Wine, painting and architecture (wow, we sound old)

When in Argentina it would be rude not to go to the famous wine region of Mendoza and sample the local vino.  And we'd hate to be rude, so off to Mendoza we went.

The main attraction is obviously all the wineries about 15km out of town, so we planned on hiring bikes and riding around them all getting sozzled and trying not to fall off/get hit by cars.  But we got talking to Nick, Jess and Jake, 3 Americans who were staying at the hostel, and they'd decided to drive around the wineries so we were welcome to join them.  Sounded good to us.  Nick spoke Spanish so he sweet talked an information centre girl into circling all the free wineries on the map for us which was helpful until we lost the map.  We ended up going to 2 wineries - one flash one where we paid for a tour and tasting of 3 wines, and one where the tour was free but we opted to skip it and sneakily join onto a group who'd just finished in order to get the free tasting.  Genius.  

We finished off at an olive oil factory where they also made tapenades, sweet marmalades, liquers and chocolate.  And we got to taste them all.  By then most places were closing so we headed back to the hostel to cook an asado and drink lots of beer.  Perfect end to a great day.

After about 3 days we decided to move on.  We'd checked out and as we were leaving Kurt got talking to the hostel owner about our plans to try and get some work at a hostel in Cordoba.  He'd just bought the place a month earlier and had a lot of work he wanted done, so he said he'd be happy for us to stay in exchange for working there.  So we unpacked our bags and that was home for the next 4 weeks or so.  We had two main jobs - looking after the hostel when the others weren't there which was really just letting people in and answering the phone, and painting.  And we did a pretty good job at painting if I do say so myself.  

Cristian, the owner, was pretty generous as he organised free Spanish lessons for us and also a tour of the mountains which is the other tourist thing to do in Mendoza.  But it was shit so we were glad we didn't have to pay for it because we would've been really pissed off if we'd forked out $45 each.  We had initially said we'd stay until early February, but we realised we'd need more time to go through Cordoba and Uruguay before we were due in Brazil, so we headed off at the end of January.  Thanks for having us Mendoza.

Our last stop in Argentina (for now) was Cordoba.  It was quite a nice city so we spent 4 days just chilling out, wandering around checking out the sights which was mainly architecture.  

We attempted to go to a natural science museum several times over a couple of days, but it was closed due to electricity problems.  Bugger.  Our other less than successful outing was to the nearby town of Alta Gracia, which is where Che Guevara lived as a child.  His old childhood home is now a museum so we wanted to check it out.  We'd read online that it cost about $5 to get in, however that wasn't even close.  Try closer to $20.  Inflation's a bitch huh?  We couldn't justify spending $40 for a museum that was literally just a house, so we got some nice photos of the outside.  

We did hit the jackpot at the biggest asado restaurant in Argentina - it would've seated about 1,000 and had a river running through it.  No shit.  And it was an all you can eat buffet of awesome asado meats, freshly cooked pasta to order, and tray after tray of every food you can imagine.  Oh, and there was a separate dessert buffet station too.  All for only about $13.  That's what I'm talking about.

Orphans Christmas and New Years

When we started our trip we had no idea where we'd be or who we'd be spending our first South American Christmas or New Year's celebrations with.  But as it so happened, a friend of Kurt's from home and his girlfriend were in a town not far from Buenos Aires for a month, so we decided to join them in an orphan's festive season.  And it was pretty bloody festive, that's for sure!

Nice and early on Christmas Eve we packed a bag and left the farm to go back into Buenos Aires, where we then got a bus to a place called San Antonio de Areco, to the hostel Jimmy and Ash were staying at that their Aussie mate Sal runs with her Argentinian husband (recently married) Felipe.  It ended up taking us about 5 hours to get there, but we were rewarded after a hot and sweaty walk to the hostel by a cool and inviting pool that had just been filled that morning.  Perfect timing.  And the perfect accompaniment?  Ice cold beer of course.  And that was pretty much how we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening - swimming and drinking and enjoying the sun.  Jimmy and Ash had a dinner to go to so we amused ourselves by drinking a nice concoction of vodka and Speed (an energy drink, before you all freak out) and slowly pouring the rest of the bottle of vodka into a watermelon.  

Because that's what you do on Christmas Eve.  Well, when you're alone in South America that is!  Jimmy and Ash got back at about midnight and we thought it only appropriate to stay up drinking until the sun came up.  And build a fire.  Not a bad start to the festivities!

Christmas Day was basically the same - a lazy day of drinking and swimming.  We'd also made a big damper at the farm to make damper dip for the occasion, and it turned out awesomely.  

A whole lot better than the vodka watermelon, that's for sure.  We decided it was time for some refreshing alcohol infused fruit in the afternoon, so carved the beast up.  However, each bite was like a punch in the face - and not in a good way.  All vodka and no watermelon goodness.  Never fear, the potent watermelon was put to good use the following weekend.

Boxing Day was a late start and spent lazing around the pool again.  Kurt and Jimmy jumped on bikes and went in search of a delicious hunk of meat for an asado (Argentinian style BBQ), but after about an hour Keryn and Ash were wondering if they should be worried.  Then they remembered that the guys were both hammered so would be handling the bikes with professional ease.  Their search was unsuccessful but they returned in one piece.  More or less.

The next weekend we made the journey back to San Antonio for New Years celebrations, but it was slightly shorter this time as we were already in Buenos Aires after leaving the farm.  We arrived at lunchtime and didn't waste any time in cracking open a cold one.  The rest of the day was spent in much the same way as Christmas - drinking, swimming and enjoying the sun while things were being prepared for the Mexican themed party that night.  People started to show up and it was rammed by 10pm.  Kurt and Jimmy had thought ahead and purchased fireworks and cigars to welcome the new year in, Ash had made a pinata for everyone to bash the shit out of and the vodka soaked watermelon was added to a bucket of punch which everyone smashed back.  The rest of the night passed in a blur of music, booze and pyromania, and one by one we crashed out.

New Years Day was another late start and some were more hungover than others, but thankfully that passed.  It started with a beer in our hand and ended with a beer in our hand.  We just want to say a massive thanks again to Jimmy, Ash, Sal and Felipe for an awesome couple of weekends.