Red, red wine...

After leaving El Bolson my next port of call was the city of Mendoza in the heart of Argentina's wine country and home to malbec.

I used Andesmar again for the 21 hour journey and as El Bolson doesn't have a main bus terminal the coaches stop at their main company office in the town, these are all quite close to one another so fairly easy to locate.

First surprise of the journey was that the bus was actually early. After lunch, which comprised of the now standard ham and cheese roll with mayo, was a game of bus bingo! A great way for me to practice my numbers, I didn't win but the woman behind me did and she got a bottle of wine.

Dinner consisted of the most carbs I have ever seen as part of a meal - bread roll, slice of focaccia, muffin, slice of cheese and ham followed by a chicken cutlet and mashed potatoes! Thankfully I still had some tomato and chickpea stew leftover so supplemented my mash with this just to give it some colour! 

The coach arrived in Mendoza on time too - another first. I had booked to stay at Hostel Mora and it was a fairly straightforward 10/15minute walk from the bus station. My main reason for choosing this particular hostel was that it offered a free wine hour every night, secondly there were pancakes for breakfast. 

I was in Mendoza for four days and spent the first two exploring. As far as cities go it isn't a sprawling metropolis so it was fairly easy to navigate and the centre is concentrated around Plaza Independencia. There are four further plazas around Independencia, which are equi-distant from one another - Plaza Italia, Plaza Chile, Plaza San Martin and Plaza Espana. My favourite was Plaza Espana because I liked the tiled seats and fountain.

I also wandered out to Parque Central, which was about a 20 minute walk from Independencia down Avenida Mitre. I took some food with me from the vegetarian (yes, vegetarian) take away round the corner from my hostel. There were actually two veggie places in the vicinity - I thought the fact there was one was pretty awesome but two! The park was pleasant with plenty of grassy areas to sit and it was a nice place to while away some time.

The next night the hostel was organising an asado (Argentinian bbq) for 120 pesos and as I had yet to experience this particular part of Argentinan culture I signed up - unfortunately it was cancelled due to there not being enough interest. I was particularly disappointed especially as I'd eaten hardly anything all day in preparation.

The following day one of my fellow dorm mates told me about a buffet place she had been to during her last trip to Mendoza, which did lots of meat dishes and had a built in asado. At 140 pesos all you can eat how could I say no especially after the disappointment of the previous night! The place opened at 8.30pm and we were the first people in there, which was good as by 9pm it was heaving. 

The food was a-mazing, now I'm not the biggest meat eater but the dishes I tried were delicious. The slow cooked lamb in a tomato based sauce was to die for. Needless to say I went back to the hostel that night painfully full.
  
As I was in wine country it would have been rude not to at least visit some wineries during my stay. I booked to do a whole day bike and wine tour for 600 pesos on my last day. I would get to visit 3 wineries and have lunch at one. I was a little apprehensive about how wise it would be to ride a bike after a day of wine drinking but I thought it would be more fun than going in a bus. 

However, the morning of the tour the receptionist told me that unfortunately due to issues with the transport supposed to take us to the bikes the company had to cancel the tour. I was pretty gutted to say the least especially after the asado got cancelled earlier in the week - things didn't seem to be going my way. As it was my last day I couldn't try and book for another day either.

All was not lost though and I was able to book on a half day normal tour instead visiting two wineries and an olive oil producer.

The first winery was called Vistandes and was quite a modern set up. We got told about the wine making process then came the tasting. First up was a white wine (I forget what it was) but despite its fruity smell it was too dry for my taste. The second was a malbec but again I wasn't that blown away by it.

Next up was Pasrai an extra virgin olive oil producer. Again the process of making olive oil was explained to us and afterwards we were able to sample several oils from plain to flavoured ones. My favourite was the garlic infused oil, didn't like it enough to warrant buying a bottle to carry around with me though.

Final stop was a small family run winery called Don Arturo. Unlike Vistandes the winery was actually more like what I imagined one to be like - whitewashed buildings, grapevines, barrels etc and it felt a lot more personal too.

We were able to try three different wines and I discovered I have a taste for cabernet sauvignon - so much so I even bought a bottle for 60 pesos. I also liked the second malbec we sampled, which was a reserve one, however it was a little more expensive so I stuck with the cabernet sauvignon.

When I got back to Mendoza I was anxious that I needed to exchange some money for Chilean pesos ready for the next day so I'd have enough to get to my hostel. There was also the Via Blanca de Las Reinas parade to kick off the wine harvest celebrations happening in the city.

Thankfully I managed to locate a cambio office that was still open as I couldn't be bothered to try and find someone to do a blue market exchange with due to it being a bit chaotic and I only wanted to change a small amount. 

Turning water into wine - a fountain in Mendoza

After exchanging my money I secured myself a front row spot for the parade among a couple of families. As it got closer to the start time it started getting a bit more crowded. I had sort of made friends with the man next to me and his young grandson as I kindly held their spot while they went and got drinks.

The parade consisted of floats from the various provinces in the Mendoza region. On these floats are the harvest queens from each province, who get judged until one is crowned the overall National Wine Harvest Queen. In between the floats were gauchos on horses, a tractor procession, brass bands etc.

During the parade a few things were thrown from the floats into the crowd, this started with a few sweets - nothing unusual there, then progressed to pens (inwardly I was thinking health and safety would never allow this in the UK - they could take someone's eye out). If I thought the frenzy of the people around me for the sweets was bad the pens were even worse. I did manage to inadvertently catch a key ring much to the amusement of those around me.

After the pens came grapes, plums and apples. I am fairly sure if someone took a photo of me while this was going on the look on my face would have been one of bemusement mixed with fear as chaos ensued around me. 

The atmosphere wasn't violent at all and everyone around me was laughing and smiling while at the same time being very competitive. I even saw some people with baskets on sticks to help them catch stuff - serious business. My fear was mostly from the fact I didn't much want to end up being hit full in the face by an apple! I did manage to get a peach, which landed at my feet.

As if this couldn't get worse the people on the final float were throwing melons - yes that's right melons! It was at this point I regretted standing quite so close as an apple in the face is one thing, but a melon that could do some serious damage. I needn't have worried because a stealthy teenager crossed the barrier and managed to catch the one headed my way.

All in all it was a really enjoyable evening and fitting for my last night in Argentina. Also, as I missed out on some of the bigger Carnaval celebrations this definitely made up for it.