Weekend in Wine Country

So I'm teetering back and forth between weather I should use this blog to catch up on my free time and the fun things I have done in Buenos Aires or write about my weekend in Mendoza while its still fresh in my mind. I guess I'm choosing Mendoza. Since I'm already behind on fun things in BA another week or so cant hurt. So, here it goes.

Last week I started classes at ECELA again. The weekend, Easter weekend is a long one in Argentina. We had classes off on Thursday and Friday so some friends and I decided to go to Mendoza. Mendoza is the area, right at the base of the Andes on the Argentinian side, where most of the wine from Argentina is produced. Its about a 12 hour drive from Buenos Aires and about an eight hour trek from Santiago. One friend, Daniele, who is Italian, and who I met in school, rented a car and the two of us and one of his friends, Jonathan, from Colombia drove up there on Thursday night. Both Daniele and Jonathan speak English, but prefer Spanish so for the entire trip up and back we only spoke Spanish. Good practice, but exhausting for me. After stopping for a sleep in the middle of nowhere, Argentina, we arrived in Mendoza mid-day on Fri. One of my friends from school in BA, Kristian, who is now studying in Chile, took the bus from Stgo and met us there.

The first afternoon we just spent wandering around the city. There is a huge beautiful park, and the city itself is very cute and quiet. It was such a nice contrast to the noise and pollution of Buenos Aires. I needed some time out of the big city in a bad way. The hostel we stayed in the first night was a little bit out of the city (everything was booked up because of the holiday weekend) so we took a cab into the city for dinner that evening. After that we headed out to some bars that we had had recommended to us. We spent the entire evening barhopping and really hit up every big spot in town in one night. We only had a few slight mishaps upon arriving home and having to tiptoe a very narrow path by the pool to get to our room :p

The next morning we got up and decided to visit some vineyards. The first one we went to was a small vineyard, owned by a French couple. We took a tour and tasted some wines and got some nice photos. We then went to a huge vineyard, the Familia Zucchardi vineyard, and took another tour and tasted some more wine. The comparison in the size and the processes of the two vineyards was amazing. And so was the wine! We switched hostels that evening and after preparing some dinner at the hostel we went met up with some other friends from Buenos Aires and went out again that night. Again the night ended with only a few mishaps involving dark hostel rooms and glass bottles left in precarious places.

After far too few hours of sleep we got up early the next morning to enjoy our final day. Jonathan, being an avid photographer, was keen to take a trip up to the mountains to see some sights and take some pictures. We decided to drive a huge loop up into and through the Andes. The roads were steep and winding and gravel for a good portion of the drive but the sights were fantastic. We saw guanacos, and eagles, and lizzards, the leaves were changing to gold and the distant mountains were capped with snow. It definitely satiated the mountain girl in me. And luck was with me; my camera battery lasted until about 5:00 Sunday night. That evening we went back to the city for a couple of hours, dropped Kristian at the train station and started the long journey back home. We stopped again overnight and got home Monday evening.

It was a lovely weekend and taking a break from the hustle and bustle after three months was more satisfying than I can explain. However, I was still excited to return home at the end of the trip and to be back in my city. Tune in next time for some of the fun activities that Buenos Aires has to offer.