Last week I traveled west at the foot of the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is straight across Argentina from Buenos Aires, on the other side of the country about 1,000 km. (close to 667 miles). As all of my travels down here, it was done by bus since flights are ways out of my budget and there isn't any sort of train system between cities. I found out the good news of Obama at around 5AM on the bus via text message from my friend Nathaly Espinoza. Thanks Nathaly ;) Everyone here that I meet is happy for this. There is actually a surprisingly common racist attitude throughout Argentina towards people of darker skin, so I was surprised to hear so many Obama supporters. Most people only know he is democratic, unlike Bush. And according to almost the whole world, anyone not like Bush=perfect for the U.S.!
Mendoza has been one of the places I have been excited to see for a long time. Since my time at the Vine in Ocean Beach, a small privately owned wine bar and restaurant, I have learned a tremendous amount of information about wine and wine regions of the world. Mendoza, Argentina is one place in particular that has always fascinated me and aroused my interest. Since I knew I was coming to Argentina, it was one place I knew I had to visit! And here I finally was! It is an awesome little city, with beautiful parks, mountain scenery and hot climate. There were a bunch of cool restaurants, cafes, museums and shops. It was a lot more quaint and smaller then Buenos Aires, but still a pretty busy town with a cable-bus system and taxis, and the tourism was very high.
There are so many activities to do in Mendoza! I went with a few friends, and as soon as we checked into our hostel, we found out about bicycling, wine tasting, renting scooters and quads, rafting, paragliding, sky diving, horseback riding. . . So the first day we trekked the town and had lunch at this highly recommended place called "Tablao" that featured mouth watering 'parrilla' style meat sandwhiches. By night we had our first Mendoza wine! The next day we were driven up to the mountains: a drive I will never forget. It was like driving through Arizona, Colorado and Utah, all in about 70 km. There were huge Rocky-like mountains, with rusted-red colored dirt hills, layered colors of rock, along with gigantic snow capped mountains in the background! When I first caught glance of the Andes, I remembering noticing the size. "I've never seen mountains that tall before," was all I could think. Once we arrived to our destination, I stepped out into the heat and caught glance of all that I was surrounded by: silent open space of heat and rock. For 8 hours we soaked up the landscapes vibrant energy with fun activities! For the first time I went rafting through some pretty good rapids, and got soaked from head to toe while paddling hard down a fast moving current. 
I balanced out the extreme sport with a mellow horse-back ride, spending two hours riding through desert like climate and climbing up and down huge hills- all on a horse! Note: this was like my third time ever horse back riding-and here I am in the blazing heat of the mountains riding a horse up and down pretty steep and rocky valleys! The view was unforgettable and was permanently seared into my brain. I could only hear a sound of silence I thought didn't exist. Only the wind, my horse, the sun and the Andes. 
Friday was what I had been waiting for since I got to Argentina. Wine tasting! We hopped on the bus and drove an hour out of the city to the region of Maipú. Maipú is one of three main regions in Mendoza for growing wine, the other two being Lujan and the Uco Valley. Lujan and Maipú are the two more popular and well-known areas that are right outside of the city central. Maipú was not exactly what I expected before hand, but once I arrived I understood why it looked the way it did. It is a very poverty-strickened area, and apparently a very dangerous one too. This was no Napa Valley. . . We were dropped off by the bus at our bike rental company in the towns central, and got our bikes, which was basically a little run down house with huge fancy looking signs. We jumped on and began to ride with a little map of 11 different places to check out, including 7 Bodegas (vineyards) and other cool stops. We rode all the way to last one, about 8 miles away, and got to know the little ran down town of Maipú; with old derelict buildings, houses falling apart, dirt rodes and rusty little bus stops, and all the while the breath taking view of the snow capped Andes. We kept passing bright green vineyards and huge yards with pretty landscapes. I stopped a few times to take pictures, and that's when police officers approached us and told us this town wasn't safe for tourists, especially with huge silver camera hanging from our necks. He advised to stay on the main road and keep riding our bikes for a few more kilometers where the area got safer. Who would think that in the same area where world famous vineyards produce wine was a rural ghetto?
We checked out a vineyard called Carniae. It was beautiful, small and the people were super
nice. We got a tour of the vineyards, a property with only 10 hectares, the barn where the wine production takes place, and after we tasted their house wine of Cab and Malbes blend, a malbec rose, a Malbec reserva, then we tasted two of their finest wines: the prestige (a Malbec, Syrah and Cab blend that aged 15 months in French oak barrels) and the Gran Reserva Malbec that was also aged for 15 months in French oak. (Argentina is known for its Malbec, originally from France, it needs desert like climate-a lot of sun and heat by day and very cool temp's at night-like that found in Argentina to mature and thrive. In France its always been used as just a blending grape, especially in Bordeaux wines.) This place was rad: very personal and friendly! One interesting fact learned: roses are planted all over the vineyard as a French tradition (the owners are French). Farmers in France would plant roses in front of each row of vines so if there were any disease or harmful insects making their way towards the vines, the roses would catch whatever first, warning the farmers before something bad hit the grapes. The roses found on their vineyard were just for French traditonal decoration, as Mendoza is pretty much like a desert where roses can't really grow naturally. 
