Our visit to Mendoza coincided with the cities Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, the grape harvest festival. Mendoza as a city is beautifully done, with several large plazas, wide tree lined avenues and of course plenty of very cheap but good quality wine. There's a huge stunning park on outskirts of town and it's definitely a place where you could potentially spend a prolonged amount of time.
Whilst in town we thought we'd take advantage of free flowing Rio Mendoza, and go for a ride down the rapids. After a 10 minute tuition on what to do when (and not if) you fall out the raft we were on our way. It was grade 3 rapids, meaning no inherent risk of injury but some adrenaline rushes and some big drops. After a good soaking and a few strong rapids, we decided to take a few backwards. It's probably easier as you don't see what's coming and don't get a wave in the face but the drops can be quite unexpected. After about an hour and a half, 18km or so, we made it to our destination, all still safely in the boat but absolutely soaked through!
After the rigours of the river it was time to enjoy Mendozas primary attraction. The following day we caught the local bus to Maipu, a wine region of around 20 bodegas. From here we took a couple of bikes and spent the day visiting several of the wineries, doing the tour and then trying what they had to offer. After all ready learning how to taste a wine properly we learnt a lot about the wine making process; grape selection, barrel and fermentation time, and ageing aswell as the different grape types, especially the Malbec which is Mendozas prime grape. After a full days riding and drinking in the sun we slowly and slightly wobbly made our way back with the bikes.
The following morning and in a bid to ease our hangovers we visited the nearby Cacheuta thermal springs. The hot springs have been made into a nice park with a good amount of space so you can enjoy pools of different temperatures, and even float round in a lazy river. The skies were blue, the sun was shining and the temperature was around 32°c so you didn't really need to spend too long in a hot pool before jumping into some nice cold water.
When we got back from the springs Mendoza was getting ready to party. Friday night was the Vía Blance de las Reinas, essentially a beauty pageant where the girls from each department in the province of Mendoza are paraded around the streets on floats. This started around 11pm and went on for several hours finishing with live music in the large Plaza Independencia.
The following day was the Carrusel Vendimial, where the ladies were out on their floats again, this time throwing out grapes, apples, and even the odd (dangerous flying) melon. One of the guys we met wasn't paying enough attention and took a rogue apple in the eye! After the ladies, the guys followed with around a hundred gauchos on horseback parading through the streets. Evidently it makes sense to let the beauty pageant contestants go first, as 100 men on horses can leave quite a stink!
The Vendimia festival was great fun, and good timing for us. It was a great way to see out our last stay in Argentina, before making our way back to Chile and our flight out of South America.
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