This week was spectacular. I had my first “vacation” since moving to Santiago in mid-March and my first adventure outside of Chile. In fact, this trip was my birthday request. Nothing sounded more fun to me than eating pasta, drinking wine, and enjoying myself in a new South American country. So, off I went!
First stop: Mendoza with miss Katie Conoley. We took an overnight bus which was a little brutal, but we survived and after an obnoxious check-in dilemma (We couldnt get into our room until noon) we headed out for the vineyards.
The first half of Saturday was not, what I might call, “winning”. Because no one seemed to want to be helpful, we spent way to much time figuring out how to get change, a difficult feat in Argentina where the one peso coin is actually worth more than two peso bill. Then, we realized we needed a bus CARD, etc etc. We were very relieved when we finally made it to our destination and found a nice looking bike rental company. Let the fun begin!
We had so much fun, lazily cycling from vineyard to vineyard, stopping in for outrageously cheap tastings (between 3-15 dollars usually).
The sun streaming in through the trees was stunning and each vineyard we visited had it’s own unique feel. There were about 10 vineyards to visit in total, but we only went to three.
Mendoza is known for it’s Malbec so I made sure to try plenty of that. However, biking after many wine tastings is definitely challenging. By the end of the day my legs were tired and my head a little loopy.
That night we had a cheap, but delicious Middle Eastern dinner at a restaurant near our hostel called La Cocina Poblana. We stumbled upon it by accident (it was near our hostel) and it ended up being better than we could imagine. I got the beef kebabs which came with a mind-boggling tabouli salad and Katie got falafel.
The food in Argentina was a such a welcome variety of flavors, with an emphasis on Italian. The food is so affordable but never sacrifices on flavor. And that was just the first few days…
Pan&Pisco 