21 - 27 November 2010
When I finally pried myself away from hanging out with friend in Tucuman I went to Mendoza. It is one of the definite tourist stops of Argentina, famous for it's wines and being on the crossing from Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires.
I had followed Karolin (my German travel companion for most of my travels in Argentina) there and so went to a hostel she had chosen. It was almost the most expensive one I had stayed in (in all of South America) , and attracted a lot of a type of tourist I had been fortunate enough not to have met too many of during my travels. This is the type of tourist my new friend (Canadian hostel owner Levi Urman) calls "Alco-tourist".
Forget sightseeing! These tourists seem to have travelled to the other side of the world to get drunk nightly and sleep the better part of the day. of course I have seen this before, but these (predominantly Irish and Australian) backpackers were taking it to a new level. Leader in the field was an Irishman fresh from graduating from studying Law at University. Each morning when I arose he would be sleeping on the couch. The movements of the cleaning staff would stir him to go to bed at about 9am, whereupon he would sleep until mid afternoon, go to the supermarket for more alcohol (stopping at hotdog cafe on the way), return, drink at hostel until late, go out to bars until wee hours of morning, return and repeat procedure for the following day. Two weeks and he still hadn't been out to visit a winery!
The hostel itself was a nice place to hang out (it had a clean pool!), and I did so for a week. It was too long for Mendoza, but I prefer Argentina to Chile and I wanted to chill someplace before going home.
Celine (Holland), me, and Manuel (Mexico)... Celine and I had agreed the night before to go out to cycle around the wineries with a bunch of people from the hostel, meeting in the lounge at 9.30am. But Celine and I were the only ones to show up as the rest had gotten too drunk to care. Manuel had just arrived by overnight bus and was quick to suggest he'd come along too. The wine is served in classy plastic cups at the bicycle hire place and is free and plentiful... imagine the quality, we paid $US5 to hire the bikes for the day and the bikes were pretty good. (Mr Hugo bikes)
The 3 of us had a great day.... but we really lucked out and missed wine tours due to ill advised timing. Our final stop for liquors and tapenade tastings was good, but then on leaving the chain fell off Manuels bike and so he sat on his bike with Celine and I holding him on each side and pushing him whilst cycling. He loved that!
Notes:
Hostel Damajuana. If you are going to stay at this one push for a considerable discount... they are available. Cheaper, apparently, if you book online via either www.hostelworld.com or www.hostelbookers.com . I paid $AR55 per night at the front desk.
Bike rental... easy the bus driver will see you are a gringo and drop you off in a place to be hassled by the various companies, they are probably all much the same. We used Mr Hugo bikes.
Tourists have never had it so good. In the present day’s hostels, with their trendy interiors, gourmet cooking and free Wi-Fi, are a far cry from the chilly dorms and shower queues of the earlier period.
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it is funny how some people at the hostel got too drunk to show up. it usually happens when you are on a trip, and only want to party, especially in Mendoza. It also happened in one of those apartments in Buenos Aires somebody had rented, and it was awesome! There was a party all night long, and I met some nice portenios!
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