Mendoza, the town of wine, wine and ...vino

Back in Argentina!
Our lovely overnight bus ride from Valpo turned into the biggest nightmare ever - we got held up at the border for over 5 hours, because the border closes at night and then we were the 4th bus to be let through. By the time we got to Mendoza we were complete zombies, and passed out. Woke up totally refreshed, explored a little and took it easy. Love being back in Argentina, the food in the supermarkets is better and I found amazing salads, no fried food, no empanadas - a little taste of home again!

Our first full day in Mendoza about 15 people from the hostel all went out to rent bikes to do a bike ride tour of the vineyards. It was SO much fun. The wineries are about 45 minutes outside of Mendoza, and you ride to one, do a tasting, get back on the bike, ride to the next one, shot of absinthe (nice surprise!), back on the bike, etc etc for the whole day long. The people from our hostel were great, and I had an amazing time. I am not even a fan of red wine, but it is the main thing in this region and I found a few I really liked!  On the tour I did a tasting at the museum, then a olive oil/chocolate/absinthe tasting, then rode to a fancy vineyard that I think was called Taluche, then to a beer garden for lunch, and then to one last winery. 

The next day, we went on a sunset horseback ride. I had a beautiful horse that I named Maurice that had no interest in listening to anything I told him to do. It was cool going through the mountains, the only rides I´ve done have been on the beach or on camels at the Bronx Zoo.  After the horse ride we went back to a lodge and had my first Argentinian asado. It was every type of meat imaginable, and even though I usually turn my head at pork, I tried everything because I think its considered rude not to. We had giant vats of wine, and we drank and drank and then our guide, Diego, took out a guitar and we all sat around by the fire and sang for hours. It was a perfect night, and despite the weather still being on the cold side, I really enjoyed the whole experience. We had a night bus on the last day, so we spent the morning wandering Mendoza and drinking our little complimentary bottles of  wine from Empedrado Hostel.

The town of Mendoza itself surprised me, because I was expecting a quaint little town with wineries on every corner. The town was massive, with lots of junk stores that looked like they were selling used clothes everywhere, and all of the major activities are outside of the town. But the people I met were great, and the excursions we did were fun and while I didn´t feel like I needed longer than my 3.5 days in Mendoza, I had a great time.  It´s getting harder to write in the blog as the trip goes on. I´ve been taking more night buses and passing out for the night (or sitting up at the stupid borders), and at the hostel I´m with people and then too tired to write at night. After the next town my friends Cassie and Kenzie that I´ve been traveling with are heading up to Salta and I head east back to Buenos Aires and Uruguay, so possibly I´ll have more time to write again although I´m going to miss my travel buddies!!