After I had spent a few hours asleep I went walkabout around the centre of Mendoza. There is a central square and four smaller ones off it each with different themes. I was roasting here as it was very humid and I'm not used to the heat anymore. Bought myself a new pair of sunnies as I have misplaced my others somewhere but didn't really do much else that day. There was a Pizza party on in the partner hostel of the one I was staying in so I headed there with pretty much the rest of the hostel. I ended up at a small table with a Dutch girl, two Swedish guys, an Austrian, an American, an Englishman, a Brazilian and a few Argentinians. We were practically sitting on top of one another and we had a major problem -each pizza had ten slices but there were 11 of us! World War III was avoided though. It began to rain but we were inside so it didn't matter. There was obviously a problem with the electrics though because the electricity kept going off - whether it was due to rain in the fusebox or an overworked oven I'm not sure. I would have happily sat in the dark with no music if it meant that we got more pizza but they stopped the pizza then and cleared some space for dancing. The 'dance floor' was packed right from the start and the music was really loud Argentinian rock. Needless to say, I didn't partake. It was funny though cos all the Argentines were up dancing and then the Europeans were mostly standing around the edges shouting at one another to be heard.
The next day I woke up late and walked about different areas of the town and booked a half-day trip to visit las Bodegas. While sitting on a bench in one of the many plazas, reading the Buenos Aires Herald (It's the only newspaper in english) when an old man sat down nearby. He obviously saw that it was in english and began chatting to me. Turns out he is a writer and a journalist. I'm not sure if he wanted me to buy one of his books or whethere he was just a lonely, old man looking to practice his english but we chatted for a while. When he was leaving, he gave me one of his poems as a keepsake. It's called 'Sos Bella´, or 'You're Pretty´. Will write it up here when I remember to bring it to a computer with me. When I went back to the hostel Samira, the dutch girl, was there and was thinking of heading to the Parque San Martin because the Dakar Rally was arriving. We decided to have a bit of food first and then we walked. We walked and walked and walked and walked and then walked some more. The park is massive and we only had a kind of idea about where we were headed. Others didn't help as there were tons of people milling about in every direction and traffic jams in both directions. Eventually we came to a fenced off surrounded by crowds. Maybe we shouldn't have stopped to eat first as the riders were all tucked up inside. Every now and again someone would come out on a bike for photos. The crowd all surged forward but neither of us had a clue about who they were. It was a bit of an anticlimax after walking for so long and the worst thing was that we knew that we faced the equally long walk back. We were just at the hostel when some Argentinians that we had talked to the previous night came out and convinced us we deserved a drink. We went to one of the local places and each had a cocktail. Quite expensive relatively speaking - a good bottle of wine would have cost the same or cheaper.
The trip to the Bodegas was in the afternoon. The guide explained that we were going to two wineries, an olive factory and a small artesenal liquer place. Everyone on the trip spoke spanish bar a Swiss guy. In the first winery I had a choice of joining him in an English-speaking tour or going with the Spanish group. We learnt about how the wines are made and they boasted that the Malbecs of Mendoza were becoming of better quality than those of France due to Mendoza having drier weather. We tasted a few different wines here and then headed off to the olive factory. There was no English tour here so I'm still a bit confused about how they extract the oil. There was one part of the machine where all the stems/branches ended up shredded into bits but I do not know how they become shredded or how they are seperated from the oil. We had a taste of olive oil on bread with olives or sundried tomatoes. Then we headed for the small liquer shop. The owner's parents were Belgian and he proceeded to explain each of his products in English, Spanish, Porteguese and French. His parents had made liquers, whiskies, chocolates and jams but it was only when he took over that they opened the place to the public and made it a going concern. We each got some chocolate and a choice of a taste of liquers. There was a Crema Irlandesa but I figured it probably wasn't as nice as Baileys so I went for a Chocolate Banana with bits of white chocolate liquer. It was lovely. We got a taste of the jams too. I chose a spicy aubergine one and it was that tasty I would have bought a jar except that I was worried it would break and spill over all my clothes. Then he brought out his absinthe and everyone had a sip of it. Then we had our last stop in another winery. More tasting but this time our guide was a sommelier so she made us perform a little ritual before each sip. At least I can impress people with my apparant knowledge of wines now. Went back to the hostel and chilled with a group of Argentinians. Wow it is difficult to understand Spanish in a group - everyone talking fast and over each other and interjecting. Maybe someday I'll get there!
