Wine, Mountains, and Snow

Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina. One of the cool things about this country is that drinking is not frowned upon… in fact, it’s promoted! So, if you happen to be there during the summer (December to March), you’ll be lucky to be part of the biggest wine festivals ever. The biggest events to go to during this festival include:

• Vendimia Parade: Usually happens in February, on a Friday/Saturday night and includes gauchos and local department beauties (in the run to become the Vendimia Queen) going around the city on massive floats giving out grapes or walnuts from their department (or county).
• Election of the Queen and After-Show: This is a beauty-pageant like competition; one of the queen “contenders” is elected to be queen (usually happens in mid-February) and a very impressive show of fireworks and choreographed music wraps up the celebration.

There are tons of wineries and wine museums in the city and since it’s so close to the Andes, trips to the mountains or outdoor adventures are actually pretty fun!

The first days, we visited a few vineyards and wineries, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to even sample any wines but the ones I did have were very good, although some were actually very rough.

This place (above) was half winery, half art museum. I was lucky enough to even snap this shot because security there was so strict, I thought they belonged in the military. In other words, wine is almost sacred here.

Crushing some grapes to make wine. Talk about a tough job!

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Mountains and Snow

I have to admit, the cold weather in Argentina was not fun; however, spending a whole day in the snowy mountains was one of the best experiences, ever.

On our last days, we decided to rent some ski boards and head to the mountains on a tour bus. We visited more historical sites, including Puente del Inca. Towards the 19th century, crossing from the city of Mendoza to Chile was a mission, especially during the winter because people would literally freeze to death. To prevent this, Puente del Inca was built; it served as refuge to the mail men who traveled back and forth between both countries.

Puente del Inca Remains

This is where we stayed, Penitentes, a ski resort located right on the border between Chile and Argentina. There are about 25 runs of different lengths where you can ski, snowboard, ride snow sleds, etc. The good thing was that there were so many runs and they were all so big that we almost had it all to ourselves. So….  we didn’t run into anybody when we were attempting to ski and felled miserably.

…. like my mom, who was skiing the wrong way

She tried, though.

And my sister and cousin who decided it would be a good idea to share this tiny snow sled.

Food and drinks were very expensive here…. so, when we got thirsty, we just grabbed a snowball and ate it.

Towards the end of the day, our hands were so numb that we only managed to make this tiny snowman