Cycling Through the Vineyards

When I arrived in Mendoza, I landed myself in yet another hostel with some sketch bathrooms. In fact, my hall bathroom that I had to share with 11 others along with anyone passing through the hall took the term "water closet" to a whole new level; I could not turn around in the shower for fear of touching the walls or the shower curtain. I survived in the end and again questioned why I put myself through such torment. Then I remembered that I don't have an income and hostels are the cheapest way to go besides couchsurfing.

In the hostel, I had a chance to meet some cool people and invited them out to go cycling through the vineyards with me while touring the local wineries. I always invite random strangers along to my activities, but this time I really needed someone around to make sure I got home ok since I get drunk after half a glass of wine. Brent from the US, Stefan from Germany and John from Canada all agreed and off we went to take the local bus there. Along the way, we met a couple Chileans who joined us on our tour.

We rented bikes and because I wasn't sure I would be able to cycle on my own, Brent and I picked up a double seated bike. Brent ended up doing all the cycling while I often put my feet at the top of the bike and enjoyed the scenery. Plus, I think I was slowing him down.

Mendoza is known for their fertile land perfect for grape growing and hence wine making. Along one main road, one can visit numerous wineries. We started late in the afternoon and only visited a couple since we stopped at other places along the road. We stopped in at a little chocolate liquor place and sampled their selection. John and Brent had the absinthe while the Chileans and I tried the chocolate with banana, chocolate with hazelnut, chocolate with coconut. We sampled another table's pepper liquor and almost choked.

At a gourmet restaurant, we had planned to have lunch there, but the prices were beyond our backpacker prices and so instead, we drank wine. Brent so graciously paid for it too since he seems to be the only one of us with a job. So, wine became our lunch.

At our final winery, we arrived just in time to buy 5 steak meals to share amongst the 6 of us. The winery was about to close and only had 5 meals left. Of course, we had wine to accompany our meal and I nearly passed out. Stefan and I took a photo in the vineyards and I was happy to be at our final winery, but also a little tipsy.