Wine, food, and lots of activities

Jeremy and I on our horses after a 2 hour horse back ride
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October 3, 2007 Day 18

Mendoza, Argentina

We had the opportunity to people watch and see the long street that was lit up with the excitement of the night and bar after bar.

We arrived in Mendoza around 9:30 am and walked all over downtown in search of the perfect hotel. After walking for a few hours, seeing tons of beautiful articheture, sculptures and making friends with a stray dog we checked into the Crillon hotel. Once we were settled we went to lunch at a local eatery called Giovani. The steak that we had at this location was the best that we had in the country. Once we finished lunch we headed over for our first tour of this trip; which was the bikes & wine tour. We were picked up and driven out to the Maipu wine region to start this tour. We each picked out our bike of choice and headed in search of a wine tour and a few tastings. We stopped at 3 wineries they were La Rural wine museum, Vina El Cerno, and Tempus Alba. The first La Rural museum was a wine museum; which served Rutini wine. We did a full tour in spanish of course and learned the old way to the new way of producing wine. The second was Vina El Cerno; which had descriptions in both english and spanish so that we could understand. We did a tasting here and moved on. The last stop was at Tempus Alba; which was a very modern building with a vineyard that was still young. We didn't complete a tour at this location, but we received a nice explanation of each wine from the bartender working the wine bar upstairs. After enjoying our time we needed to head back to the base to return our bikes, but not before some excitement. On our way back Jeremy ran a red light and el policia began to follow us. As I was afraid that I was going to get a BUI and thrown into a prison in Argentina we continued to peddle. The cop followed us all along the way and I could not figure out if I should pull over or not so I continued to move. Once we were closer to the base the police officer gave us the thumbs up to keep going and said goodbye. After all of my worrying we figured out that it was a tourist police officer only ensuring that we made it back safely. Thank god because I didn't know that I would ever make it home if I was thrown into prison and they figured out that I barely know spanish. Once we returned to the area around town we stopped to pick up the best wine ever. It was the box of wine ever and only cost us around $1.50 usd. Once we finished some wine and showered up we headed to Sarmiento Avenue (the pedestrian walkway) for dinner. We saw many families enjoying dinner and conversation together as the children played games around the tables.

The statue in plaza san martin
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October 4th, 2007 Day 19

We were picked up early in the morning to head out to the Lagun de Coya province for a day of fun. We arrived to our destination around 9:30 am and had the opportunity to chat with our tour group. There were 6 total people including Jeremy and myself. There was 2 from the UK, 1 from Chicago, and the last happens to live only aobut a mile away from me in sunny San Diego. Once our horses arrived we headed out for our 2 hour horse ride in this perfect weather for the activity. Jeremy was my knight in shining armor on his white horse. He tried to show him who was boss, but everyday there was grass or a tree his horse decided it was feeding time. Then there was my horse with a beautiful coat of fur made of dark brown and black. My horse also had a lot of character, but it was mean character. Each chance that my horse had he would throw me into a bush or a tree just to try and injure me, but I think we had a good time. Once we viewed the beauty of the different layers of rocks, mountains and waters for miles it was time for lunch. We had a full Argentina style Asado with our group and had the opportunity to find out more about this group of individuals. The food was delicious and the company was enjoyable, but we needed to digest for the second part of our tour. The second part of the tour consisted of a 2 hour hike through a different part of the Andes, but with the same amazing scenery. Jeremy finally had the opportunity to climb all of the rocks and run around and enjoying a somewhat difficult hike; which was the thing that he had been craving. I finally had the opportunity to take lots of pictures of Jeremy; which was something that I had wanted to do. Our tour brought us back into town around 4:30 just in time for happy hour at Sarmiento Avenue (the pedestrian walkway). As the server passed us with a liter of beer it put a little sparkle in Jeremy's eye and it was decided that would be his drink of choice. I had been curious about the tourista that had been on every menu in Mendoza and I decided to order it in white. When the server returned to our table it was to my surprise that she was carrying a liter of beer and a full bottle of wine. It was some happy hour that left me feeling that I may die the next day. Once we cleaned up we headed out to dinner at the Av Aristides Villanueva (the trendy & young area). While at dinner we saw the crowd change from non-existent to overflowing. We had the opportunity to people watch and see the long street that was lit up with the excitement of the night and bar after bar.