Saturday, May 30, 2009

Wine, 2, 3, 4


 Me, Bryan, Paola and her 2 friends: Damien and Austin took a 14 hour overnight bus ride to Mendoza from Buenos Aires. 14 hours on a bus sounds awful I know, but it was actually pretty enjoyable- 2 story bus, our chairs were like comfy lazy boys that reclined all the way back, they served wine, showed a few bootleg movies and fed us. What more do you need? So much better than my 14 hour flight to Argentina. 
The first day we took a little guided tour to a town outside of Mendoza where a lot of the bodegas are, called Maipu (My Poo).  We went to two vineyards, an olive oil farm, and this mans house where he makes chocolates and liquors out of his tiny kitchen. It was super cool, first he had Norah Jones playing, so that was a plus. Then he gave us  little shots of his special creations... Absinthe, Russian Death, Black Cherry liqueur and some other stuff. The wine and liquor warmed us up since its starting to get a little blistery (blustery?*) outside.  Plus, we Mendoza is right by the mountains so that probably doesnt help. Then we got back and the boys made a huge bbq on the parrilla and jammed out to some tunes. Mmm. Steak, potatoes,' veggies  and of course, wine. 
 Day 2, we went back to Maipu and rented bikes from this lady's shed and rode from vinyard to vinyard. I guess the bright side was that the bikes worked but other than that, they werent too comfy and kinda wobbled a lot. The vinyards we visited that day were probably my favorite. This one vinyard, El Cerno was cool, they had a man posted up outside grilling all day. His name was Oscar and he was good at what he did, the meat was really good!  Maybe because we were starving after biking, but a sandwich, salad and wine hit the spot. So we all had lunch outside in front of the vines. 
That night we went to this bar called Juegetes Rabiosos and played some intense games of Jenga accompanied by Andes beer.  Although Im still not a huge beer lover, I can at least drink a glass now. Baby steps. haha. I think its the carbonation. 
Moving on... day 3: Me, P and B took a bus to Cacheuta and went to the local hot springs. The minerals made your skin feel so so soft. Of course me and Bryan didnt think to bring swimsuits so  we rented some sweet ones for 5 pesos from a lady outside the park who swears they were sanitary, sometimes you gotta just go with it and hope for the best.  Mine was a mix between a one-piece and a wrestlers outfit- very very attractive. Grey and yellow polka-dots and stripes. We grabbed some empanadas and whisky (a nice change from wine, plus it was still freezing outside) from a kiosko across the dirt road, made friends with Stormy the stray dog, and then went into the springs. You could see the beginning of the Andes mountains from where we were swimming, so that was cool. The rules in the park were weird, for example, girls had to have their hair in a ponytail and werent allowed to wear shorts as swimsuit bottoms, but at the same time they allowed breastfeeding in the water. Or maybe thats not weird, I dont know. After soaking ourselves to prunes in the springs, we went down the slide and left.  For some reason that wore us out and we napped the whole bus ride home.  I had my first Argentina sushi experience. Not bad, not much to choose from like back home- mostly salmon. So I got salmon. 
Day 4.. what was day 4.. oh yea, haha, it was super super cold that day- and we got up early and took a bus to do horseback riding through the mountains. Very cold. Thats pretty much it.  
Friday me and Bryan just kinda chilled out around Mendoza, we were going to try and go back to  Maipu on a scooter but it was raining, so that was a no-go. Instead we found an irish pub,  and the owner was this little round man who was so jolly and happy we were in his bar that we were sort of forced to stay. So we did. Got some drinks and watched old 90s music videos. Not bad at all. We had a couple of hours to kill until our bus left so we went to the local Mendoza Casino. It was so small. Bryan goes up to the bar and asks for a mojito.. haha I was like who are you? Were not in vegas. But the bartender tells us that the second bar can help him out with the mojito. So we go up the elevator, where we think he says the other bar is... turns out its the security floor where they watch the cameras to see if youre cheating. We  take the elevator back down and as the door opens, there are 4 security guards in suits with earpieces waiting for us. haha, woops. wrong floor. Once they hear my spanish, they realize Im just lost and not trying to take down Casino Mendoza. Yikes. Bryan brought a cuban cigar with him to act classy while on the wine vacation but never found the perfect time to smoke it. So we lit it in the casino, why not, everyone smokes in casinos. Ive never smoked a cigar, but Bryan said if youre gonna do it you may as well do it right. So my first puff of a cigar was a cuban one. Go team go. Thats pretty much as long as that lasted, a puff. haha. Checked that off my list. We went back to the hostel , packed and got on the bus. 
Anddd we just got back to Buenos Aires :) Its good to be home. Oh and if youre wondering where Winnie was, he stayed with a friend who treated him like a god.  He was kinda on vacation too. And, if you made it this far reading all of my babble, Im impressed and thank you :)

* Im coming home for Thanksgiving.  So see yall in T minus 5 months!

love youuuu,
Elise

1 comment:

  1. do you two gauchos ever drink "water"?
    your viaje sounds like a dream, me da muchos celos...
    happy puffing elise, hope you did not enhale..

    ReplyDelete