Mendoza, La Tierra del Sol y Buen Vino

I arrived in Mendoza the morning of Friday, the 4th of December. I met up with my 4 aussie buddies Carey, Charlie, Dan, and Tom, and we checked into Itaka Hostel which is located in a great area of the city. The whole block is lined with trees, restaurants, bars, boliches (dance clubs), and everything else you would need.

The first thing I noticed when I was getting a cab to the hostel from the bus station was first of all the snow capped mountains on the horizon to the west, and the natural beauty of the city. Compared to other cities, but Buenos Aires especially, everything is much more asthetically pleasing and the people much more laid back. I knew I was going to like this place within the first 10 minutes.

After we got settled in the hostel we just hung out poolside in the backyard, playing pingpong and just catching up. We met in Buenos Aires about a month ago, and parted ways. They went to Uruguay and Patagonia while I did my thing. We always planned on doing Mendoza together, and that we did.


Around 9pm that night, the hostel started cooking an asado in the backyard with a cute little mendocina named Alicia taking the reins as the asadora. We instantly became friends and I helped her out with whatever needed to be done, including going to the small local butcher shop with her and chatting with the butcher for a bit. The dinner included salad, bread, all the red wine and beer you could drink, and all the meat you could eat all for 50 pesos (around 14 USD).






During dinner I met this group of Chilean students on break from Vina del Mar (just north of Santiago). Claudia and Jorge were the most memorable, great people. Later on that night those two and my aussie buddy Tom went out to a night club with all the Chileans and had a blast partying until the sun came up.






On Sunday after only a wink of sleep, myself and the 4 aussie guys headed to the wine country, where we rented bikes from Mr. Hugos bike shop. Mr. Hugo is a legend around here, he is pretty much the coolest guy you could imagine. He is around 60 years old, and just the friendliest man. We got our bikes, grabbed a map, a few quick recommendations, and headed off. At the first bodega (winery), we paid a small fee to get a tour of the facilities which included a tasting of 4 wines. I'm not much of a wine person, but, when in Rome...

We went to Carinae, familia DiTomasso, and Vina del Cerno.

Since the weather was perfect and the scenery was even better, we decided to grab a few bottles to hang out with. We met a few other winery tourists, invited them to our table, and had a great time.






After a bit, we rode our bikes to two more wineries and repeated the process, although these times skipping the tours and jumping straight to the bottle. We had bets going who would be the first one to fall on the bikes, Tom lost. Hilarious. He was fine though, and we headed back to Mr Hugo's to turn the bikes in.

When we got back, Mr Hugo greeted us with a smile and a hug. And as if we hadn't already had enough wine, he insisted that we hang out at his place and have a couple glasses of vino tinto. After we would take a few sips, Hugo would slide in with the bottle and fill our glasses back up to the brim. Repeat this a few times and were all feeling pretty good. All of us left there with our clothes ruined with red wine spills, but that didnt matter. Nothing so petty could ruin our day. We were even comparing spills, one person being more proud of their new tie-dye than the next.






That night myself, my aussie buddies, and a few people we met on the wine tour went out to dinner down the street. Myself and my good friend aussie Carey got a parilla for 2, which means they bring you out a steel platter of several different types of delicious sizzling beef. Ribs, sausages, steaks, roasts, blood sausage, it's all there. For about $12USD each, including beer, this was a steal.

The next couple days were much more relaxed than the weekend. We tried checking out the local zoo, but was closed. We then changed plans and took a long walk around Mendoza, checking out the main plaza and the smaller surrounding parks. Gorgeous city.

On Tuesday, myself and my aussie buddies got a cab about 30 minutes outside of the city towards the Andes, where there are natural hotspring pools to swim in. Absolutely unbelievable. Next to the pools they have bubbling mud for you to rub all over yourself, which I thought was weird as hell, but tried it anyways. Definitely a cool experience. They had pools of different temperatures, ranging from Lake Michigan in june, to soooo hot you can't have kids if you stay in too long. Great day overall, and the scenery was beautiful.






A great way to recover after the wine tours.

Since we had such a great time touring the wineries the first time but only got to see a few of the bodegas, we decided to give Mr Hugo's another spin. He was absolutely shocked to see us again. Apparently people usually only tour the wineries once. Not us.

We took off into the wine country, with our first stop being a small family run farm where the owner makes hand-crafted chocolates, jellies, olive oil, vinegars, olives, rums, whiskeys, absinthes, and really creative liquors. We got to try everything, and everyone in our group bought something to take with them. I bought a jar of hot sauce, since nothing down here is spicy and I am straight-up fiending for some spice.

This time through the wineries we visited a few that we hadn't done the first time, including the biggest in Argentina, Trapiche. I really prefer the small family owned wineries for the obvious reasons. Less tourists, more character, better scenery, and cheaper red.

Beautiful 85 degree and sunny weather, good wine, great friends, and Sr. Hugo really made the day.


















GAUCHO EXPERIENCE:

On the morning of Thursday, December 10th 2009, I set off on the most incredible experience of my life so far.


A few days ago when a nearby hostel was having an asado I met a gaucho named Javier. We chatted for a bit and decided to do a 2 day horse adventure with him.






Myself and my Aussie friends Carey, Dan, and Tom got picked up by Javier at 10am and drove a bit outside Mendoza to his horse stable.

Javi is 27 years old, owns 10 horses, has been riding horses since he could walk, and is just an awesome guy. He leads horse tours either for half day, full day, or an overnight adventure complete with a night sleeping under the stars.

We met Daniel, who is Javi's brother, and Gustavo (Gordo), who were getting the horses ready and loading up the packhorse with all the gear we would need when we stopped to camp. These guys looked like they knew their shit. And they did.






