Mendoza and Bodegas

...a continuation of my fascinating vacation blog series.

Mendoza, as I mentioned in my previous post, is a small city of a little over 100,000 people. It also is home to a vast expanse of park (which I have quickly learned is true of every city in Argentina, if you can find it).

Our hostel in Mendoza (which was named Damajuana and was quite nice, I recommend it) was conveniently located about six blocks from said vast park, so of course it was one of the first places I went in Mendoza. In the middle was a manmade lake, pictured at left.

Mendoza is also home to many scultures and other public works of art, as is true with basically any town/city in Argentina. For example, see below:

While we were in Mendoza, we were basically obligated to go on a wine tour, because the region is renowed for its wines. We elected to go on a bike tour in which we were driven to a bike rental place a little ways out of town, and from there we biked to two bodegas (wineries) where we sampled Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as some champagne.

At right: proof I biked with the lovely Andes and some out of season grape plants in the background, not to mention real snow!

At the first winery we got grouped with a large bus tour, so it was rather impersonal, but the second winery was cool because our tour guide was from England and our group only had four people in it, so she gave the tour in English and I learned many interesting facts about the wine and champagne-making processes.

At left: stainless steel wine-aging units. There were many.

At right: a special kind of wood barrels for aging of a different type of wine (unfortunately I don't remember the specifics for anybody who's interested, you'll just have to go on a tour yourself...)

The whole experience was fun because I had never been on a wine tour before, and it was fun to get to ride a bike for the first time since I left the United States! I'll never take it for granted again...

Overall, Mendoza is a very laid-back city/town, and my favorite part was probably the park. The climate wasn't quite legitimate for me, however, because there wasn't enough snow to go snowboarding even though the mountains are relatively close...definite issue! But if you like wine, it's a must when traveling around Argentina.

Next in the fascinating series: Salta!