Mendoza (Day 3)

We met up at 10.30 to go on a cycle tour of the Mendoza vineyards. We took a 40 minute bus ride to "Mr Hugo's" Bike Hire, where we jumped on our bikes and headed down the road to the Familia Tommasi, the oldest existing winery in Argentina. After the brief tour with the stunning Argentinian guide, we had a wine tasting before most of the group stopped for lunch, while Dave, Rich and I continued to another vineyard to separate ourselves from the crowd to an extent. Further down the road, which gradually became quieter as we went deeped into the countryside, we stopped first at the Vistandes vineyard before cycling on to the "Laur" and "Carinae" vineyards (although it turned out that, thanks to my half-arsed map reading, Laur was an Olive Oil factory - not quite the tasting we wanted!). Nevertheless, Carinae was another very good vineyard with some delicious Malbecs, run by a former French civil engineer. We had a lengthy tasting there, as well as our packed lunch of cheese and salami sandwiches, before heading back up to the Tommasi winery where I bought a bottle of expensive (80 pesos / 16 quid) limited stock Malbec (there were only 4465 bottles produced) as well as a bottle of delicious Malbec for only 4 pounds, and some good cheap cider too.


Upon returning to the hostel, Dave and I decided to go to a cheese and wine tasting evening (Lonely Planet told us a cafe in the town centre holds it every night), before going out to dinner some nice and expensive, away from the rest of the group.

As it turned out, however, the cheese and wine tasting no longer opened on Mondays, and after failing to find a nice looking restaurant on the square, we entered a dodgy looking cafe/restaurant that Uriel, the guide, recommended, Old Bull Tavern. The food and the service was appalling - school dinner standard at best - with more fat than meat in the cheap steaks, instant mashed potato, and the "mushroom sauce" was gravy from granules with sliced tinned mushrooms stirred through it.

After that disaster, we headed to the Irish Pub again - apparently it was 'International Night' on Mondays, plus we'd already arranged as a group to have "Mendoza Monday Madness" and everyone, including Vikki and her mates, were to meet us there at midnight.

At approaching 1am, everyone turned up - Vikki and her friends were already quite pissed, but I hardly saw them as Kerry staggered in and sat on my lap (even though we were supposed to be keeping 'us' a secret) before suddenly being very ill in the bathroom, outside the pub, and finally in the pub right in front of everyone. Then she decided it'd be best for her to go home, and refused anyone's help but mine - when I eventually got back to the hostel with her, she was easily the most drunk I'd ever seen anyone... long story.

Mendoza II

On our second day in Mendoza, Carly, Lia, Angela and I went paragliding. After a twenty minute drive, we arrived at the "base camp", where Angela and I changed to another 4x4 to take us uphill. At the summit, we had a brief wait until the wind was right, before we were told to run and not stop until the pilot tells us! I expected a massive adrenaline rush as I ran off the edge of a cliff, but I was concentrating so hard on not doing anything wrong that I hardly noticed it until I couldn't touch the ground. (The pilot told me I was at the upper weight limit and had to run as fast as possible and not stop, just to make sure! He also asked me if it was my first time, then said it was his first time paragliding too.) Angela had taken off moments before me, and seemed to be gliding away effortlessly; as I ran off the edge of the hill the ground gradually disappeared from beneath my feet - I was still trying to run well after I couldn't touch the ground.


The flight was excellent, but it was much less adrenline-filled than I had expected; it was relatively slow and calm. Nevertheless, it was a great experience but I doubt I'd do it again without a specific view - we were gliding over mountains and fields with little to see.



That evening, we met with Vikki, Julia and their friends, heading to the Irish pub for several hours just chatting and catching up, before going round the corner to a recommended nightclub, Gutierrez, but (gladly) it was closed and I got to bed by about 3am.