Wine and birthdays in Mendoza

After a one night stop-over in Santiago on returning from Easter Island, we hopped on yet another bus to take us on the eight hour journey across the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. Hailed as the wine capital of the country it seemed like the perfect place to celebrate my birthday and we'd agreed to meet up with Lou (who we met on the Navimag ferry) whose birthday is the day before mine. We were quite excited about the hostel we'd booked as the website looked fantastic and it boasted a pool and a wine bar on site. However, as with many things in South America, it was not quite as we'd imagined and although beautiful from the outside, was lacking in character and cleanliness on the inside. The town was far larger than we'd expected, a city rather than a Provencal village but its parks and tree lined avenues were very pretty and there were plenty of activities on offer.

On Lou's birthday we signed ourselves up for a full day's wine tasting culminating in a lunch of local produce at the final winery. We were collected at 9am (a little early for wine if you ask me!) and visited 3 wineries and a liquor distillery. We were guided around and shown the wine making process and then able to taste a white and red wine at each (we all agreed that it would have been far better to be given wines of varying varieties to compare, with a little more instruction involved as this was very much geared towards a quick taste and then back on the bus). At the final (very small) winery we arrived to find a table heavily laden with local meats, cheeses, breads and all sorts of other delicious things for us to enjoy (along with free flowing red wine to wash it down). It was a picture perfect setting and the food was absolutely delicious - a great way to end the tour.

The following day (my birthday) we went horse riding which was wonderful. We rode up into the mountains with perfect weather, great horses, mate tasting and an authentic gaucho - what more could a girl want! Lou's excellent spanish enabled her to find out all about the fascinating life of a gaucho and relay it back to me while we rode through the low Andes wishing only that we could stay longer. That evening we went to a wonderful restaurant in Mendoza where we tucked into delicious steak and the best red wine we've tasted so far. Even though I wasn't at home to celebrate with friends and family, I've got to admit it wasn't a bad way to spend a birthday!

From Mendoza the next stop is Buenos Aires where we will spend five days and nights. We're both really excited about this part of the trip as we've heard such great things about the city. I'll update again from there.