An inside look into wine country...
We arrived in sunny Mendoza, found our hostel, unloaded, and headed straight to the Mercado Central for lunch. The marketplace, full of fruit, meat, and dry goods vendors, may be the cleanest either of us have ever seen! Small restaurants and cafes are spread throughout, offering their various ¨Promos¨and lunch specials.
Mercado Central, MendozaMendoza is a beautiful, quaint city, boasting the title as Argentina´s third largest. The city is centered around Plaza Independencia, which has 4 smaller plazas near each corner. We stayed right near Plaza San Martin, awesome location! City life is relaxed, including daily afternoon siestas, and the people may be the friendliest we´ve met to date. Although it only rains about 5 days per year, Mendoza´s streets are lined with trees, fed through an ancient system of channels that carry snowmelt down from the mountains and regulated by the various ¨dykes¨in the area.
Calle España, our Hostel´s streelBeing in the heart of Argentine wine country, we decided on a wine tour that would take us on spanish-guided tours of one large, high volume, highly commercialized Mendoza bodega; one small, family-owned and run bodega; and a small, artisan olive oil factory. Wonderfully personal experience, with a small group of great people. We left an afternoon of wine tasting, tipsy, full and wondering where we´d put the 5 handcrafted bottles of vino that had now become our traveling buddies!
Bodega Lopez, Maipu, MendozaWe rented bikes to go explore the huge Parque San Martin, but Aaron was thirsty for some real adventure... After trying to ride our non-mountian bikes up a mountain, and exchanging many loud phrases regarding ¨poor attitudes,¨ we walked it up to the top. There we encountered a group of Mendoza´s very best mountain bikers practicing their crazy decents!
Overall, Mendoza quickly became one of our favorite Argentine cities and we were about to explore more of the province´s natural wonders in San Rafael.
