Punta de Inca
Arriving bleary eyed in Mendoza at 8 in the morning we left the bus station and moved to our hotel, which turned out to be not quite where advertised, but had huge rooms and a large balcony where we sat and drank Coke until we were ready to face the world again.
We used the morning to wander round Mendoza, booking daytrips to see the surrounding mountains and vineyards. Once that was done we started to enjoy the home of Argentinean winemaking, with its many open plazas and tree lined avenues. There are many good restaurants here; mostly allowing you to bring your own wine, as well as some excellent delicatessens. We found a huge food court, hidden away on the corner of Av Las Heras and Av España. I loved wandering around tasting the local dishes, until we all got shoved to one side so the local mayoral candidate could get his photograph taken with some cured meat. The mass herding of people away from their lunch quite understandably seemed to lose him a considerable number of supporters as people grumbled about the inconvenience. Outside his opponent was being equally annoying, driving round and round the town centre in a van with huge speakers strapped to the top, blaring out music and the occasional beg for votes.
There’s also a McDonalds, selling McWine, which was very drinkable and a chain of fast food joints called Mr Dog, which I’d recommend less.
As may be obvious I am quite hungry right now and can’t stop writing about food…
Mountains tour
Our day in the mountains got off to a late start after a tour guide for a group of East Germans demanded that the tour be switched to German, and that her group got the front 10 seats of the coach. She’d also told them that the tour started at 8.30, rather than the actual 7.30, so the rest of us had to hang around for 40 minutes before they came downstairs, then another 20 while she made all sorts of silly demands. Not taking well to being ordered around that early in the morning I moved to the front seat which caused yet more consternation as she wanted it, so she could shout translations to the back of the bus.
She then demanded we rotate seats at every stop as variously her passengers had bad legs, car sickness and anything else she could make up.
It was finally ended by two irate Austrian ladies telling them to either get on the coach or piss off, ending with “This is always what you get from the East Germans” then to one side “It’s the Russian influence you know”.
Anyway, a somewhat unhappy coach eventually set off and we visited a number of picturesque villages, including Potrerillos, Uspallata and Picheuta on the way to Punta de Vacas. This was the point where San Martin prepared his army of 5,000 troops to liberate all of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia from the Spanish, and is now marked by little more than a small stone bridge.
Further on we stopped at a viewpoint to Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, before reaching Penitentes, a popular Argentinian ski resort. Being the middle of summer there wasn’t any snow, but it was interesting to see the ski runs and lifts all laid bare without the white covering.
Opposite the ski resort is Punta de Inca, a natural bridge formed by erosion from a mineral spring. The bridge is so-called as it’s thought to be the crossing point for an early Incan army, but now it’s the site of a hotel with hot springs, or was until a recent rock fall flattened it all, with no sign of rebuilding.
The final destination was atop a mountain reached by a long and precarious winding road. The 4200m high peak was marked by a 12m high statue of Christ, marking the border between Argentina and Chile, and reminding both sides of their peace after repeated wars over land rights.
The return to Mendoza followed the exact same route, but somehow it all looked entirely different – things we somehow missed on the way included a huge dam, the largest oil refinery outside Buenos Aires and a Chilean security checkpoint containing up to 5,000 trucks at any one time.
Back in Mendoza we were all dropped off at our respective hotels and said goodbye to the people we’d spent the whole day with, apart from the East Germans still ignoring us and their muttering guide.
Vineyard tours
Unlike the previous day, our vineyard tour was a far less fractious affair, with us being the only two on the tour. We elected to visit two wineries, a small family one and a larger industrial producer. Sadly we’d missed the grape harvest, which happens on the first week of March in this area, and the following Vendimia Festival, where a queen of each region is crowned to ensure a good harvest the following year.
We started at Bodega Don Arturo, a small artisanal wine maker where we were showed round by the owner’s daughter and saw how they had bred the vines to get small, intense grapes which were used to make their 7 varieties of wine. Following the tasting it was so good I couldn’t help but buy a few bottles, which we’ll have to drink in Buenos Aires as I really don’t have the space in the luggage to transport it much further. Oh well…
We followed the small winery with exactly the opposite – Bodega Catena Zapata is Argentina’s largest wine maker and this showed as we drove through the estate towards a huge replica Mayan building. Inside we were treated to a video and a tour of the wine libraries, but it all seemed like marketing, rather than a labour of love as in the previous Bodega. We saw how they’d scientifically blended five different grape varieties to create a smoother Malbec, and how they’d managed to convert the grapes natural malic acid to lactic acid, creating a creamier taste, but when it came to the tasting it all seemed a bit bland. We tried one of the more expensive varieties, which actually smelt of something, but it still seemed rather developed rather than grown.
Eventually we left, happy that we’d purchased from the right supplier and looking forward to tasting more of the wine in BA.
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