Finally catching up on my Mendoza trip!
Words of the Day:
alama- sycamore tree. Fun fact: these are the reason the main street in Santiago is called the Alameda- it's lined with them!
chorizo/longaniza- sausage. Longaniza=used in Chile. Chorizo= used in both
masceración- the amount of time wine is aged with the grape skins, giving it different shades of color
añejar- to age wine. I dont think age is actually the right word. Whatever.
roble- oak
baricca- cask
alfahores- cookies sandwiches with dulce de leche in the middle.
bodega- in Argentina, vineyard
desgustación- wine tasting
Thursday 21
Took the bus through the Andes to Mendoza Argentina. What a magical ride. The mountains were dark and sharp on the Chilean side and then softer with beautiful earth colors on the Argentina side. The bus ride from Ny to Boston is going to seem really really boring when I return to school now :)
Everything in Mendoza is really cheap: our hostel was only $8 US a night!
Arrived with two other friends around dinner time, where we went to Las Tinajas, which had a ridiculously large buffet packed to the brim with delicious things. $10 for all you can eat!
Argentine men have won the most aggressive catcalling award. To be fair, we went out dressed up perhaps slightly provacatively for a Thursday. By which I mean we were wearing dresses when jeans would have been appropriate. At one point, we got applauded just for walking by, which was beyond comical. Lulled to sleep by the delicious food and a spot of wine, we went to bed early by Argentine standards, around 1 or 2.
Friday 22
We got up leisurely, reunited with some more of the gringo pack. We walked with plans around the sycamore and café lined streets of Mendoza which managed to be both elegant and quaint. Then, we decided to rent bikes and go to Parque San Martin for a picnic lunch. We had forgotten about the siesta element though- commerce shuts down pretty much between 1 and 4 pm. Luckily, we found a fabulous gourmet shop with goat cheese, salads and homemade bread which we got for literally $5. Amazing, as was our relaxing ride around the park.
Saturday 23
We went for a wine tour, renting bikes in the nearby area of Maipú. ($12 for an all day rental and transportation one way to Maipú) We biked about 15 miles total past beautiful fields lined with sycamores, testing malbec wines for which the region is famed, absinthe (totally random but also gross), jam, dulce de leche, smoked cheeses, specialty olive oils, tapanades, and last but certainly not least, chocolates.
Most vineyards had good deals where you could taste wines and get a tour for between $3 and $5.
And we squeezed in a gourmet lunch too. We had an interesting time getting back on the bus- you need to pay in coins, which Argentina apparently has a shortage of. Also, their paper bills are horrible quality- they literally fall apart. We guessed it had something to do with country's history of inflation- there's probably a great hesistancy to print new bills.
For dinner, we had a ridiculous parrillada- a barbeque of every kind of meat ever. SO GOOD.
Sunday 24
After relaxing in a café during the morning and walking around a bit more, we boarded the bus back home, armed with some excellent cheeses, sun dried tomatoes, figs and alfahores. It was such a wonderful trip, quite spontaneous and full of the best and simple things in life: good quality food, wine, beautiful scenery and most importantly, good friends. A lovely little taste of Argentina. Even though in some ways it wasn't as developed as Chile- the cars for one thing were straight out of the 70s and 80s, there's a certain elegance to it that is hard to describe but makes it wonderful.
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