Mendoza

Day 495.

The 17 hour bus ride from Bariloche to Mendoza was, despite the length, one of the most luxury bus services we've been on to date. Nothing can rival the beds of India of course but a dedicated bus hostess, hot dinners, unlimited coffee and organised bingo games meant it was certainly up there!

Not long after breakfast was served we arrived in Mendoza, the red wine region of Argentina, and famous for top notch Malbec. It just so happened we had arrived during the annual wine festival - which meant red wine fountains, never ending beauty pageants, plenty of horse riding and flag waving cowboys - the town was alive to say the least. Unusually regardless of the hippie Argentinian culture there was no backlash against the annual beauty pageants which has hundreds of women paraded for 4 days throughout town with thousands of supporters in their wake.

It wouldn't be a wine festival without a mega degustación (tasting). Ljbujania style we picked up a class and wasted no time sampling the tasters from a selection of the 900 Vineyards surrounding this town. In fact we nearly even felt like we fitted in to our classy surroundings until we would return to the dive of a hostel we had booked for ourselves - £4 a night might get you a bed but it'll be a sweaty dark and dingy one that's for sure.

Nonetheless we argued less money on sleeping = more money on wine and steak, which we certainly embraced. Wasting no time in trying some local T-bone (a first for limbster) and sampling some red - without it we'd have never been able to sleep through the 35° heat in our 2x4 room.

After 3 days of enjoying the festival atmosphere it was time for the grand finale, not ones for a 3 hour dance event we passed on buying tickets and clambered our way to the hilltop for a sneak preview. As expected the highlight was our cheese, salami and beer picnic but it was a adventure nonetheless - opting to take the less dangerous way home..

As the festival wrapped up it was time to explore the real reason we were here, the Vineyards themselves. Bikes hired we set out - with plans to explore just 5 of the countless nearby in one day. It wasn't many kms before we arrived at the first winery, nestled amongst rows and rows of vines with the andes mountains as a back drop - it was pretty dam perfect. Opted for a 3 wine tasting per person, and heavy on the Malbec, it would have been rude not too (all for £1.80 mind), incredible.

After that things got more and more blurry, the cycling got a little more difficult and limbsters hands became a little more liberal with the surrounding grapes as we crawled vineyard after vineyard. To finish off our day of tasting the bike rental man offered a happy hour of free homemade Red wine at his wine bar next door upon our return - not ones to miss free wine we returned on the dot to take advantage of such a deal.

After that sudo Craig made an appearance, which left limbster to fend for us both at the bus station, wisely opting for tickets to Buenos Aires the following day and sourcing herself a satisfying dinner after a long and wine fuelled day! It was a wise choice as waking the following morning we both knew we were well and truly wined out, customising our own bottle would have to wait until next time - a night bus to the capital, Buenos Aires awaited us...Read more