The next stop was an olive grove called Paur, just across the street. They grow olives and produce oils, fine olives and also make bread and sun dried tomatoes. We got a little tour of the grove and trees, pressing machines for oil and the other machinery. Then we got to try them. The oil we sampled didn't impress me, but the olives were delicious. I also learned new facts: you have to use a special olive for oil, from different kinds of trees. The different colors of olives tell you what stage of readiness the olive was at when picked (black being completely ripe, purple being semi-ripe and green being the least ripe). You can only make oil from black or purple olives, not green.
The darker olive tree on the right is grown for olive oil.
"Tempus Alba" was the next bodega. This was a more modern vineyard with lots of fancy looking tools and a very organized layout for their vines. There wine was okay, and their place was too modern looking for me. They didn't even give a tour, just pointed where the vines were outside (duh) and where the steel vats were. An Italian guy and I compared thoughts about the wine, and we both agreed the other place (Carniae) was better. This wine wasn't that complex, and we only saw steel vats and no barrels. These people were origianally from Italy. I learned a lot of the vineyards here are ran by Europeans. This is kind of sad to me, and maybe explains why the area is so poor as the land began to be exploited by outsiders and left the towns people in dust.
Our last stop (as we were drunk at this point and the raging temperature kept us from going much further) was a little place called "Historia y Sabores." Here, they hand made a ton of different liquors, chocolates and jams (including a Malbec grape jam!). Everything is made by hand, no machines and really good!! The chocolate was delicious, but the fun part was that we each got one free shot of one of their liquors. We sat with a couple of Brits and formed a big group to pass around our shots to try different ones. There was Absynthe, Chocolate liquors, Potato Vodkas, Mandarin creamy liquors, and I tried the Tia Maria, a strong and thick liquor made with mocha and coffee, with tastes of Grand Marnier.
After that we jumped on our bikes and dashed back to catch a cab. Kari had to catch a bus to Santiago, then a plane to Lima, Peru to meet her folks up. It was like a comedy, racing through Mendoza and running back to the hostel, all to catch a flight across South America. She ended up missing it! After saying goodbye to her, it was just Ryan, Jessie and I. We hung out the last day and got our trips in order. I was originally suppossed to catch a bus south to Patagonia, or east to Mar del Plata to see the International Film Festival. Both ended up not happening for various reasons and I wound up taking a bus back to Buenos Aires unexpectedly! It was sad leaving Ryan and Jessie, as I am now traveling alone. I learned alot from them, and they are both great friends. Its so wierd how we all converged the way that we did! I really like traveling with people now, but I am content with the rest of the solo journey ahead!
Now I am getting ready to head to Montevideo, Uruguay then on to Brazil where I will be staying with a friend in Rio! Saude!!
Mendoza has been one of the places I have been excited to see for a long time. Since my time at the Vine in Ocean Beach, a small privately owned wine bar and restaurant, I have learned a tremendous amount of information about wine and wine regions of the world. Mendoza, Argentina is one place in particular that has always fascinated me and aroused my interest. Since I knew I was coming to Argentina, it was one place I knew I had to visit! And here I finally was! It is an awesome little city, with beautiful parks, mountain scenery and hot climate. There were a bunch of cool restaurants, cafes, museums and shops. It was a lot more quaint and smaller then Buenos Aires, but still a pretty busy town with a cable-bus system and taxis, and the tourism was very high.There are so many activities to do in Mendoza! I went with a few friends, and as soon as we checked into our hostel, we found out about bicycling, wine tasting, renting scooters and quads, rafting, paragliding, sky diving, horseback riding. . . So the first day we trekked the town and had lunch at this highly recommended place called "Tablao" that featured mouth watering 'parrilla' style meat sandwhiches. By night we had our first Mendoza wine! The next day we were driven up to the mountains: a drive I will never forget. It was like driving through Arizona, Colorado and Utah, all in about 70 km. There were huge Rocky-like mountains, with rusted-red colored dirt hills, layered colors of rock, along with gigantic snow capped mountains in the background! When I first caught glance of the Andes, I remembering noticing the size. "I've never seen mountains that tall before," was all I could think. Once we arrived to our destination, I stepped out into the heat and caught glance of all that I was surrounded by: silent open space of heat and rock. For 8 hours we soaked up the landscapes vibrant energy with fun activities! For the first time I went rafting through some pretty good rapids, and got soaked from head to toe while paddling hard down a fast moving current. I balanced out the extreme sport with a mellow horse-back ride, spending two hours riding through desert like climate and climbing up and down huge hills- all on a horse! Note: this was like my third time ever horse back riding-and here I am in the blazing heat of the mountains riding a horse up and down pretty steep and rocky valleys! The view was unforgettable and was permanently seared into my brain. I could only hear a sound of silence I thought didn't exist. Only the wind, my horse, the sun and the Andes. 
