid for our ticket we walked to the local supermarket to pick up diner. When in Argentina it's rude not to eat steak! We bought 28 oz of steak for around 7 pounds, bargain! We cooked it at the hostel accompanied with vegetables and chips. It was sooo good, Josh marinated the steak in different spices and cooked it perfectly rare. We then had a couple of beers before decided to play pool in the bar. We were joined by Serena and Robbie two friends who had met at Edinburgh university and a Swedish guy called Jacob. We played pool for a bit before heading to bed for our 7am Andes tour! Lee and Nic were in our dorm and after a chat with them we fell asleep in our bunks.
10th May 2013
Woken up by our 6.45am alarm we quickly got ready and made our way down to breakfast. The French guy we had met previously at the pizza party approached us and asked us how we were etc, hovering by our table. He then asked if we wanted a crepe, turns out he was the chef too! Josh and I filled ourself up on as much as possible knowing that that it was going to be a long day! Around 8am, 45 minutes late we got picked up by a colourful bus which took us to the Andes mountains. Our tour guide was helpful filling us in with information as we traveled through the Andes, pointing out land slides and also the old train track which ran through the the mountains but had been out of use since the early 1900's due to land slides. She also showed us the old road track again emphasising the impact and unpredictability the Landslides have. Our first stop was a massive reservoir created by a dam on the Mendoza river. The sun was still pretty low and the Andes mountains surrounded it. It was beautiful to see the sparkling waters. To be honest at that stage I was just in awe to be stood in the Andes mountain range. The tour guide emphasised how important the reservoir was as it was their only source of water. We then continued to a small town in the Andes where there was a cafe with shops. We looked around the market like shops, Josh picked out a cows hoof used as a flask thinking he was funny. We then headed towards the national park, Parque Provincial Aconcagua to do our hike! Now we were up high in the Andes Josh and I changed into warmer clothes, not as wrapped up as everyone else but being true Brits we like to get our legs out as much as possible! We started the hour hike up the Andes, firstly coming across Laguna Espejo, a small lagoon in the middle of the mountains with clear water which looked good enough to drink. We then hiked our way up to the top to view the highest point in America, Aconcagua. At this point we were at 3,500 metre and we could actually feel ourselves becoming short of breath! Aconcagua is 6962 metres high and the highest mountain outside the Himalayas. Unfortunately as it was a cloudy day we could only slightly see the outline and not quite the very peak, however it still felt an achievement to of hiked up so far to a view point. Our tour guide told us that a child human skeleton had bern discovered at the peak of Aconcagua. it had presumed that this was a human sacrifice in the Inca period, the child being killed to become a messenger to God. It made me quite sad thinking of the poor child who would of been brain washed into believing that he was actually a messenger and this wasn't his death. On route down we passed another lagoon, Laguna de Harcones which at 2950 metres above sea level just looked so random in the middle of the mountains. Again the water looked so appealing and also looked like it would be gorgeous to swim in, I don't think the cold temperatures would help though. After our exhausting hike we were driven to a restaurant deep into the Andes. Josh and I couldn't resist, for 130 pesos it was unlimited and it looked amazing! Lots of traditional Argentinian stews with so much meat. Josh was in heaven! While we stuffed our faces with the delicious food we started talking to the people on our trip. We sat with a Scottish couple who had literally traveled all over the world, South America being their last location. Then two primary school teachers from Switzerland. I always find it interesting finding out why people are traveling and their back ground as to why. The Scottish couple had saved for 3 years for their amazing trip!
After we'd finished our meal we were taken by our bus to an Inca bridge made naturally and over the years has been layered with sulphur. I could see from Josh's face that it was something geologically fascinating. It was pretty cool but I don't think I quite understood on Josh's level how cool! Around the Inca bridge there were lots of small markets. One thing I noticed they sold is random objects which they had gathered down by the sulphur bridge and were now covered in sulphur. For example an old trainer was now covered in sulphur being displayed as an ornament. After a browse around the area and the cute little market we boarded our bus ready to make the long trip back to Mendoza stopping off only for a bathroom break at the cafe in the small town from earlier that day.
The Andes are just incredible, I would go as far to say it could possibly be my favourite day. To just be in-between these magnificent and famous mountains was just amazing and definitely a massive tick on my bucket list. Having Josh with me to explain in detail the reasons for their existence help deepen my understanding and also make it far more interesting. The advantage of having a geologist boyfriend!
We finally got back to our hostel around 8.30pm tired from a busy and exhausting day. We grabbed some beers and drank until we had used our last Argentinian peso meaning it would be an early morning walk to the bus terminal the next day. When all our money was gone we made it back to our dorm which was again empty as Lee and Nic had left that evening and fell into a deep sleep with the early morning alarm set ready to eat breakfast, pack and board our 9.50am bus through the Andes to Chile!
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