Starfish and Coffee » Noodles, don’t Noodles

The third and final city we visited in Argentina was Mendoza. Here, we had a few adventures, some amazing food & wine, a great time with new friends and overall, an amazing time.

But, let’s start from the beginning, and the fact that I CANNOT read a map.

Since we were staying out in the middle of basically nowhere, we decided to rent a car during our stay in Mendoza. However, this is where the adventure began as we arrived at night, the Hertz agent did not speak a word of English and the streets are not lit and the roads are not marked. So, we followed the directions the best we could, but finally exited where I thought was close to the hotel and stoped at a (sketchy) gas station. Jesse went inside and tried to figure out where our hotel was, but no one had heard of it. Thankfully, a security guard, probably in his 60’s took pity on us and after trying to give Jesse directions and realizing that we had no clue what he was talking about, stood outside of our car, with Jesse’s headphone’s on and we called the hotel on Skype (luckily the sketchy gas station had free internet) and the security guard told the hotel owner where we were, that we looked desperate, and the hotel sent someone to get us! Woohoo! So, we were rescued by Pablo, the kind hotel employee who came to the gas station so that we could follow him home. For the record, we were only about 2 miles from the hotel, but we would have NEVER found it in the dark.

As Jesse and I were eating dinner the first night at our hotel, we ran into some familiar faces. Ann & Rob. We met them at our hotel in Buenos Aires and as luck would have it, they were staying at the El Aguamiel too. I guess trip advisor is becoming very popular because the Aguamiel is a very small hotel and only has 6 guest rooms. So we were very excited to see our new friends who shared our wedding date with us. Ann & Rob also run triathlons and they have motivated us to start training so hopefully we can meet them and do a triathlon together in 2010.

Cool Tub & Shower

Hotel Aguamiel. This was our third and final hotel. Out of the three hotels we stayed at this was our least favorite (our room smelled like sewer half the time), but overall it was a nice place to stay for the cost. If this would have been our first hotel we probably would have liked it a lot more, but as Home Hotel in Buenos Aires and Los Juncos in Bariloche are my top two all time places to stay and I am hoping we can go back and visit both again, I do not have the same feelings towards the Aguamiel. That said, the owners were very kind, giving us maps, making us reservations at wineries and trying to fix problems that arose.

Our first winery that we visited was Ruca Malen. Jesse and I had a reservation for lunch and we didn’t know what to expect. When we got there, we had a little problem trying to get in as security at the wineries is amazingly tight. However, apparently someone inside had their phone off because the security guard called the office about 15 times before someone finally answered the phone and confirmed our reservation. Then we sat down for lunch. It was a five course meal with a wine flight, 5 wines that paired with each course. I of course was a little worried about how much this would cost us since it is a fixed menu and the price was not marked anywhere (when we checked out it was less than $40 us dollars a person, which to me, made it even better!). The meal was really fun, definately things that we would not eat at home, but were good to try. Below, Jesse is drinking the beet cappucino which he obviously was a little worried about. I kinda liked it, but it did have a weird grainy texture. Nothing like the amazing beet soup we had at Los Juncos. Since we were visiting in early spring, nothing is blooming in the wineries, but there are still amazing views and hopes to come back around harvesting time.

The second winery we visited that day was a small winery called Carmelo Patti. Carmelo and his family run this operation where they only produce 6000 bottles of wine a year.

The second day we were in Mendoza, Jesse and I drove to the Uco Valley and visited the Andeluna and Salentein wineries. When we arrived at Andeluna, we found out that it is actually owned by Ward Lay, the son of the late Herman Lay, founder of Frito Lay and former Chairman of the board of PepsiCo. Funnily enough, while we were eating a 7 course lunch, a family from Dallas came in who were personal guests of the owner. Being from Dallas, they at first assumed, that maybe we were guests as well … which made for some laughs when Jesse and I left the winery, especially since I thought his name was Warren :) The meal at Andeluna was truly amazing. It was up for best meal we had in Argentina!

The lamb chop was fabulous

Andeluna sits in Uco Valley, it is a gem inside!Entrance to Salentein

Throughout our week in Mendoza we toured several wineries and as you can see from the pictures below, bought lots of wine to bring home. My two favorite wineries were Trapiche and Andeluna, with our favorite meal being at Andeluna. While in Mendoza we did hit up McDonalds a few times for dinner, I never though I would say this, but I hit the point where I did not want any more steak or wine, so thats where McDonalds came in. The last night we were there, Jesse and I actually moved hotels into the city center and were able to wander around, have dinner with Emily & Paul, our friends we met in Bariloche, and even play a little blackjack and craps at the casino. I had a blast playing blackjack, as it was a 10 peso minimum, which amounts to less than $3.00 a hand, but Jesse would not recommend playing craps in a foreign country as the rules are apparently much different than they are in Vegas. Jesse and I had an amazing time in Argentina, it truly was a dream come true and we will be returning one day.

Sometimes you feel like a nut, Sometimes you don't.

Going Home!!! Extra Bag & Box in Tow.