The first thing on our minds this morning was to make a phone call home because it was our Mothers birthday so we all wanted to wish her a happy birthday all the way from Argentina. We had our first bowl of cereal since we arrived as we bought Frosties the night before and it went down like a treat. Of course the usual Danish’s and croissants were available to us as well. Before we looked for a place to ring home we booked a wine tour through the hostel. We haven’t had a proper sup of wine in a long time (2 days!!!) so we were gagging for it. I blame the Gap girls (Michelle & Brett especially…you get the blame!) for getting me into wine but I have to admit I like it a lot! The weather was ok, it was quite warm. The locals couldn’t get over us and looked at us like we had 10 heads as we walked through the city. There doesn’t appear to be too many tourists around this part of Argentina but in fairness when the four of us walk around Galway we get the odd funny look! We finally found a place to ring Mam after we had a nice orange Juice. I spent ages trying to tell the waitress that I wanted a “Jumo de Naranaga” (once again practising my Spanish) when all I needed to say was an orange juice! After finding out some goss from home we quickly returned to the hotel to get ready for this wine tour.
We picked up a few others from their respective hostels and hit a place called “Bodegas Lopez” for a tour of the Winery, Vineyards and tastings. We got to see the development of the industry and watched the elaboration, aging and bottling process which was pretty cool. Tom was amazed by some of the machines; in fairness they could do everything except talk to you. I never knew that so much work went into making wine!!! An interesting fact which the tour guide talked about was that it only costs $14 to buy a bottle of wine in Mendoza but it costs $60 plus to purchase a bottle in the United States and costs over $200 to buy it in Europe…that’s some jump but luckily we are in Mendoza!! Apparently the more “tears” a wine glass has when the wine is in it, the better the wine…..if you don’t understand that I’m afraid I can’t go in to more detail because I’m not that into wine (yet!). We then went to an Olive Oil factory which I wasn’t too impressed with. The tour guide was a bit of fun but after tasting Olive Oil on plain bread, I think I’ll revert back to the traditional Jam on bread because it was pretty disgusting to be honest. The last Winery we visited was smaller than the first one but we got a lot more wine so worked out pretty well for us. I won’t say that we are experts yet but we have more of an idea than before we started.
To end the night we enjoyed another nice steak!! They are really good over here but this one couldn’t beat the one me and Mike had in Montevideo, Uruguay. We had a great conversation about good old Kiloughter and Ireland…not to say that we are missing home yet. We hit the hay before midnight as we have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow because we are heading to Chile which is a place I know absolutely nothing about but it’ll be all the more fun because of that.
Adios,
Gary
We picked up a few others from their respective hostels and hit a place called “Bodegas Lopez” for a tour of the Winery, Vineyards and tastings. We got to see the development of the industry and watched the elaboration, aging and bottling process which was pretty cool. Tom was amazed by some of the machines; in fairness they could do everything except talk to you. I never knew that so much work went into making wine!!! An interesting fact which the tour guide talked about was that it only costs $14 to buy a bottle of wine in Mendoza but it costs $60 plus to purchase a bottle in the United States and costs over $200 to buy it in Europe…that’s some jump but luckily we are in Mendoza!! Apparently the more “tears” a wine glass has when the wine is in it, the better the wine…..if you don’t understand that I’m afraid I can’t go in to more detail because I’m not that into wine (yet!). We then went to an Olive Oil factory which I wasn’t too impressed with. The tour guide was a bit of fun but after tasting Olive Oil on plain bread, I think I’ll revert back to the traditional Jam on bread because it was pretty disgusting to be honest. The last Winery we visited was smaller than the first one but we got a lot more wine so worked out pretty well for us. I won’t say that we are experts yet but we have more of an idea than before we started.
To end the night we enjoyed another nice steak!! They are really good over here but this one couldn’t beat the one me and Mike had in Montevideo, Uruguay. We had a great conversation about good old Kiloughter and Ireland…not to say that we are missing home yet. We hit the hay before midnight as we have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow because we are heading to Chile which is a place I know absolutely nothing about but it’ll be all the more fun because of that.
Adios,
Gary
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