November 22 - 23, 2013 - Mendoza, Argentina
From Valparaiso I traveled to Mendoza, Argentina. It took longer than it needed to because of the border crossing. I dont know how it takes soooo long to stamp passports but we stood in line for about 1.5 - 2 hours. And it was just our bus?!?!
Anyways, I arrived and went with a friend from the bus to our hostel. The Punto Urbano hostel had a great back yard and I just chilled the rest of the day. Though we did go out for pizza!
The next day Julian, Chris, and I loaded up to head to Maipu. This is the suburbish city where you can rent a bike for the day and cycle to the wineries for tastings. On the way we met Lenny on the bus and thus formed our Wine Bike Gang! We rented bikes from Mr. Hugo for 45 Pesos and headed out for the day.
Our first stop was the Trapiche winery. We were just a tad late for the tour so we opted to buy a bottle of wine between 6 of us. We chose the wine that they only produce to sell at the winery. Tasty! And the winery itself was beautiful.
Next we went for lunch at a vineyard known as Mevi. For only 105 pesos two people get a meal and a bottle of wine. Deal! We drank one bottle with lunch and kept the other to have later.
Then it was off to two more vineyards that I cant remember the names of. One we had a tasting of a white, red, malbec, and a last harvest wine and the other we opted to split another bottle of wine and relax in the air conditioning. When we arrived the wine lady told us it was 37C (thats about 97F) so it was a VERY hot day. But on the good side I think we were sweating out a lot of the alcohol while riding the bikes so we were able to taste quite a few.
Our last stop was at Laur. They produce olives, olive oils, vinegars, sun dried tomatoes, etc. Here, we paid 15 pesos for a tasting of their black and green olives, the olive oil and vinegar and the tomatoes all served with bread. Yum! And as strange as it sounds, we even finished off the food from the huge group before us. I guess they were on a schedule and didnt have time to finish. This place is a must on the bike tour!
Funny: The parking lot at Laur is made of loose gravel. On the way out I totally ate it in a muddy wet spot in the parking lot. I guess I tried to turn too fast in the gravel and the bike didnt like that. But I ended up fine...only little bruise on my hip. I have been usually clumsy lately. :-)
In all it was 10K out and 10K back and a few more kilometers to break off and ride to some wineries. In all we rode about 15 miles (thank goodness it was flat) in the heat.
We returned the bikes to Mr. Hugo's and he greeted us with a cool glass of lemonade. We caught the number 10 bus back to Mendoza proper and headed back to the hostel.
That night a big group from the hostel all went out for dinner to celebrate a birthday. Steak and wine! Then we all stopped at a festival the city was having in the park.
From Valparaiso I traveled to Mendoza, Argentina. It took longer than it needed to because of the border crossing. I dont know how it takes soooo long to stamp passports but we stood in line for about 1.5 - 2 hours. And it was just our bus?!?!
Anyways, I arrived and went with a friend from the bus to our hostel. The Punto Urbano hostel had a great back yard and I just chilled the rest of the day. Though we did go out for pizza!
The next day Julian, Chris, and I loaded up to head to Maipu. This is the suburbish city where you can rent a bike for the day and cycle to the wineries for tastings. On the way we met Lenny on the bus and thus formed our Wine Bike Gang! We rented bikes from Mr. Hugo for 45 Pesos and headed out for the day.
Our first stop was the Trapiche winery. We were just a tad late for the tour so we opted to buy a bottle of wine between 6 of us. We chose the wine that they only produce to sell at the winery. Tasty! And the winery itself was beautiful.
Next we went for lunch at a vineyard known as Mevi. For only 105 pesos two people get a meal and a bottle of wine. Deal! We drank one bottle with lunch and kept the other to have later.
Then it was off to two more vineyards that I cant remember the names of. One we had a tasting of a white, red, malbec, and a last harvest wine and the other we opted to split another bottle of wine and relax in the air conditioning. When we arrived the wine lady told us it was 37C (thats about 97F) so it was a VERY hot day. But on the good side I think we were sweating out a lot of the alcohol while riding the bikes so we were able to taste quite a few.
Our last stop was at Laur. They produce olives, olive oils, vinegars, sun dried tomatoes, etc. Here, we paid 15 pesos for a tasting of their black and green olives, the olive oil and vinegar and the tomatoes all served with bread. Yum! And as strange as it sounds, we even finished off the food from the huge group before us. I guess they were on a schedule and didnt have time to finish. This place is a must on the bike tour!
Funny: The parking lot at Laur is made of loose gravel. On the way out I totally ate it in a muddy wet spot in the parking lot. I guess I tried to turn too fast in the gravel and the bike didnt like that. But I ended up fine...only little bruise on my hip. I have been usually clumsy lately. :-)
In all it was 10K out and 10K back and a few more kilometers to break off and ride to some wineries. In all we rode about 15 miles (thank goodness it was flat) in the heat.
We returned the bikes to Mr. Hugo's and he greeted us with a cool glass of lemonade. We caught the number 10 bus back to Mendoza proper and headed back to the hostel.
That night a big group from the hostel all went out for dinner to celebrate a birthday. Steak and wine! Then we all stopped at a festival the city was having in the park.
No comments:
Post a Comment