Long weekend in Mendoza - Argentina´s Wine capital

Now in Mendoza they will call themselves the wine capital of the world, a bit exaggerated by the Argentines high self esteem, but I would definitely call it argentina´s wine capital, if you go there you will and you must drink wine.

I happened to go there at the beginning of "La fiesta de la vendimia", Mendoza's yearly wine festival, so i stopped by an event at which they were giving samples of all the wines produced in Mendoza.

For a small fee you could taste several wines from each "Bodega" or winery.
Mind you the samples were very generous so I had to stop before getting too tipsy.

Long weekend in Mendoza - San Francisco Basilica

One of the churches you will probably bump into in Mendoza is the San Francisco Basilica located at the intersection of Necochea and España streets in Mendoza, right across Plaza San Martin.

The Image at the main Altar is Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of Chile and of the Andes Army led by General San Martin, Argentina's liberation hero.
At this church lie the remains of his daughter Mercedes.

The church has many relics of the and plaques of people and institutions honouring the memory of General San Martin.

Long weekend in Mendoza - Parque General San Martin

Taking advantage of the many long weekends available in Argentina and of the newly arrived low cost airlines I decided to do some short trips this year and visit its provinces.
For the Carnival weekend I went to Mendoza.
The "General San Martin is the oldest and largest park in the city of Mendoza, with 306 hectares and 17 km. of road. The main entry is through a iron gate made in Glasgow and purchased in Paris.

It has a lake and several beautiful fountains and ornamental statues most brought from Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.

Since Mendoza has a dry climate the many trees planted there serve as refuge to birds and other fauna.

the Park is crowned by the monument to the Andes army that crossed over to Chile lead by general San Martin. you can either drive or walk to the top of the hill where the monument is placed.

From there you have a magnificent view of the surrounding area.

The trip to Bolivia - Peru - Day stop in Mendoza - The wineries bus tour

As I mentioned previously, there is a city tour bus that tours the whole city of Mendoza, now in one of its stops you can hook up with the wineries tour bus, that stops at 7 wineries in the lujan de cuyo area.

I had´nt much time so i asked the guide which winery had vines at sight cuz I wanted to take some pics.

I was told that haciendas del plata had some so I got off there. Since at that time I was the only visitor I wandered in and started taking some pics. There is a wine tasting tour given by the wine yard owners which were very kind and also took me to visit the grape plantations.

Hacienda del plata is an Estate winery with a small plot of land in which they produce a limited quantity of bottles. I do recommend the visit for the quality of their wines and for its picturesque winery.

The trip to Bolivia - Peru - Day stop in Mendoza

After a late night border crossing I arived back in Argentina to the city of Mendoza, this was at 6am, so after buying my bus ticket to Buenos Aires which departed only at 6pm I was left with a whole day in my hands.

It was a Monday and it seems that most museums and tourist atractions aere closed so I opted for the city guide Bus run by the city of Mendoza.
The first departure is at 11am and it takes you around the city of mendoza and Godoy Cruz, also to Lujan de Cuyo where u can catch another bus that brings you to wineries.

You can get on and off and basically spend the whole day visiting the city. I highly recommend the tour bus.