salud!!

and now we enter the 'posts from the past' stage, as yours truly became blissfully enamored with the argentinian way of life--namely dining at 10, drinkin' and dancin' till 6, sleeping till noon, then lazing my days with the rest of the porteños at parks and cafes until the cycle started all over again--and thus slightly neglected this lil' ol' blog. hey, when in rome...

so, let me take you back.

mendoza is argentina's premier wine-producing region, producing some 80% of the grape juice. i would be lying through my teeth if that wasn't my main reason for visiting--the moment i entered argy, my wino tendencies of my rome days kicked into full gear, and i was itching to get to the good stuff.

to be fair, the lovely city of mendoza has lots more to travelers than purple-stained teeth. wide tree-lined avenues, shady trees offering solace from the arid sun. numerous parks and plazas, lovers stealing kisses and hippies selling rasta jewelery. fun-loving locals who are all too willing to take you out to one of mendoza's many many many discos. days lazed by, sharing mate in the plaza independencia and having massive asados (argentine-style bbqs) with the laid-back hostel staff. nights were a techno-tainted blur, going out well after midnight and blinking at the first rays of sunlight on drives home. mornings-afters that were just as fun as night-befores.

it seemed, thought, that there was this new mendozian activity that is all the rage in the backpacker world. for me, it started with a free glass of vino from a wine museum and ended with a police escort. i have just three words for you: bicycle. wine. tour.

we bused out to the small wine-producing town of maipu, rented bikes from the rather infamous mr. hugo, received a map of the 14 bodegas and headed on our merry way. the sun was shining, the birds were singing, my bike had a basket and the first bodega on our map gave out free wine! life, my friends, was good.

stop #1: the wine musuem. we took photos next to massive wine barrels and snuck free glasses of the house malbec. the woman giving the tours correctly gauged our true interests and left out a couple of open bottles for us to taste.

stop #2: liqueur and chocolate shop. no wine to be found, just hunks of dark chocolate, gloriously bittersweet, peach-rum jam, sun-warmed olive oil, creamy spoonfuls of hazelnut dulce de leche and absinthe. it burned for a straight 5 minutes. 75% alcohol will do that to you.

midway--peddling starts to get extremely difficult. i think it's the absinthe. turns out to be a flat tire.

stop #3: while we wait for my replacement bike to arrive (sadly, without basket), the group shares a nice young bottle of cab sav.

stop #4: we wandered through the vineyards at tempus alba, sunned ourselves on their rooftop patio and sopped up some of the booze with a glorious bread and cheese plate. and tasted three wines, claro.

midway--damien tries biking with no hands, things go a bit awry. biking in a straight line because a fun challenge. where is the next winery?

stop #5: an american guy in our tasting group at familia de tomosa bodega asks when we get to try tequila. he was also drinking rum and coke through his camelback. more wine consumed. we learned out to detect the difference between young and old malbec grapes. i could not tell you the difference now.

midway--i get the sensation that someone is following me. YES. i got one of the legendary police moto escorts. he followed us for a bit, noticed our maroon-tinged teeth and the fluent spanish that comes with a certain amount of alcohol consumption, and gave us directions to the cerveceria. i love argentina.

stop #6: we decide to switch things up - boutique beer time at a cervezeria. a fantastic dark beer that is as light as a normal ale but full of flavor and no where near as heavy as stout. two pints down.

ride home--now best friends with police escort, helped a dog and her four puppies cross the road, passed the bike rental shop three times before we made it home.

stop #8: free wine at mr. hugos! bounce house! aaaannnnndddd....we're down for the count.

honestly, one of the best days of my trip. sipping delicious wine, biking through leafy wineries in the autumn-soaked sunshine, laughing learning loving living. good wine and great company--life really doesn't get better than that!

and, photos from salta, cachi-cafayate loop, mendoza