Friday was what I had been waiting for since I got to Argentina. Wine tasting! We hopped on the bus and drove an hour out of the city to the region of Maipú. Maipú is one of three main regions in Mendoza for growing wine, the other two being Lujan and the Uco Valley. Lujan and Maipú are the two more popular and well-known areas that are right outside of the city central. Maipú was not exactly what I expected before hand, but once I arrived I understood why it looked the way it did. It is a very poverty-strickened area, and apparently a very dangerous one too. This was no Napa Valley. . . We were dropped off by the bus at our bike rental company in the towns central, and got our bikes, which was basically a little run down house with huge fancy looking signs. We jumped on and began to ride with a little map of 11 different places to check out, including 7 Bodegas (vineyards) and other cool stops. We rode all the way to last one, about 8 miles away, and got to know the little ran down town of Maipú; with old derelict buildings, houses falling apart, dirt rodes and rusty little bus stops, and all the while the breath taking view of the snow capped Andes. We kept passing bright green vineyards and huge yards with pretty landscapes. I stopped a few times to take pictures, and that's when police officers approached us and told us this town wasn't safe for tourists, especially with huge silver camera hanging from our necks. He advised to stay on the main road and keep riding our bikes for a few more kilometers where the area got safer. Who would think that in the same area where world famous vineyards produce wine was a rural ghetto?We checked out a vineyard called Carniae. It was beautiful, small and the people were super
nice. We got a tour of the vineyards, a property with only 10 hectares, the barn where the wine production takes place, and after we tasted their house wine of Cab and Malbes blend, a malbec rose, a Malbec reserva, then we tasted two of their finest wines: the prestige (a Malbec, Syrah and Cab blend that aged 15 months in French oak barrels) and the Gran Reserva Malbec that was also aged for 15 months in French oak. (Argentina is known for its Malbec, originally from France, it needs desert like climate-a lot of sun and heat by day and very cool temp's at night-like that found in Argentina to mature and thrive. In France its always been used as just a blending grape, especially in Bordeaux wines.) This place was rad: very personal and friendly! One interesting fact learned: roses are planted all over the vineyard as a French tradition (the owners are French). Farmers in France would plant roses in front of each row of vines so if there were any disease or harmful insects making their way towards the vines, the roses would catch whatever first, warning the farmers before something bad hit the grapes. The roses found on their vineyard were just for French traditonal decoration, as Mendoza is pretty much like a desert where roses can't really grow naturally. The next stop was an olive grove called Paur, just across the street. They grow olives and produce oils, fine olives and also make bread and sun dried tomatoes. We got a little tour of the grove and trees, pressing machines for oil and the other machinery. Then we got to try them. The oil we sampled didn't impress me, but the olives were delicious. I also learned new facts: you have to use a special olive for oil, from different kinds of trees. The different colors of olives tell you what stage of readiness the olive was at when picked (black being completely ripe, purple being semi-ripe and green being the least ripe). You can only make oil from black or purple olives, not green.
The darker olive tree on the right is grown for olive oil."Tempus Alba" was the next bodega. This was a more modern vineyard with lots of fancy looking tools and a very organized layout for their vines. There wine was okay, and their place was too modern looking for me. They didn't even give a tour, just pointed where the vines were outside (duh) and where the steel vats were. An Italian guy and I compared thoughts about the wine, and we both agreed the other place (Carniae) was better. This wine wasn't that complex, and we only saw steel vats and no barrels. These people were origianally from Italy. I learned a lot of the vineyards here are ran by Europeans. This is kind of sad to me, and maybe explains why the area is so poor as the land began to be exploited by outsiders and left the towns people in dust.
Our last stop (as we were drunk at this point and the raging temperature kept us from going much further) was a little place called "Historia y Sabores." Here, they hand made a ton of different liquors, chocolates and jams (including a Malbec grape jam!). Everything is made by hand, no machines and really good!! The chocolate was delicious, but the fun part was that we each got one free shot of one of their liquors. We sat with a couple of Brits and formed a big group to pass around our shots to try different ones. There was Absynthe, Chocolate liquors, Potato Vodkas, Mandarin creamy liquors, and I tried the Tia Maria, a strong and thick liquor made with mocha and coffee, with tastes of Grand Marnier.
After that we jumped on our bikes and dashed back to catch a cab. Kari had to catch a bus to Santiago, then a plane to Lima, Peru to meet her folks up. It was like a comedy, racing through Mendoza and running back to the hostel, all to catch a flight across South America. She ended up missing it! After saying goodbye to her, it was just Ryan, Jessie and I. We hung out the last day and got our trips in order. I was originally suppossed to catch a bus south to Patagonia, or east to Mar del Plata to see the International Film Festival. Both ended up not happening for various reasons and I wound up taking a bus back to Buenos Aires unexpectedly! It was sad leaving Ryan and Jessie, as I am now traveling alone. I learned alot from them, and they are both great friends. Its so wierd how we all converged the way that we did! I really like traveling with people now, but I am content with the rest of the solo journey ahead!
Now I am getting ready to head to Montevideo, Uruguay then on to Brazil where I will be staying with a friend in Rio! Saude!!
ps: Finally got a decent internet connection, so I added more photos to the last two posts: "Adios Buenos Aires" and "The Build Up to Departure"
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