Mendoza: Part II

Some of my readers (okay, that sounds completely pretentious) may remember that I had an eventful trip to Mendoza last year.  It was a free trip put on my the Chilean government and I spent more time at the border than in the actual city of Mendoza.  This time I was prepared for the worst.  I bought snacks, charged my iPod, brought a book, but this time the traveling went off without a hiccup.  We took an overnight bus, which left from Santiago around 11pm and arrived in Mendoza at about 5am with less than an hour at the border.  Everything was going perfectly.  Famous last words.

Arriving at 5am was a bit of a surprise.  All the experience I'd had and others had at the border pointed to a longer trip and we expected to arrive around 8 or 9am and then we were hopeful we could check into our room.  Turns out, you can't really do that at 5am without buying a bed for the night and that becomes tricky when the whole hostel is booked.  Luckily we were in South America, which means that things stay open all night so we went to try to find a club.  The clubs weren't letting anyone in so we found a cafe that sold liters of Argentine beer (Quilmes, my favorite) and sat outside in the cold trying to pass the time.  After some walking and exploring we decided to retire to the couches inside the hostel.  After less than two hours of sleep we went to exchange our money into Argentine pesos and get breakfast to alleviate the crankiness that was quickly building.  After some sandwiches and coffee we were rejuvenated and we arrived back to the hostel to find that we could check in.  I enjoyed one of the best hostel showers of my life there.

The hostel offered a wine tour on a bus for a mere 75 Argentine pesos (about $20 US) which included tastings at two different wineries, an olive press and a chocolateria.  The first winery was family owned and small.  They had quite a few varietals and gave us a nice tour.

Vineyards at Cecchin Family Winery

Tasting at Cecchin

From left: Emma (my coworker), Me and Jenna

Friends outside Cecchin.  From left: Jami, me, Jenna, Kortnee

I bought a bottle of Malbec there, which is a varietal in which Argentina specializes, and then sadly broke it on my way out of the hostel the next day.  It's alright, though, because my friend shared her Malbec rosé with me, which was something I'd never heard of before.

Vineyards at the larger winery

After Cecchin we went to a larger more industrial winery.  The tour there was quicker and they showed us their underground storage.  Frankly, I'm a bit of a veteran when it comes to wine country so the tours didn't peak my interest too much.  The tasting there had a bit more variety and we tried a couple varietals I had never heard of. 

Onward we went to the olive press.  Our tour guide was pretty weird and kind of spoke like a robot so I didn't get much out of the tour but the olive trees were lovely and the old equipment was cool to look at.  We had a tasting of oil, olives and tapenade that couldn't have come at a better time since no one had eaten since breakfast and we were all full of wine.

The spread at the olive press

Finally we hit up a chocolateria/licoria that I actually visited last year.  We tried a lot of chocolate, chocolate liqueurs, dulce de leche and smoked cheese.  I wanted to buy everything in site but on the meager salary of a teacher I could only afford the bottle of wine I'd bought earlier.  And that of course I later destroyed.

That night we had dinner at a parrilla, which is an Argentine restaurant that specializes in meat, meat and more meat.  Everyone ordered steak, because you just have to order steak in Argentina.  I split a steak with Emma and our meal also came with a bottle of Malbec and dessert.  Needless to say we were fat, happy and a little tipsy when we left the restaurant.  We passed the rest of the night sipping on some of the wine we had bought throughout the day and I and about half the group called it an early night so as not to be completely dead the next day.

Jenna and me outside our hostel

We checked out at 10 and had about three hours to kill before half of us left for Santiago.  The rest of the group was determined to squeeze every single drop of adventure out of the trip so they planned another overnight bus trip.  Having been to Mendoza once before I wasn't dismayed to leave a little early in hopes of getting a good night's sleep.

The bus trip home was almost uneventful.  About and hour before we hit the border one of our bus' tires blew out, rocking the bus and scaring the buh-jeezus out of me and my friend, Lindsey.  Our driver pulled over and the men on the bus promptly exited and got to work putting on a spare.  I couldn't help but note the difference in the attitude of the passengers in comparison to what I would imagine would be the attitude of the passengers in the same situation in the US.  No one was flipping out, no one was getting on their Blackberrys, no one was screaming at the driver.  Everyone sat patiently until we could safely drive to have it repaired and that fact alone made the experience so much more tolerable.  The energy in the air wasn't strained and irritated, everyone was calm and chilled out.  I love this country.

We pulled into the "mechanic" which was an empty field with a shack in it that appeared to be abandoned.  After a couple minutes we saw a young boy (maybe 13 years old) cruising over on an ATV.  He dismounted and promptly began to work on the bus.  No one seemed to be concerned about this so Lindsey and I hopped off the bus and played with a local stray puppy for a while.  After less than an hour we were all back on the bus and headed to the border.  Another uneventful border experience, three more hours on the bus and I was back home in smoggy Santiago with a couple more stamps on my passport and some more good memories under my belt.

Photo credits: Jami Herring