Mendoza

I'm very aware it's been a while since my last post. In my defence it's pretty hard to find computers that are free to do this on, so I'm going to have a mass splurge.

The rest of my stay in Mendoza was amazing with much steak eating, sunbathing and swimming in the hotel's very own pool. Luxury!! We were in Mendoza for the beginning of the wine festival, which celebrates the beginning of the wine harvest season, and in light of this we thought it would just be RUDE not to go on a wine tour. This was 10 pesos (1.50 GBP) for a tour of 2 wineries and an olive oil factory. You would never have guessed, but petrol is actually the main export from this area, and all we could see for ages were the pumps. We're sitting in this mini-bus with Argentians who are on their summer holidays, thinking "are we on the right tour??". We eventually rock up at Navarro Correas, which is owned by the conglomerate Diageo. It's a beautiful little place, and the lady leading the tour does very well at describing the details of the fermentation process in both Spanish and English. Of course, we're only REALLY there for one thing. We pile our way onto the sofas in the tasting room, and she takes us through the process for looking like a wine connoisseur, the swirling, the colours to look for and the "legs" of the wine. Brilliant. And then the drinking begins. Here we try a Bonarda and a Sauvignon Blanc (not that Argentines are particularly reknowned for their white wine). We obviously decline the use of the spitting bucket and move on to the olive oil "boutique" factory. This was probably in our best interests for soaking purposes after consuming the best part of 3 bottles of wine between the 5 of us.

The olive oil process is described to us and the levels of acidity that determine the differences between olive oil, virgin, and extra virgin olive oil. Very interesting. We're told that the bits that aren't used to make the oil are used to make pastes, exfoliants and creams, which we try (the boys more reluctantly than I). Then comes the trying and actually, these olive oils were amazingly tasty, infused with basil, oregano, and some even with tomato (I don't know how). After devouring the bread, we hopped back in the minibus to go to our final destination, Cacas don Arturo, a boutique winery that uses only naturally occuring processes to produce their wine (no sulphites = no hangover). The boys are instantly infatuated with the Canadian/Argentinan girl who takes us round, and she tells us the ins and outs of this winery, most of the differences being that the process takes longer because they don't add anything to speed up the process. The wines here are absolutely mind-blowingly delicious. We bought lots between us, and drank most of them back at the pool over the next few days in Mendoza.

We spent the next few nights eating and drinking very well, but there was one main evening that we decided to "hit the town". Now, these guys I've been climbing the mountain with are great, but not really my "usual crowd" (ages 35+). In all fairness they came back later than I did, but I HAVE to tell you about the dancing that went on in this club that we went to. We went in there for a drink as this place had appeared to be a lively bar, but within an hour of being there, all the tables were cleared away and this group of drummers got on the stage at the front and started playing, and these dancers came out of nowhere and started dancing. The only thing that I would be able to describe it as is something akin to full-moon party dancing in Tanzania. It was all glow paint and booty shaking the rest of the night!! A great laugh.

We had 5 days in Mendoza and then the boys all left to return to the UK, I had such a great time with this lot, but it's just the beginning of by big adventure!!