Ahmad: We got a morning bus to Mendoza and after a few hours we got to the border between Chile and Argentina where we had to wait around for 2 hours for the immigration officials to finish their matte(local tea), talking to their mates and petting all the stray dogs around (Argentineans are really laid back). Once our passports had been stamped (which took all of 2 minutes) we got back onto the bus and were in Mendoza for the early evening.
We had booked to stay at a Hostelling International hostel, after checking in and a brief visit to the supermarket we started chatting (and drinking) with some American students studying in Argentina. After a couple of bottles of wine we went out to a local bar and whiled away the evening. The American’s we met were pretty cool and all studying Spanish in South America. We managed to catch some of the rugby though none of the locals seemed to be that fussed about the game (saying that I don’t remember who was playing either).
The next day we were very very hung-over and decided to chill out for the day. It was at this point that we had a good look around the hostel and realised it was an absolute dump (though not in the same league as the YHA we stayed at in Hyderabad). The dorm we stayed in was filthy, with triple bunk beds (yes triple!) and absolutely tiny. We had a look around and moved to a different hostel a couple of days later.
Luckily for us, the hostel we had moved too, offered a free Mr. Hugo wine tour, we moved into the hostel and did very little. We spent a couple of days looking around Mendoza, had a picnic in South America’s largest park and generally watched a lot of Scrubs (on the old laptop).
Anyway, after a few lazy days we decided to head out on the wine tour. Some American girls had just checked in and were interested in the wine tour so we all got a bus to Maipu (a total of 4 Peso’s each way) and arrived at Mr. Hugo’s house, we were given a glass of wine (at 11AM), a bike, a map, some tips and were on our way.
We went out to a Liquor / Olive oil producer and sampled some really nice Liquors (including absinth for me!). The liquor producer also made some fantastic mustards and pesto. Feeling a little groggy afterwards we carried on to a wine Museum where we had a look around and another great glass of wine.
After the wine museum we visited a winery called Mevi, where we sampled 4 really nice glasses of wine (sorry Mendoza, the wine was definitely better in Cape town though the Syrah here is incredible), feeling slightly drunk and wobbling a bit on the road we went to a beer garden where we had a few pints of Ale / Blonde beer and then back to Mr. Hugo’s.
Mr Hugo welcomed us at the door and immediately thrust a glass of wine each into our hands. Every time our wine container (it wasn’t a wine glass more of a juice glass) the glass was topped up again. We stayed for a few hours and Mr. Hugo very kindly put us on the bus back to town.
Feeling hung-over the next day we did very little (again). Laura had caught the tail end my cold so we spent the next few days recovering and generally enjoying the atmosphere in Mendoza.