After a quick lesson from Javi about how to control the horses, and a debriefing about what the plan was, we mounted our trusty steeds and set off into the rocky wilderness.

I still can't believe how strong, durable, and smart those horses were. On the first day, we rode for 5 hours uphill to a secluded canyon where we spent the night. The terrain that these horses can traverse is absolutely nearly impossible to walk on for humans. It's made up of big, medium, and small sized rocks, all of them being more jagged than the next. This doesnt faze the horses one bit. My horse didnt even have horse shoes on, yet he still ripped right up the side of the mountains.

At the end of the first day, we were probably one third of the way up the mountain, and could look down to the city below. After we stopped for the day, we built a fire, enjoyed some mate and tortas fritas, and led the horses a little further up the hill where they all drank out of a natural spring.

This natural spring was where we all drank for the entire duration of the excursion and it was ice cold, absolutely delicious, and completely safe to drink. I drank tons of it and haven't felt the slightest problem internally.

We corralled the horses in an area with food that they could eat, then went back to our camp. All of the horses needed to be tied up to a tree overnight so they wouldn´t run away, except Javi´s favorite horse, Mora. Gorgeous animal. He just lets her walk around free, knowing she won´t go anywhere. If he was to do this to any of the other horses, they would run back to their home.






Javi cooked an asado that night on the open fire, along with tomatoes, a spicy tomato sauce for the meat, and really good bread to put it all on.






We also brought 2 damajuanas, or 5 liter bottles, of malbec. We had some with dinner, hung out, talked, laughed, and just enjoyed being where we were. I remember a few times when I would conscienciously attempt to take a step back just so I could soak up my surroundings and try to enjoy every minute of it. What a great birthday present.

After almost all the wine was gone, after the gauchos had sung cumpleanos feliz no less than 7 times, and after all of our bodies refused to stay awake, we set up our sleeping bags (or in my case lack there of) on the ground and fell asleep. This slumber didn't last, though, since it started raining like hell.

Keep in mind that it hadn't rained in Mendoza in the last 9 months. This is a city that gets no more than 5 days of rain per year. Perfect timing to end the draught!!

It got pretty cold up in the mountains at night, so this made for a tough night. It was fine though, even with barely any sleep we were all in good spirits when the sun rose. Blue skies and a day of horse riding ahead of us, life couldn't get any better.

Javi had mate, coffee, scrambled eggs on really good bread, alfajores, more tortas fritas, and OJ for breakfast the next morning. We got the campsite cleaned up, and got the horses ready to go.



The second day, we all felt like pros. I was a lot more comfortable on the horse than the first day, and we hauled ass up the mountains. We went through canyon after canyon, making our way upwards. When we finally got to a point where there were no more canyons, we headed nearly straight upwards, working the horses harder than ever. Even so, they had no problem getting their asses up the steep banks. Overall, we travelled 65 km on horseback from sea level to 3200meters.









One of the highlights was seeing 7-8 different wild horses roaming the mountains. Wild horses in the Andes, wow.






At certain points while walking on a 2 foot wide rocky trail I would look to the left or to the right, and there would be an ENORMOUS cliff. I really didn't feel scared at any point though, because my horse was so sure footed and wouldn't do anything I didn't tell it to do. Even if I told him to turn left and kicked him to go, he probably would have turned around and called me a dumbass. Homero was his name, or Homer (as in Simpson), and he was the smartest horse in the fleet. Even though he wanted to stop all the time to eat, every moment spent riding was awesome.





We got to the top of a peak which was 3200 meters and stopped to take pictures and to eat lunch. Javi busted out the tablecloth and put out a spread for all of us to eat. Here we had the rest of the wine, baguettes with sausage and cheese, apples, oranges, and nectarines. The view was stunning. With the city far off in the distance, we were at the same altitude as the clouds.

We spent a good deal of time up here, just talking about how great of an experience it was, how beautiful the mountains are, and how lucky and thankful we were.


After an hour or so we decended the mountain. All was going well until it started getting dark, and a cold front moved in. Before long, it was fucking pouring. When we left the campsite there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so I left my jacket in the packhorse which was unaccessible at the time. So here I am, in 45-50 degree weather, getting absolutely soaked while wearing just a t-shirt. The combination of wind, cold, and heavy raindrops made life miserable for 45 minutes to an hour. Since I was the only one who didn´t have a jacket on, I didn´t want to have to make the gauchos stop, untie the packhorse, get my jacket out, and tie the packhorse all back up again. After a while, though, it was unbearable. While violently shivering, I asked Javi if we could stop so I could grab my jacket. He replied ¨why didn´t you ask sooner?¨ Yeesh..

I got dried off, put my coat on, and the sun soon reappeared. We rode for 7 hours total that day, and none of us had any problem with soreness or blistering. I think this is because of the horses and the quality of the saddles they gave us. I could have honestly ridden for another 7 hours.

I was the translator for everyone for the last two days, since the gauchos didn´t speak much english and the aussies didn't speak much spanish. I feel really thankful that I was able to communicate with everyone there, because I feel like the aussies missed out on a lot of the gauchos personality, and vice versa.

Regardless, it was an unreal experience.

Javi's brother Daniel asked how long I was going to stay in Mendoza. I told him I was originally going to Santiago with the Aussies, but decided to cancel my ticket since I discovered that Americans have to pay an entry fee to enter Chile. I told him I would be here for a week or two since I absolutely love Mendoza. He told me that when they have a day off from work sometime next week, I should come up into the mountains with just them on horseback. Uhhh hell yes??

For now, I'm just going to rest up and relax after a hectic week. I've been lucky enough to make friends with several locals, so it's no problem hanging out with great people.

Sorry about the long post, I wanted to get it all on file so I wouldn't forget anything. Best birthday I've ever had, and quite possibly even the best experience I've ever had. Either way, the bar is set.