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Articles Tagged ‘Mendoza’

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South to Patagonia

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Day 182

We had one more day in Mendoza, which is a pleasant city but without much to offer a tourist in the way of sights. We were on the move south to Bariloche but our bus was not to depart till 8pm tonight. Jordana was having trouble with her infamous sensitive stomach and I was still trying to get over my cold or allergies, not sure what it is really. So as much as we wanted to at least check out a museum or something we both weren´t in the mood.

After a lazy morning at the hotel we had to check out. We finished off our included breakfast of coffee and media lunas (very sweet croissants) and headed out into the city. We did our usual lazy day in a Latin American city, which consists of walking from park to park and then from square to square. Mendoza has plenty of both so it was the relaxing day we hoped for. Not much else to write about our day. We had some fabulous food at an all vegetarian restaurant. Then parked ourselves for an hour or so on a cafe patio as we people watched. The mullet is a very popular cut amongst both female and male Argentines.

Eventually the time came to head back to the Mendoza bus a terminal. We boarded our bus for the 18 hour a trip south to Bariloche. The bus was OK, seats were good but the washroom was old and not exactly the cleanest. A rare thing in Argentina,the buses are usually great. Nonetheless it was quite a ride. Just south of San Rafael around 11pm we saw some very impressive non stop lightning in the distance, lightning like I have never seen in my life. The lightning lit up the entire sky and with complete darkness in all directions the silhouette of the Andes in the distance was a beautiful sight. Eventually we reached the storm and the rain and wind was enough to wake me from a decent sleep. Jordana, she´ll sleep though anything.

As the sun rose we had reached the northern fringes of Patagonia, a land that I always dreamed of visiting. With clear blue rushing rivers and craggy snow capped mountains Patagonia was already impressing.

Finally at 2pm we reached the lakeside city of Bariloche, a beautifully set town on Lago Nahuel Huapi surrounded with mountains covered in snow.  Just outside of town are a few large ski resorts, in town the snow has just melted and the trees are filled with blossoms.  We settled in at a very the comfortable Hostel Achanay and looked forward to exploring the region over the next few days.

Posted in Argentina | 1 Comment »

Drinks, Drinks and more Drinks

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Day 181

Mendoza is a lively city with wide tree lined avenues and some good restaurants. Sometimes it feels like you could be in Europe. That said the only real reason one visits Mendoza is for the wine grown just outside the city, and quite a few tourists are here just for that. This is one of the few times I have no problem following the tourist crowd.

Without our own car and arriving a bit late to organize bicycles yesterday, Jordana, Tom and I decided a tour was the best way to see the wineries. Tours, something else I don’t enjoy doing often. However the thought of being driven around while I tasted wine sounded good to me. At 2pm we were picked up at our hotel. The van was pretty full with tourists, most from latin America and a couple of sleepy dutch tourists. One who proceeded to snore loudly as our tour guide spoke about the things we were going to see. Since it was all in Spanish I was just about ready to join him.

Argentine wine is less known internationally than its neighbours in Chile and mostly of a lesser quality. However some wine experts believe that Argentina’s wines will soon surpass Chile’s in terms of quality due to the sunnier climate, cleaner air and richer soil. All I know is that the main grape here is Malbec and that reds are better than whites when it comes to Argentine wine. Oh and I also know that a decent bottle cost about $4 CAD!

First stop is Don Arturo, a small family run vineyard that only makes reds. We get a tour of the facility from a very passionate guide. The methods here a bit more traditional than the larger wineries I have seen back home but really its all the same to me. Except I don’t see any huge stainless-steel vats and definitely no computerised temperature controls. As interesting as it all was we were all happy to hear the time had come to do some tasting. We tried merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and of course malbec. They were all pretty good but my favourite was the merlot or syrah. The fruity malbec just didn’t do it for me.

From Don Arturo, which to me sounds like some mafia head, so I sure wasn’t going to tell them what I really thought of the malbec. Anyway, after Don Arturo we stopped off at an olive oil manufacturer. Again we got a tour which was good but short and at the end stuffed our faces with bread, olive oil and sun dried tomatoes. Who knew guided tours were so tasty?! The olive oil was good but the olives just aren’t that great. They are a bit bitter and firm, maybe I’m just to picky. Then again I’m Greek, my people just know what a good olive is.

Next stop was more wine! Boudron, sounds French, no? Boudron is one of the bigger wineries in the area and it showed. Not only did it show in the size of the operation but our tour was much shorter and less personal. The most important part though was what did the wine taste like. We tried a fruity chardonnay, I like whites more than reds so I enjoyed it quite a bit. Also they made up for the short tour with very generous tastings. Next was a Temparanillo, a grape from Spain. Never had it before but it was great, smoky tasting and very full flavoured. Lastly was a good merlot. Boudron had good wine but the large tours there and lack of personal touch made Don Arturo the best of the day. Although the Temparanillo at Boudron was the best wine of the day, just don’t tell Don Arturo. He may come looking for me.

Our last stop was at a place that made chocolate and liquors. Some might call it heaven. It was run by a husband and wife who turned their hobby into this small business 6 years ago. We were explained all the different products that they make and then were able to select one shot to taste. What a way to end a day of wine tasting, with shots! Tom and I choose whiskey, Jordana chocolate liquor. The whiskey was like everything else in Argentina, way to sweet. Oh the sugars! Beside us the now awaken dutch tourist asked us if we wanted his shot. Absinthe, he smelled it and decided it wasn’t for him. Tom and I looked at each other. Both with the face of, “well you can’t turn down free drinks!” Sneaky Irish, they always seem to drag me to that “one too many” level. It felt like the bad decision of shots at the end of the night, except is was 5pm. I went first, oh god!! This was moonshine, not absinthe. Tom tried and thought the same. This was some serious stuff, my throat burnt for a good ten minutes after. My cold however was gone.

We finally got back into the city and while Jordana took a nap Tom and I decided to head out for some beer. Jordana and I are off tomorrow, south to Bariloche. Tom is flying to Buenos Aires, so it was our last night together. We talked football over beers and it felt like we had been friends for years, before we knew it the one hour we were to let Jordana sleep turned into just over 2. We returned to the hotel to pickup Jordana and headed to a patio for dinner. It was a fun last night together with Tom as we said our goodbyes. I looked forward to moving south again, even though the wine was pretty tasty.

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Argentina…Again

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Day 180 Finally the time had come to move on from Valparaiso. A place it would be very easy to get comfortable in for a few weeks or months. Maybe another time though, the pull of visiting a new ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Argentina, Chile | No Comments »