lips of wine

Following a couple of lovely farewell family dinners, it was sad to be leaving Santiago, not knowing this time when we´d be back. The sadness was alleviated somewhat by the beautiful Andes-in-the-Autumn views en route to Mendoza. I regretted letting Mauro have the window seat, as he persisted in watching a terrible film with Jason Statham in it while I crawled over him to take photos. Here´s one.

This was our fourth time entering Argentina (on our weird route around South America), and I felt happier than usual as I´d managed to dupe the customs officials and smuggle two vegetable-based products across the border. This is serious business over here - Mauro´s uncle´s bandmate got a hefty fine many years ago for not declaring the seeds in his maracas!

Anyway, we arrived at our hostel, nestled between two city-renowned ice-cream parlours, to find that the receptionist had just been robbed. You take the good with the bad! It didn´t take us long to sample the ice-cream. When in Argentina, I tend to opt for variations on a wonderful theme: dulce de leche, dulce de leche with nuts, super dulce de leche. Meanwhile Mauro pretended to enjoy his Malbec and vanilla flavour. It just tasted like heap of frozen wine on a cone. And really strong wine at that. Tonight he´s gonna go for Cabernet Sauvignon and peach.

Mendoza is a really attractive low-rise city with wide avenues. Mauro reckons the key to its beauty is in the huge trees that line all the streets (he thinks Santiago should get in on the tree action). Yet again, we´ve been lucky with the weather, so spent our first day wandering around the city park. Unfortunately our exploration was cut short when Mauro realised the Spurs-Man City game was on earlier than he´d thought, resulting in us sharply exiting the park and jumping in a taxi back to the hostel. Luckily for me, and Spurs fans, they won, which means Mauro was in a brilliant mood all evening. We went and had a celebratory dinner at a classic and classy Mendocino Italian restaurant, where the house wine set us back four quid. I challenge anyone to eat badly in Mendoza - it´s a gourmand´s paradise.

Now, ever since we set off in November, I´ve been harking on about hiring some bikes at some point. Mauro nearly got away with it, mwah ha ha! Seems like cycling from bodega to bodega (to delicatessen to bodega) in the nearby Maipú region is the way to sample the local viniculture backpacker-style. We rented our bikes from "Bikes and Wine" and got going. We had a lovely day, despite the flat tyre and the fact that the chains on our bikes went about three times. I never thought I´d see Mauro sat on the side of the road with an upturned bicycle and grease all over his hands! Anyway, we only visited three bodegas - not only was it slightly pricey, but we didn´t fancy being drunk whilst contending with the main road at rush hour, sans helmet. We also had tastings and lunch at three delicatessens, which, amongst delicious local chutneys and chocolate, included a shot of absinthe if so desired. Always aware of the bike issue, I went for the dulce de leche liqueur instead (quelle surprise). So basically, apart from the mechanics part, it was a perfect day: sunshine, loads of wine and good food (in slightly smaller quantities).

It´s not all been about bacchanalian and epicurean indulgence though. On a less positive note, we´ve been keeping up with the elections at home. And to make matters worse, Mishal Husein from BBC World News was stood outside the Houses of Parliament this morning in a puffa jacket and a hefty scarf, so my unrealistic hopes of returning to a sun-drenched London, where there is no David Cameron, have been dashed. Oh well, still six days in Buenos Aires to enjoy!