30th January – 3rd February

We haven’t written the blog in a few days, mainly because not a huge amount of note has happened! However, there have been a few key milestones and observations which we’ve summarised and shared below:

1) The beard is gone.

Fans of Jason’s facial growth (it seems there were many who were following its progress) will be gutted to hear of its demise. It took almost an hour to remove the brown/ginger/grey mass. Charlie is happy to have her smoother, younger-looking husband back. Jason is working on even-ing out his tan.

2) Bariloche in summer is a fair weather town.

We had one final day there following our trip to El Calafate and before heading to Mendoza and it was a bit of a washout. Our grand plan was an early bus out to Cerro Catedral to do a trek / cable car up the mountain for what was supposed to be magnificent views. We made it there in good time, briefly surveyed the ski-resort-with-no-snow scenery (one big giant car park), queued for the cable car…only to find it had just closed because of wind! With the rain starting and clouds looking increasingly ominous, we decided against a 4 hr (each way) trek in ponchos and promptly took the bus back into town for some sandwich/beer/steak therapy.

3) Andesmar is a party bus service.

Boarding at lunchtime and arriving in Mendoza early the next day we settled into our seats expecting the regular eat, siesta, read, eat, sleep pattern. But we were in for a whole new experience. It started with The Shawshank Redemption blaring above our heads (odd choice we thought for a family bus), swiftly followed by lunch and a chick flick. After that it was time for bingo! Winner got a bottle of wine (we like to think we lucked out rather than that we missed half the numbers being read in Spanish at breakneck speed). Then at 11pm, just as we were kicking back for a sleep, the lights went on, dinner was served and the Hangover Part 2 was aired until 1am!!

4) Mendoza (city) lives for a late night.

We arrived at 8am and knackered on Saturday morning, walked to our hostel where we met the completely bonkers Alicia who managed the hostel and whose past time was trying to have long rambling English-Spanish chats at every opportunity we showed our faces. We had a quick shower then set straight out into the sunshine to explore. We should perhaps have heeded Alicia’s gun-to-the-head description of what there was to do in Mendoza during the day. We found several pretty-ish plazas (Independencia, Espana, Italian and more…), went for a walk round the lake in closest part of the massive Parque de San Martin and passed some time with a big, late Milanesa lunch.

But during the day everything was closed and it was a ghost city with few people about. However, fast forward several hours to 10pm and we were sitting in a street side bar having a drink and a calamari snack (lunch had taken its toll) and things began to wake up on the busy Avenida Villanueva where the young and trendy Mendozians had come out of their slumber to party. So much so we broke our (non-bus-related) bedtime record staying out until 2.30am!!! The night for many was only just beginning…

5) Don’t go for the long walk in the Parque General San Martin.

On Sunday, following a quick visit to the bus station to get tickets to our next city, we thought we’d spend the day in true Spanish style at the park. Our first stop was to check out the ‘best views of the city’ from the Monumento al Ejercito Liberatador viewpoint at its far end. From the map and guide books it sounded like a pleasant stroll through green spaces. To cut a long story short, the next two hours and probably about 4 miles was spent walking through wasteland (flip flops weren’t the best choice of footwear) and past 6ft fences of what could easily have been animal/nuclear testing plants. So much so, we didn’t even bother walking up the scrubland hill for the view at the end of it…

To make up for our park error, after a brief lakeside bench rest of the legs, we did what we should have given into from the beginning and had a long lunch accompanied by a bottle (and a bit) of Malbec. Reaching our hostel around 6pm, an impromptu chat about our lack of any major evening plans with Alicia saw her booking us a table (without asking!) at Anna Bistro. It was lovely. Al fresco dining on a very pretty, plant-filled patio, another bottle of Malbec and a duo of steaks, all topped off by a cheeky Cuba libre meant we headed back at 1.30am fat and happy.

5) Be nice…

…you never know when you’ll bump into someone again. On one late night walk back, Jase stopped to say hi to an unexpected familiar face. It was Cyril, the French host of our Bariloche hostel. We were surprised to see him out having beers in Mendoza. Not least because his wife had told us he was in Santiago! Ha ha!

6) Mendoza wineries are definitely worth the wait.

It’s probably a good job our ill-timed weekend arrival (when many vineyards are closed) meant we couldn’t visit more. But we spent a very wonderful Monday making the most of the day we had! On the recommendation of The Dares (thanks guys!), we were picked up at 8.45am for our Trout & Wine tour. After meeting our slightly mad young guide called Lorena and the rest of group (Thomas, Chris and Hannah from Manchester, Doug and Janet from Austin, Texas and Catherine and Bill from Colorado) we headed 30 mins out to the Lujan de Cuyo region and stopped for a liquid breakfast at a tiny, old winery called Mendel.

The in-house guide there was brilliant, describing how the previous owners had hit hard times and just upped and left so they were trying to bring the old vines and place back to life. She showed us the large VATs, crammed us into the tiny store hole of barrels (French oak but with it costing over a $1000 per barrel and in short supply they need to increasingly look to other sources) and finally the tasting room. We tried three (healthy portions) of Malbec, all before 10.30am. All delicious. Sadly due to small production we can’t buy any in the UK…

Just after 11am we arrived at stop number 2, the Renacer winery. After a tour of the vines, the concrete tanks and an explanation of the different soils of each of the three main Mendoza wine regions, we headed to the tasting room to not only compare a wine from each place but to also try creating our own blend! Unfortunately the only place you can due these wines in the UK is in Liberty so I don’t think we will be stocking up anytime soon.

Lunch was at La Tapiz. A little removed from its vineyards, it’s a restaurant and lodge owned by a very wealthy family, evident from the chandelier adorned tapestry room where we had an olive oil tasting.

We then headed up to our private dining room overlooking the vineyards where we indulged in a delicious four course feast (gazpacho, salad, steak and crunchy fruit dessert), each course accompanied by a different wine. It’s a very, very tough life.

Our final visit of the day (as if we needed one) was to Luigi Bosco, a medium sized winery. After a visit to their art gallery (each wine-related piece inspired by the bible) and a look at their impressive barrel rooms (where we were also told how they were experimenting with Chinese and Russian oak – not successful to date – and acacia on their chardonnay to better results), we hopped up to the bar.

We tried 3 of their premium wines (Reisling, Pinot noir and Malbec) and a dessert wine. Then reluctantly but full to the brim, we dropped off our new friends (we have an open invitation to Doug the jazz musicians condo in Texas anytime we like – he might regret that) and piled into our hostel for a nap. After all that, our goodbyes to Mendoza took the somewhat shorter form of a light dinner and beer and a early (midnight) finish…