We landed in Mendoza, Argentina after a looooonng bus ride feeling that our excercise levels were a little lacking in the recent past. This was good because Mendoza is a town set up for large amounts of walkng, and we did plenty. Our little B&B was situated about 8 blocks from a very picturesque town square, which is about 12 blocks from the bus station. Packs on, we walked the whole way in the morning heat.
Mendoza is actually situated in the desert, but due to river diversion programs that were instituted when the town was founded in the 1800´s there is now plenty of water and so this area is the largest producer of wine in Argentina.
We decided to taste some of the local produce - just about every bottle of vino in Argentina is from this area - and so thought we would ventur outside the city to do a popular wine-bike tour. Sound simple - right?... But not to be.... the bus driver told us to get off the bus, we couldn´t see any vineyards so we started walking, walked 1 hour in heat in one direction, discovered wine town was another hours walk, caught bus to wine town, found info office, told original place where we got off bus was right spot, eventually got bus back to original wine spot, found bike hire place, told all vineyards in area closed literally 5 minutes ago..... So we went to a bottleshop and drowned our disappointment in a local red....
On New Year´s Eve, we were given the ¨hot" place to be. But as we discovered, Argentinians spend time at home with their family/friends and don´t seem to hit the streets and party. Unfortunately the advised "hot spot" was a "quiet spot". Still there was wine, champagne, beef and random fireworks to bring in the new year....
No comments:
Post a Comment