"You are going to MENDOOOZZZZAA. Understand? Get on the bus that says MMMMEEEEENNNNDDDOOOOZZZZZAAAAAAA."

I came, I saw, I conquered the vineyards.

The title of this post comes from our friendly neighborhood bus ticket salesmen, who was smart enough to realize my friends and I are all idiots.

So here is a brief account of my brief visit to Argentine wine country.

After a lovely 15 hour bus ride sitting next to an even lovelier man named Max (forever known as "Christian" by my friends because of his very nice fitting Christian Dior pants), me, Brenna and Sarah J arrived in Mendoza. My other friends Jenny and Sarah W arrived much later in the evening.

First afternoon was national holiday. Everything was closed. The end, onto day two.

We traveled to the town of Maipu, where we traveled to different vineyards and farms for taste tastings. First up was Historias y Sabores, which makes their own chocolate, spreads, and liqueur. For ten pesos I got a shot of chocolate mint liqueur, four pieces of chocolate, and four spreads to taste test.

The chocolate mint was a little strong, but still tasty. I preferred Brenna's chocolate coffee shot, which I took a little sip of. The spreads and chocolate chunks were heavenly.

Next up: the wine.

We went to a little vineyard, where a young man taught us about how they make wine, and for 15 pesos let us have a little sample. And by little sample, I mean two huge glasses. I tried a young chardonnay and a fully aged cabernet, and took samples of people's malbecs. Very tasty.




Instead of Bienvenidos, which means welcome in Spanish the sign says Bienbebidos, which means "good drinks."

Did I mention we did this all on bikes?

The next day...I jumped off a cliff.



I spent the afternoon paragliding in the Andes. Don't worry; I wore a helmet.



It was SO much fun. I really didn't want to leave the sky, or Mendoza for that matter. I wish I was there longer. The landscape reminded me a lot of Israel and I got a little...would you call it homesick since Israel isn't my home? Israel-sick, maybe?

Anyway, Mendoza=great time. 15 hour bus ride home with the movies being "Shooter" and "Bad Boys"...not such a great time.