Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Olives, Wine, Absinthe AND bikes in Mendoza, Argentina.


We spent 3 days in Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina. The city featured wide boulevards lined with cafes, colonial style buildings and a fantastic park filled with fountains and gates from the early 1900’s. We took a bus about an hour away, rented bikes and toured vineyard country.  We rode our bikes down the country roads visiting olive oil farms, wine bodegas and one very odd Swiss man with whole shop full of jams, caramels and absinthe (the quality stuff). 



The cast iron gates to San Martin General Park. They were forged in a Scotland foundry for the Red Sultan of Turkey in 1902, but the Sultan died before their delivery and the Mayor of Mendoza ended up buying them out of a magazine. 


The lake/ reservoir that makes the irrigation of the parks 50,000 trees possible, despite the city being in an arid desert.


I want THIS much wine!

Olive oil tasting.

Mid-bike ride self portrait.
 


The wine holding vats at Mendoza's oldest vineyard.

Inside one of the cylinders, now no longer used to hold bulk liquid wine, it holds stacks of bottles for aging.

Our trusty mounts.

The sign in the yard says it all.

The sugar on the spoons is burnt before being stirred into the locally distilled absinthe. Burns a bit on the way down too.

We headed north with thoughts of crossing the border from Argentina to Bolivia.  After a day of deliberating we decided to stay in the Salta (Argentina) region to soak in the amazing scenery.  More to come from Satla!!!

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