This expat assignment has gone fast. During this two years, we've visited the many locations near Calama. We've visited Antofagasta (on the coast west of Calama) on multiple occasions where we've met up with Maria Gracia and Jeremy and greatly missed having David with us (La Paz, Bolivia days) but that just left more wine for the rest of us anyway! We've driven across the Andes to Salta, Argentina, and we've driven up the coast to Iquique. We've driven through the Atacama to Arica and crossed the border into Peru to Tacna. We've visited Valparaiso and Vina del Mar located on the coast west of Santiago. We've been wine tasting in the vineyards both west and south of Santiago. We traveled to the extreme south of Chile to Punta Arenas and then drove the five hours into Torres del Paine.
We've also been blessed with being able to spend time here in Chile with friends from our previous U.S. and expat assignments: Miguel and Eliana (Cajamarca, Peru days), Mike and Laurie (Cajamarca), Simon and Billie (Cajamarca), Bill and Leesyl and Laurese (Washington State and La Paz, Bolivia), Ed Kirwan (La Paz, Bolivia) and most recently, Tim Miller (Yuma, AZ days) and wife Hannah.
But, this post is suppose to be about our four-day weekend trip to Mendoza! We left Calama by plane early morning of Friday, September 10, arriving first in Santiago and then boarded another plane -- destination: Mendoza!
Our hotel was located across the street from the Plaza Italia and a short walk to Calle Sarmiento where many of Mendoza's restaurants and shops are located. We spent a lot of time on that street. That skinny building was our hotel. I've become a worrier about buildings and their ability to withstand earthquakes -- this one had me concerned.
Saturday a.m., we had scheduled a wine tour and were picked up at our hotel at 8:30 and we were wine tasting by 9 a.m. Alta Vista was our first stop... Alta Vista is an old winery that has recently been purchased by a large French wine producer. Oui Oui!
This was our view with olive tree branches framing the photo.
I love these photos when we go down into the bodega.
We ended our tour at Alta Vista outside with a tasting of their sparkling wine.
The fellow on the left was our English speaking guide. Darn! I've lost the contact information I had for the daughter and her father from Canada who joined us on the tour and the woman in blue (hmmm, have I ever shared that I'm terrible with names?) was our English speaking Alta Vista guide - she was great!
Above was the entry way to the second winery we visited. Below is was the neat door to enter the winery. Bellasco de Baquedano was recently purchased by a Spanish wine producer.
And isn't this a grand view of the Andes...
Okay you ask, how many pictures can you take of wine tanks. My answer - never too many ha!
We were rewarded with this neat tasting room after our tour - I love this part of wine tours!
The woman behind Larry was our tour guide.
Below are the wines we tried. We bought a bottle of the Swinto to bring back to Chile.
We finished the second tour with the above shot and then headed off for our third winery and lunch! Loved the landscaping at this winery - Melipal, which is the native word for the Southern Cross
However, even better than the landscaping was the lunch! The winery Melipal paired our wine tastings to each course of the lunch - it was excellent!
And we ended out tour at this winery.
I liked Clos de Chacras in that they let us taste before the tour...
This photo reflects how they stored the wine they produced in the old days. They would pick all of the grapes and separate skins and seeds after the stomping method and then put the product in these concrete vats. Their objective was to produce large volumes of very low quality wine. In fact, the wine used to dissolve the inside of the tanks and so the wine would have a caustic taste. The wine from this winery was not bottled but instead sold locally. The surrounding community members would bring containers and fill directly from the vats. In has just been in the last 20 - 30 years that they changed their method and objectives regarding producing wine and are now are producing less volume and better quality with new equipment and modern facilities.
Here, Larry demonstrates some of the more recently produced wines that are aging.
So, four wineries later and 9 1/2 hours later, we were returned to our hotel -- great day!
The following day we took to the streets to discover Mendoza. It is springtime so we were treated to lots of flowering trees and plants.
Neat architecture in the homes we saw and loved the gates.
Mendoza's central part consists of the Plaza Independencia in the middle with four smaller plazas making up a square around the main plaza: Espana, Italia, Chile and San Martin.
Below is Plaza Espana.
Below is a Catholic Church
Below is the Plaza Chile. Notice the fellow using a palm frond to sweep...
Mendoza has an irrigation system throughout the city that is pre-Columbian. It uses runoff from the Andes to provide water to the city as well as a water source to all the trees lining the streets - lots and lots of trees, every street is tree-lined in a desert city.
Plaza Independencia. Loved all the water fountains that worked!
So here we were. We had enjoyed a great tour of some of Mendoza's finest wineries. We had walked the central part of the city enjoying the plants, plazas, and building architecture so here was our last lunch and one more glass of Argentinian Malbec before catching our flight back to Santiago and ultimately -- Calamaland. Little did we know that Larry's gall bladder was just starting to think about rebelling. More on that later...
Bye-bye Mendoza. Next time, our plan is to fly to Santiago and then drive over the Andes to visit Mendoza again.
