We arrived in Mendoza eager for one thing and one thing only, to taste some wine! Amongst a limited other activities in the area, this is the main draw. After checking out the city, which we had envisaged as a small, quaint affair and finding it to be in fact quite large, we returned to the hostel and started collecting advice.
Everybody told us the same thing, "Go to Mr. Hugo, he gives you free wine". We didn't need to be told twice.
With a fear of cycling I was unsure as to how riding and drinking would turn out but as this was the only cheap way it could be done I plucked up my courage and got on with it. We caught a bus from the city centre which took about 45 minutes and soon arrived at Mr. Hugo's to find a friendly face and a jug of red which was quickly poured into plastic cups. We were handed small maps of the local vicinity showing vineyards, an olive oil factory and a cervezeria amongst other things. We planned a route and hit the road.
We stopped off at a couple of vineyards, one of which where we shared a bottle and I tasted some poached pears. Delicioso. A stop at the olive oil factory provided more necessary snacking with tasters of jams, oils, vinegars and of course olives along with a shot of absinthe for the road. By now it was just after midday and seemed appropriate.
Each vineyard was on a small side road and I soon enjoyed cycling down these paths, however they were connected by a large highway, which I wasn't too impressed about. I decided to ride to the side of the road to avoid collisions with trucks, however in hindsight the tarmac of the highway was much easier to ride on and after a few more wines I had the courage to tackle it and the ride back seemed much quicker!
Back at Mr. Hugo's with a sore behind, Gemma and I continued to drink his free offerings which surprisingly tasted a lot better than they had before. We were soon attempting to converse with locals on the bus ride home, mainly to stop ourselves from falling asleep!
TOP TIP:
Take snacks! Food at the vineyards isn't cheap,
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