Mendoza

By Debbie

We had the opportunity to travel to Mendoza, Argentina for the Semana Santa (Easter) weekend. This was a spectacular trip mainly because we got to sit atop a double decker bus (much to my delight) while we made our way over the windy roads of the Andes. Mendoza is the largest wine region in Argentina if not South America. We thought it was a beautiful town that seemed more Euro than places we'd visited in both Chile and Argentina. We spent the first day walking the plazas, enjoying street performers, and taking a city tour with the highlight being the Cerro San Martin (see photos of the statue). The second day we took a Bike and Wine tour in nearby Maipu (Not to be confused with CamsPoo)30 kilometers outside of Mendoza. Maipu is rural and poor unlike the city of Mendoza. The tour consisted of renting bikes for a full day to ride to 8 different wineries. We stopped at a fancy restaurant in the middle for an included lunch. By this time we had made fiends with 2 Israelis, 2 Brits, and another American guy, along with Emily and Becky, the two Americanas we were traveling with from Santiago. We were quite the international spectacle riding down the bikepath-less road. We had a great time at the wineries tasting good Argentine wine, despite the unwelcoming locals on the road. Every time a group passed us we heard a mocking "Hello, how are you?" the only English phrase they knew. Cam was spit at by a teenage girl while while nursing a broken pedal on the side of the road, and one member of our crew was knocked off her bike by a man on a motorcycle trying to snatch her bag. We were reminded that a beautiful place can be tainted by ugly people, but also realized this ill-behaved minority exists everywhere in the world. I won't deny that I've had my fair share of annoyances with oblivious tourists, however, this seemed extreme. We didn't let it ruin our trip or fun, and I'll recommend the Bikes & Wine Tour to anyone visiting Mendoza. We chose to move to South America for a reason and here you always have to exercise awareness and common sense (For example, don't ride down a dirt road in Argentina with your bag exposed or any bag at all). In a way it added some flavor to our South American pie.