Days 37-41: Mendoza, Argentina

The days are slowly ebbing away. We are filled with all sorts of emotions. We are excited to finally be coming home; we are nervous to start a new chapter; and we are already missing some of the travelers and individuals we’ve met along the way. I guess it doesn’t help (or maybe it does, depending on how you look at it) that we have had a lot more time to reflect and think over these last few days. We are no longer hectically backpacking from one place to another, staying so busy and stimulated that we don’t have time to think about much else but travel details. But maybe it is a good thing that we decided to make a long stop in just one beautiful town in Argentina because we are slowing transitioning back into a more modern culture, mindset and pace of life. 

To give you an idea of what I am talking about, or as Tim would say, “show you, not tell you”, let me describe our daily lives as temporary Mendocinos: 

On Friday morning we arrived in Mendoza (the third largest town in Argentina), checked into our hostel and went out to find some lunch. The first thing we learned is that siesta is a common practice here! As we walked down the beautiful, streets lined with autumn-colored trees, we noticed the shopkeepers of fancy boutiques, restaurants and coffee shops closing the grates and heading out. If Peace Corps taught us anything, it is to do as the locals do, so we hiked back to the hotel for a nap in the afternoon sun.

On Saturday we had siesta figured out, and spent the morning meandering the streets window shopping. There really isn’t much to DO in Mendoza if you don’t have a job, aren’t a student or aren’t participating in an organized tour of the surrounding mountains and/or wineries. It is just another big city, with no outstanding museums or cultural sites. So instead we, again, did as the locals do and spent a few hours in a coffee shop, reading, chatting, pondering our futures and people watching.

On both Friday night and Saturday night we decided to treat ourselves to fancy cuisine, since food is so cheap comparatively. On Friday we had empanadas, steaks (a must in Argentina) and a dessert of lemon mousse and raspberry jam. And a bottle of wine, of course. On Saturday we went to the best Italian food restaurant in the city (according to locals and tour guides alike) and spoiled ourselves with cocktails, an appetizer of stuffed olives, pastas and (of course) wine!

On Sunday, after siesta, we met up with our new friend Walter, someone we had met via Couchsurfing, and he showed us his favorite parks and plazas, where we spent a few hours lounging in the afternoon sunlight on the grass, chatting and getting to know one another. Then we went to his favorite bar for snacks and cocktails.

If it sounds to you like all we have been doing is walking, sitting, eating and drinking, then you would be completely correct. We are on vacation and we deserve to spoil ourselves a little and it is a nice change from trekking miles and miles a day, sleeping in tents, and eating bread and cheese to save money. And as I said,  it also leaves us with plenty of time to think.

Today however, we decided to mix up our routine and we headed out to the smaller, outlying town of Maipu. Maipu is one of the major wine producing regions of Argentina and we wanted to really get to know Argentinian wine, so we rented bikes and peddled around to a few of the many, many bodegas (wineries) for tours and tastings. We hit up a museum and 3 bodegas and enjoyed wine tastings with a variety of flavors, good company of fellow bike/wine enthusiasts, and the beautiful scenery of the vineyards in fall. Here are some of the many facts we have learned about wine so far:

• The “legs” or “tears” in Spanish, which we had thought indicate quality of wine, in fact only indicate alcohol quantity. The slower or fewer the “legs” when you swirl the glass the more alcoholic the wine is. 
• In general the color of the wine indicates age, among other things, not quality. The darker the wine, the older it is. 
• Many vineyards play rosebushes and lavender every 5 rows to help prevent pests and determine the needs of the vines. One can see the pests first attacking the flowers and then take preventative measures to save the grapes. Also roses won’t bloom without enough water so you can tell if the vines need water if the roses aren’t healthy. This was an Italian idea. Smart Italians.
• A vineyard’s worst enemy is hail. 
• There are two types of oak barrels, French and American, in which red wine is aged. French barrels bring out more suave flavors like vanilla and American barrels bring out more powerful flavors like smoke and leather.
•  It is said that Malbec was named thus by the French in Argentina who thought that it had a bad taste in the mouth (something about “mal” and “boca” became Malbec). 
•   Wine is great! We are enjoying drinking it and, if you are lucky, we will bring you some home….  

Finished with the wine tasting, about to ride off into the sunset

Tim, happy to be biking the wine circuit

Wine cups about to be filled (no, we didn't drink ALL those....)

Huge, old barrels

Enjoying a beer and a mid-day snack at a local artisan brewery while waiting for a wine tour

I found a stubborn bunch of grapes on the fall vines

At the Trepeche super-marco-corporate bodega, looking at 800 barrels of the fancy vino

The Trepeche owner built his own railway t get his wine out to the public at the turn of the century

Drunken monkeys!

Beauty all around!

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