Mendozaboard

It took me and Holly a long time to decide on whether we should do Mendoza. The decision making was down to us as Tim was still in England. Drawing us there was the thought of cycling round vineyards sampling wines in the sunshine, a much publicised amazing route on the bus through the Andes to get there, the knowledge that some previous friends we had made were there and if we didn’t do this, we’d have another 7 days to kill in Santiago until Mark arrived, and although Santiago is to date my favourite city, it still was probably a bit too long. However, Holly was still without all belongings and we’d have to time the logistics perfectly to pick up Tim and chance that a bus left for Mendoza in enough time to warrant the 8 hour bus journey there and back and be back in enough time to pick up Mark. 

So, we decided to go. We picked Tim up from the airport Sunday morning and luckily just made it onto a bus running slightly late which would get us there for 8pm. We’d then have 2 full days in Mendoza and as it turned out most of a third if we opted for the night bus back to Santiago Wednesday night.

The journey was epic and gave us the chance to all catch up as it was the first time we’d all been together in over 3 months. The scenery was dramatic as we caught a glimpse of Anconcagua, the tallest mountain in the western hemisphere. Having the ability to grab a few beers as we waited for passport control was pretty sweet too. 

View of Anconcagua from the bus

The three mustakeers with beers

Less sweet was the fact that due to us now being a threesome, Holly had to sit next to biscuit offering, but total bull shitter Lindsey, who tried to pass himself off as a Japanese speaking maths teacher in his mid-30’s with entrepreneurial desires of setting up a new style of hip café in towns like, as it happens Godalming. After 8 hours Holly was about to kill him, so it was extremely funny when he later turned out to be in the same hostel as us and suggested we do something together. We managed however to successfully ditch him by faffing too long over getting ready and sorting out emails about Holly’s missing bag. Phew.

Instead that night, the 3 of us found a cheap bar, cheersed a lot and had a good gibber about everything that’s been happening at home with all our friends and following this we found a park in which to continue the catch up, whilst getting covered in stray dogs – an element that was to become an integral part of our next 3 weeks! Then it was back to the hostel for a quick but unexpected smoke in the garden with a group of Spanish speaking, travelling, guitar playing guys before heading up to try to sleep through the fear of falling off my floating top bunk in a very stuffy 8 bed dorm. 

Tim and Holly (although I did think it was me at one point) in the park

The next morning was hot! We awoke and had a yummy breakfast in the garden – cereal, rolls, jams and hard boiled eggs. Ravenous from little food the night before, I managed to devour 2 boiled eggs in rolls and cereal and fruit, but I then felt a bit ill because it was too hot to have eaten all this food. 

We decided to keep today as a chill day and to do the wines on bikes tour the following day. So after lounging in the garden hammocks for a while, we headed into town, exchanged some dollars for Argentinian pesos on a street corner at an amazing rate, felt rich, so celebrated with a few beers and food on a lovely street running through the middle of Mendoza that was lined with cafes and restaurants. A great place to people watch.

Lunch in Mendoza, trialing out my new earmuffs sent with Hols from Dad as a pressie

We picked up some tourist maps, visited the park, snoozed, ate ice cream and planned out the route we’d like to take tomorrow and which bodegas and olive oil places we’d like to visit. We rounded the evening off visiting one of the more lively areas of town for an enjoyable meal and to sample some empanadas.

Our second day in Mendoza was amazing fun. We took a bus down to a region just south of the City, called Maipu (My-poo), a name that obviously became the centre of many jokes throughout the day the more drunk we became. There, against the backdrop of the Andes, we could hire bikes for the day and cycle round numerous vineyards, sampling wine and taking in the sights. On the bus, we met Gabriel from Brazil and Eleanor from San Francisco who were heading out with the same intentions so we soon became a group of 5. We hired bikes with baskets on the front from Mister Hugo – a great value company who supplied us with maps, discount vouchers and at the end of the day, lemonade and even more wine.

The start of the wine on bikes day

The baskets on the front of the bike lended themselves nicely for Holly’s portable and incredibly loud external speaker and numerous bottles of wine. The day consisted of the following: We firstly visited a bodega with an attached museum for the history of wine making. There, we took some photos and bought some wine for lunch. 

We reckoned about a month's worth here...

Holly and Gabriel stealing grapes!

