Mendoza: Vino, vino y más vino!

So it has been a while. We’re here over 8 months and the end of our travelhood is coming to a close. Ame is heading home March 3 and I will be heading back to the states May 19, but not arriving home until June 2, 2011. I will be one year out of NYC to the day and I am looking forward to my homecoming. This week Amy is visiting Iguazu with Courtney, and I am sure they will have some fun stories of their excursion. However, Amy and I took one last trip together after Patagonia with our friend, Alison, from England, who headed home last Wednesday. We called this our último viaje—we took our first trip to Bariloche with Alison, so it was only fitting that we took our last trip with her too.

Well what better last minute get-away than a trip to Argentina’s wine country—Mendoza. The three of us boarded an overnight bus on Tuesday evening and arrived bright and early on Wednesday ready to taste some wines. And while we truly did have good intentions of doing some mild trekking, the weather just did not cooperate with us. While walking towards the park it started to down pour (by down pour, I mean drizzle) so we took that as a sign from a higher power to get a jump start on the wine tasting.

The Vines, an US owned tasting room, opened at 3:00pm, so we arrived promptly at 3:15pm to start tasting some wines. We had a really nice server, Julien, who basically let us taste wines and chat the afternoon away. I think we were there for at least 3 hours and by the time we left, we were all feeling quite happy. We decided to be true tourists and go to an early dinner- 8:30. We went to a really great restaurant called Bistro Alice (or something like that) and we all had delicious meals. Ali and I continued to sample some wine, but Amy was well behaved and decided to hold off until our 9AM tour departure the next day.

Amy and I in the tasting room at The Vines

That’s right; we tasted our first set of wines at 10:30AM or as I like to call it: the breakfast of dignitaries. The tour we went on took us to four boutique vineyards. I liked the first one we went to the best. This is probably because not only did we taste 4 delicious wines, but we also got to taste delicious champagne! It’s sort of hard to top that even though all the other vineyards had great tasting wines too. We ended the tour at a vineyard were you could walk around and taste all the different varieties of grapes right from the vine…well at least that is what Juan our tour guide told us so we all went ahead and sampled under his instruction.

Breakfast at Dante Robino vineyard. Buy a bottle of their wine if you see it! Delicious!


Amy, Alison and Juan getting ready for lunch. Check out all the wine glasses on the table!!

Tasting grapes right off the vine, Alto Vista.

Juan was such a knowledgeable guide and he also turned out to be extremely hospitable and invited our entire group (7 of us) to his house the next day for an asado and a dip in his pool! So not only did we get to hang out by a pool all day we also got to enjoy a delicious traditional argentine BBQ our last day in Mendoza. We literally left from Juan’s right to the bus station. We headed home with full stomachs, new friends, and an overall great último viaje!

Sitting down for our asado at Juan's

A my name is Amy ...!

Remember that game?  Turns out it's even fun as an adult, as Cait and I discovered when we used it to pass some time on our long hikes in stunning Patagonia.  I couldn't believe some of the hikes we completed, especially with our annoying minor injuries (blisters, knee strain) -- and cheesily enough, I am really proud of what we achieved!  A few experienced hikers said that some of the trails we all did were more difficult than what they were labeled by the parks (i.e. medium trails should have been coded as difficult trails), so guess it means that we are not as non-hiker-ish as we originally thought.  :)


Given the amount of hiking we did throughout our 2.5 week trip, I thought it best to give you the goods - i.e. the photos that captured it all.  Don't worry though, they're labeled, condensed to the very best (I started with 400), and many shots contain people.  


Even though it's summer in BA, it was definitely not summer down south (we sure do love that winter, huh).  The wind was insane in some towns (ahem, El Chalten, I'm talking to you!) and it was difficult to walk even to the waffle house next door. I thought I had seen rough wind in Tribeca when I nearly got knocked over walking to work, but that was the wind of a hand fan compared to the winds in these towns.


Anyway, click below for a virtual tour of our trip. :)

Patagonia 2011 (AR & CH)

I had so much fun on this trip and hope that you all have a chance to go someday!!  Next stop Mendoza (i.e. where all those delicious malbecs are grown), starting on Tuesday.  Ah, the joys of having some free time!


p.s. If you're curious, A my name is Amy and my husband's name is Arthur, we come from Alabama, and we sell Apples!

Guest Blogger: Lisa in BA!!

Jan 4-5: Amy welcomed me with open arms on the sunny streets of BA!  She introduced me to some neighborhood sights and Caitlin joined us for dinner at my first parilla (steakhouse)! The steak was muy bueno, especially with a pinguino of Malbec:)  The next day was spent wandering the city and on a great walking tour of the neighborhood Recoleta.  I learned all about Argentine history as well as the beautiful plazas, palaces, embassies, and apartment buildings lining the streets of BA.

Wine is always better in a pinguino!

Vatican embassy on Avenida Alvear

Jan 6-8: Amy and I headed to Punta del Este! It was probably the shortest flight (30 min) we've ever been on...as well as the bumpiest and scariest.  Luckily Amy is a better flier than I am, so I was able to squeeze her arm for the whole 30 minutes…even though she was still at the end of her what we think was the flu… My friend Florentine picked us up from the airport and we headed straight to the beach. The sun did not set until 9pm. I then truly understood why Argentines and Uruguayans don't eat dinner until 11pm!! We spent our 2 nights in Uruguay in a share-house with  Flor and Nico's (her husband) friends who rent the same house there every year. It was not the best of accommodations…since they slightly overbooked…but it was a beautiful house with great beaches, perfect weather and new friends!  

At the beach in Punta del Este - it was around 8 p.m.!

Lisa & Flor with the beautiful 9 p.m. sunset

A photo of the cool house

On our way to lunch - we're shielding ourselves with our towels because we neglected to put on sunscreen!

Jan 9: We made our way to Plaza de Mayo to see Casa Rosada (the presidential building) and then to the San Telmo market, which was filled with leather goods, vintage items and Amy's favorite Argentine cartoon, Mafalda:) We had a leisurely lunch, walked along the water in Puerto Madero, and dinner was at Casa Felix - a closed-door restaurant.  A lovely couple (yes we had a girl crush on the wife) opens their home to approx 20 people Thurs-Sat night and prepares a 5-course meal with unique flavors and local ingredients, including fresh herbs from their wonderful garden. We ate in the courtyard, enjoyed savory food and wine, and even ate pulpo (octopus)…well some of it at least! It was definitely one of my favorite evenings in BA:)

Din at Casa Felix with our friend Lindsey

Jan 10-14: We spent the next and last few days sight-seeing, shopping, museum-ing at the amazing National Museum of Decorative arts, Evita museum and Malba.  Amy and I also proved our true athletic abilities as we braved the streets of BA via bicicletas!  The bike tour through the parks and rose gardens were lovely, but we almost didn’t make it back on the streets of Palermo.  Let’s just say BA drivers are not the most biker friendly... We also attended a great cooking class, saw incredible graffiti, ate meringue, drank mate, didn’t get anything stolen and enjoyed excellent wine for very few pesos. My last two dinners were at Amy’s favorites - Don Julio and La Cabrera - both delicious and memorable.

One of the stops on our bike tour - the very pretty rose garden in Palermo

Walking around Recoleta

Muchas gracias Amy and Caitlin for opening your adorable home on Paraguay street to me, giving me a preview into your lives over the past eight months, and sharing your most favorite new sights, activities and culinary favorites.  It was a perfect trip.  Can’t wait to have you back in NYC now!!

Muchos besos!

Lisa