Mendoza 22.04.-25.04.11

It was Good Friday the 22nd of April 2011 when I left Valparaiso at 8.30am in the morning. The bus ride from VALPARAISO IN CHILE to MENDOZA IN ARGENTINA was absolutely amazing. We went through the Andes and crossed the border half way at the Immigration centre at 2.800m where it even started snowing. The scenery for the following 4 hours to Mendoza was absolutely breath-taking and we drove along the highest mountain of South America the ACONCAGUA (6.962m). As it was Good Friday and all Chileans decided to go to Argentina for the Easter weekend the border crossing took much longer than usual and I finally arrived in MENDOZA at 5pm.

Thank God the Hostel CASA PUEBLO was nearby the bus terminal but as it was EASTER weekend it was packed with people from all over the world. I went straight for a walk into the city centre, first of all because I was hungry and secondly as I had to get out of the cramped hostel.

Mendoza has approx. 1 Mio. inhabitants and a very nice city centre with lots of cafes and restaurants close to the PLAZA INDEPENDENCIA. While I was sitting in one of the nice cafes, two backpackers from Canada who I met a few days ago in Valparaiso walked by. While we had a drink together they told me that they wanted to do a WINERY TOUR BY BIKE the next day. So I asked them if they would mind to join them and we made an appointment straight away for the next day.

On Easter Saturday, 23.04.11 I met with Mike from Scotland, Jenny from Canada, her friend and two more girls from the USA at 9am. We took the local bus to LUJAN where we rented 6 bikes and started cycling through the wine fields. Our first "bodega" (winery) was the well-known and huge winery TERRASAZ. As we didn't feel very welcome as "backpackers" we decided to by a bottle of MALBEC and drank it straight at their wine tasting room.

It took us 30 Min. to cycle to the next winery MIGUEL MINI, a small family run winery. Here we experienced the opposite and we were offered a WINE TASTING straight away. A nice Seniora showed us around the "bodega" and thank God we had Mike with us who could translate the wine making process. Later on we tasted about 10 different of their wines and champagne….until we all started to get a bit tipsy. For sure we loved the Malbec, bought a bottle and went outside on their Patio where we enjoyed the delicious red wine with some crackers in the sun.

Well as we wanted to see at least one more Winery we cycled to the nearby Bodega BONFANTI. As we didn't have enough time for a wine tasting and were still quite tipsy from the last one we decided to buy one of their good MALBECS, ask for some classes and went outside on the terrace from where we had a great view on their wine fields. At 4pm we cycled back to Bicycle Shop from where the owner gave us a lift back to Mendoza. I said Good Bye to the others and went straight to my hostel where I was looking forward to cook some decent food to soak up all the alcohol.

The next day I did some sightseeing in Mendoza. I walked through the city centre then through the huge PARQUE GENERAL SAN MARTIN and hiked up to the CERRO DE LA GLORIA from where I had a great view over Mendoza. At night I caught up with Sofia, a Couchsurfer who lives in Mendoza but unfortunately couldn't host me as she had someone else staying with her. Well but we had a great chat and she told me a lot about the city and the nearby ski resort of LAS LENAS.

On Easter Monday, 25.04.11 I went to the Chiropractor who was recommended by the hostel owner. Marcelo the Chiropractor was very experienced, aligned my spine and I felt straight away better. He was also very interested in my travels and asks if I would like to join him for lunch. Bueno…why not and off we went to the PARQUE SAN MARTIN where we had a nice lunch outside in a café. We talked for 4 hours and later on he even offered me to pick up my backs and give me a lift to the bus terminal.

And at 22.30pm I took the night bus to CORDOBA.