Mendoza: Drinking wine and kayaking

Kayaking under the Andes, near Mendoza
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We got to Mendoza thinking it would be a medium sized town similar to Bariloche but we were very wrong. This small town is  bigger than Perth! The main reason we decided to come here other than the fact that it was on the way to Buenos Aires, was for the wine. Many of Argentina's best wines come from this region and I guess we expected a large Margaret River type place.

The hostel we stayed in was pretty far out of the way, about a 40 minute walk from the main areas and it wasn't the best. It was pretty smelly and badly in need of a paint job. Mendoza itself was pretty nice, there was heaps of plazas, wide streets and nice parks. There were lots of shops and people everywhere. We spent the first day exploring the town and relaxing in the Park since it was a Sunday and not much was open.

We didn't really care how they made the wine, we just wanted to drink it!!

Kayaking through a flooded forest
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The second day we decided to rent a kayak on the river nearby called Potrerillos. There were plenty of tours you could do such as horseriding and kayaking but we decided to save some money and do it ourself by catching a local bus out there, finding a kayak rental place and go out on our own. It didn't go exactly to plan. We had some trouble finding the right bus and knowing when to get off. When we got off the bus we were in a deserted desolate settlement. It looked like we were in a desert town which I though was strange since we were going kayaking on a huge lake, I thought it would be more green and fertile but apparently most of Argentina is like this.

Tasting Chocolate Liquors
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We wandered around a bit searching for the kayak rental place asking a few locals where it was and attempting to understand the answers! We were walking a good 30 minutes wondering where the hell the rental place was along a dusty deserted road and then we finally found it. When we got to the place, renting the kayak wasn't exactly as cheap as we thought because we had to have a guide with us. It was about AUD$60 in total for an hour and a half. Although we didn't think we needed a guide, it turned out to be really good because he took us to some beautiful spots on the lake. We saw trout swimming, some of them could grow to up to a metre. In summer when the snow melts down from the mountains nearby, the lake floods into a forest which was amazing to kayak through. After the kayak we caught the local bus back to Mendoza without any dramas, luckily the earliest bus home wasn't at 7pm like the guide originally told us!

On the third day in Mendoza we did a much anticipated wine tour around the many wineries in the area. Unfortunately all the wineries don't let you taste any wines you want like in Australia, they only allow 2 set tastings and you have to listen to a 30 minute tour of the winery at each place :( We didn't really care how they made the wine, we just wanted to drink it!! In total we visited 4 wineries, an olive oil factory and a chocolate and liquer factory. The first winery we visited had been making wine since the 19th century. The wines were pretty nice, the best style is Malbec which is quite a full flavoured red. The liquor factory made about 20 different types of liquors such as chocolate and hazelnut, lemon, banana, cappucino and many others which were really nice. We ended up getting a bottle of banana and chocolate liquor which was yummy! After the wine tour we were stuffed and ready to get on the bus to BA and have a nap after all that wine drinking!