I returned
to BA from the Iguazu Falls and early the next day, took a ferry to Colonia del
Sacramento, Uruguay (have to love day trips to another country!). I arrived around 10am and thought that
perhaps I had stumbled upon a ghost town…it is a beautiful UNESCO world
heritage site, but before at least 11am is sound asleep! It slowly came alive as the day passed by and
I enjoyed its quaintness, museums, artists, and sights. And of course made some obligatory purchases!
Was nice to spend the day by myself though still did too much walking…. I am
now almost able to order a meal, wine and coffee in Spanish (albeit not very
well!).
And then it
was time to return for my last night in BA…. Although I saw so much of the city
I still feel I have so much to see!!! Would love to live there for a bit and
explore much more of it…truly a fabulous city!!! Another very early morning and another
Argentinean Aerolinas flights (seriously, they are to be avoided!) to
Mendoza…wine country of Argentina…
I stayed
about 30 minutes out of the centre of town in a really gorgeous place – my room
was lovely and the grounds of the house amazingly beautiful! I spent the first day wondering around and
running errands then somehow managed to negotiate the bus system into town (for
those of you how know about my bus phobia and view that trips on buses are very
traumatic should be impressed!) – I even managed to negotiate it back via a
different route in the dark!!!
The plan
was to do an organized wine tour and then make my way to a small number of
wineries that I had tried wines from in BA and really enjoyed…. But being out
of Mendoza it was not so easy to organize a tour and the place where I am
staying told me they could make some reservations for me…..
Visiting
wineries here (or Bodegas as they are called) is a bit of a different process –
there are guards and security gates and you need to make a reservation. So my first reservations was for 12 noon and
I was to have lunch there. My taxi
driver was late, got lost, kept taking wrong turns, asking multiple people how
to get there and ignored my clear non-verbal explanation via the map as to
which way to drive (it seems a pre-requisite to be a taxi driver in Mendoza is
to a) not know where anything is, b) be unable to read a map at all and c) not
have any logical processing of obvious signs and landmarks or any capacity to
understand directions given by other people…. Even with my dismal spatial
processing I knew better than the taxi drivers which way to go!!!!!!)…. So I arrived late and gave him 3 pesos short
of the fare (about $1AUD) feeling that was generous and then he asked me for
the 3 pesos!! I threw four pesos at him
exclaiming in English that he got lost, I was late and he was charging me for
it… I am certain he understood!!
Then a
bizarre thing happened – a small tour arrived (two people and a guide) and one
of them was someone from Australia who had been at the two conferences!! So I joined them for a gorgeous lunch and
some lovely wine and then took another taxi to another bodega. After initially being told that my
reservation had not been confirmed and the tour would take place in Spanish I
managed to get a personalized tour in English!
Very interesting winery that has vineyards in four different regions,
each of which has a slightly different environment (depth of soil, layer of
rocks, where the roots terminate in relation to these etc). And they have done some fascinating things
such as plant and harvest the exact same grape in the four different wineries
to illustrate the influence of the environment on the final product. Then another taxi to my last winery – a tiny
boutique winery very near to where I was staying. Joined another English tour and met some
interesting people.
It has just
been killing me to taste all of these amazing wines and not be able to take
them home and share them with you all!!!
I had not realized how much of my pleasure in drinking wine comes from
sharing it!! But I am a determined
little being and I will find ways of sourcing my favourite Argentinean wines!!
That night
I ate dinner at El Gato Que Pesca (the cat who fishes) and was invited to sit
at the table of a couple from Mendoza – Omar, a musician and chef and Yvonne,
an artist. They then invited me to come
with them and the owner of the restaurant to an amazing bodega out in the Andes
the next day. So on Sunday I went to
this amazing place and ate yet another indulgent meal with views of the snow
capped Andes. And on the grounds was a
bodega, chapel and art gallery. The art
gallery contained an amazing private art collection of Argentinean and Dutch
works as well as a special exhibition entitled ‘moments of wine’. I later went back to their house and saw some
of Yvonne’s amazing art and her son’s simply fabulous photography. Seriously!
What an experience!!!! After many
‘muchas gracias’ it was time to say goodbye….
So I left
Mendoza feeling as though I barely saw any of it (it is a huge city – has 1.5
million people!!) and unfortunately met a great ´taxi´ driver on the way to the
airport who organises personalised tours – however he may be able to help me
get wine back to Australia, so all is good!
The flight over the Andes was yet again stunning and I am now in my last
stop <big sigh>, Santiago....