A piece of wine making machinary that looked like a face

We then visited an olive oil factory where they gave us a little tour of 3 sample olive trees in their garden and then showed us the big $250,000 machine that turns the olives into oil. A little on the cynical side, but the main draw was the sampling of tapenades, jams and liquors that would constitute our breakfast. 

Delicious tapanades and olive oils for breakfast

Attentions were then drawn to finding somewhere nice to sit amongst the vines further afield and drink the purchased wine. This was harder than we had envisaged due to being surrounded by private vineyards in an otherwise very dry and dusty environment. So we headed to a beer garden, where we bought an artisanal beer each and then sneakily used our glasses to drink the wine. What a classy lot we were!

We then visited the best Bodega of the day – Familia Di Tommaso where for a small fee we were given a really interesting talk about wine production in the area which included a sampling of 4 wines – a beautiful dry white, a young red, an oak aged red and a desert wine. The Bodega smelt damp of wine but provided shade on a blisteringly hot day and was steeped in history, with the cellars providing one of the hiding places of family friend Che Guevara back in the day. The staff were really friendly and there was a nice vibe about the place. The grounds were beautiful and Holly bought a bottle of their own Cider which we popped and all shared together. 

Looking into one of the storage rooms at Di Tommaso

Friends with cider

Hiding in the vines

After this we missioned it to yet another Bodega for food and another sampling but we were a little too late, so improvised by hiding in the vineyard and drinking our last bottle of purchased wine together with the stolen breakfast bits from the hostel that we shared out between us all, including the sharing of a boiled egg – a tradition our family used to practice with a blessed egg at Easter!

Sharing stolen breakfast bits from our hostel for lunch, oh, and more wine

By this time we were totalled! And it wasn’t surprising that we managed to pick up a police escort for the cycle ride back to Mr Hugo’s bike rentals! In fact, we found out this is common practice around these parts to keep the many drunken cycling tourists safe. And what a kind policeman he was, asking us where we were from and what we thought of the place etc. Once Mister Hugo’s was in sight he left us wishing us a safe and enjoyable journey!

Later that evening, we were all feeling a bit jaded but a dinner of special beans (own recipe using paprika, onions and milk, turning standard beans into a stodgy creamy lentil dish and even more of a joyous experience) made with real baked beans that Tim had brought back from the UK thanks to being reminded by JC (nice one JC – thanks soooo much (and for the eggs too but they’re in the next story)), and they soon sorted us out. We ate together with a lovely girl called Greta from Holland who we met that evening in the hostel.

Bleesed be the beans from England, with salad, beer and our new friend Greta.

The next morning was even hotter than the previous 2 so after a leisurely breakfast we opted to stay in the shady hostel garden, playing cards and after 12pm drinking beer, together with Greta and later on with anyone else who fancied joining in. 

For the first time since we arrived in Mendoza I got out the laptop only to find a huge crack down the screen. Shit! This was because for the first time I had left it in my main bag which had obviously been tossed about underneath the bus. Stupid me. Tim however got onto it straight away and after a few hours of toing and froing with emails in Spanish, seemed to have found a company in Santiago, where we next heading back to, who could supply and attach a new screen whilst we waited. All of this communication was impressively conducted solely in Spanish and if was true, would be a touch! The crack at least left me with ¾ of a screen in which I could update blog and upload some photos. 

In fact, we didn’t leave the hostel all day and impressively nearly drank them all out of beer! Later that evening, we left Greta, who would be a day behind us heading back to Santiago, and jumped on the night bus back. An innocent looking but very upset Argentinian girl called Rose befriended us at the bus station. She had apparently missed a flight and couldn’t find her friends. She did however have a stack of dollars with her and at one point, near border control left her bag near us on the bus. Although highly suspicious, nothing came of it and it was only the 2 oranges I still had in my bag that was of any concern at 3am during the painfully slow border crossing. Due to the extensive searching of everyone’s bags at the crossing, highlighting the Chilean’s obsession with cheap Argentinian spray cans of potpourri and raid, we arrived a little late into Santiago. This gave us only a little time back at Happy House Hostel to celebrate the fact that at last Holly’s bag had arrived before we had to head out on our separate missions. Tim to potentially get the laptop fixed in a manner that would be near impossible back in England, and for me and Holly to go get Mark!