Argentina Trip 2008 - Day 3: Whine and cheese

Tossed and turned on the bus a bit. But for the most part had a nice trip. And it's fun to wake up in the morning, open the curtains next to your seat and look out on the Andes.

Morning breath still exists in the Southern Hemisphere.... who knew?

The view outside our window as we drove into Mendoza.

So Mendoza is a city in the wine region of Argentina. It is on the western side of the country, right at the base of the Andes mountains, only a few hours from Santiago, Chile.

They served us "breakfast" on the bus and then we arrived at the Omnibus stop and unloaded. You can never have enough 2 peso bills... tipping for bags, paying for cabs. It's hard to have enough small change. ANYHOW.

Our first priority was to get a hold of American and find out what the status of my backpack was. We tried calling from the bus station but couldn't get through. So we grabbed a cab into the city (about 5-6 minutes) and headed straight for the Plaza Independencia, which is the park at the center of Mendoza.

Our hotel was right on the north side of the Plaza - Hotel Argentino - and they were really nice and helpful. They let us check Sarah's bag until our room was ready and then said they'd let us check in a couple hours early so we could call American Airlines.

We walked across the park to a cafe and had a... café. They are so much more detailed about serving coffee. Good luck finding a quick Starbucks with a cardboard sleeve here. When you order café (or café con crema, which was our fav), they serve it on a saucer, with a variety of sugars, a small cup of agua con gas, (in some places) a small cup of fresh squeezed orange juice, and a few small bites of pastry. All for about 6 pesos - $1.80 US.

It's a good way to relax. It was Saturday morning, the town was quiet, and we just enjoyed the weather.

Once we checked into our room, we called American. The update was that my bag, having been sent to Montevideo, was now going to be flown to Buenos Aires and then put on a partner airline (because American doesn't fly to Mendoza) and flown to us here. They wanted us to call every 3 hours or so to check and see what the update on the bag was. They said we had to call them, because their phones didn't allow them to dial out (I wonder where you can buy phones like that... I've never seen one...). And they refused to give us any spending money beyond the generous $25 they'd already committed to. Sigh.

Well, nothing makes me feel better than Pizza.

I'd read about a pizza place a few blocks from our hotel that was supposed to be a hangout for the locals. That's usually a good sign. Sure enough - we show up, and this place, Rincon de la Boca, is packed. While the pizza place immediately next door has 1 or 2 tables full. We had a really nice elderly man wait on us. He suggested this Margarita Pizza which was fantastic.

I even ate the olives, which I don't normally like.

Oh, also in this pic - you'll notice I'm wearing the same shirt again. Well, I'm not sure if you can see it, but a large hole was forming at this point on one of the shoulders. As the day went on, the shirt literally started to fall apart on me, and by the end of the day, I had to just throw it away. Amazing - I wonder if it was intentionally a disposable garment? hmmm..

Later that afternoon, we went to a wine tasting place called "Vines of Mendoza." While it's a touristy location, and we normally try to avoid such joints, I'd read that they are really helpful in answering questions about Bodegas and wine tours. So we went and shared a flight and asked lots of questions about our next few days in the Valle de Uco - a valley about an hour South of Mendoza, closer to the mountains and a bit higher in elevation.

Since we knew we'd be outside the next few days, and that it would be hot, we went and bought a pair of shorts for me. Then we took a siesta... because it's customary and we didn't want to offend any locals. Called American again and they said that my bag was supposed to be arriving on the 8:30am flight into Mendoza the next morning. That would be perfect because we could get it before we drive to the Valle De Uco, and hour away, for 2 nights!

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant. Can't remember if I mentioned this before - but Argentina has a huge Italian immigrant population. So Italian food is very prevalent and very, very good. They also make a mean key lime pie (below).

Dinner took about 2 hours. We were seated next to a large table of a couple different families; kids between 2-8 running around. Amazing that it wasn't until midnight that they started to look a little tired. They're so used to such a late schedule...

After dinner drinks at the bar a block from our hotel; Chatted until 2am or so... we couldn't leave before then because there were some octogenarians (about a dozen of them) having a loud conversation about a show they'd just seen together. We couldn't go to bed at 1:30am and let them outlast us.

Tomorrow, hopefully, my bag arrives and we're off to the Valle De Uco to do some wine tasting!