Nay caught in some pretty light. Note the progression of these photos, things started off quite nice. You can't see the Andes here, but they made quite a spectacular backdrop. vines, sun and sky.... First stop... olive oil tasting. Tough guys on bikes. "Tough guys"- take two. Brittany's still feeling tough. Into the dust storm...
Erasmo- battling the winds. The majority of the landscape looked like this. Picture this plus "twister." Survived the storm, waiting for the bus in style. Waiting for the bus, taking cover.
This past week Nay and I headed up to Mendoza to meet up with Brittany and Erasmo who were on the top end of their loop returning from Patagonia. To say the least, the trip was a quasi disaster, but incredibly entertaining and memorable. Mendoza is known for its wines and so we decided to take a bike tour of Maipu which is littered with bodegas over a 20 mile stretch or so. It was pushing 80 degrees and the first 10 minutes or so was quite nice- however; the tour on the whole wasn't quite as "Napa-esque" as I had envisioned. The majority of the route was through a run down town, bodegas were hidden behind gas stations and we were getting blasted by truck exhaust. We were all pretty cynical, really ripping the place apart and things only took a turn for the worst. After our olive oil tasting- we had planned to bike to the end and stop on the return stretch- we headed back, into an ugly storm that apparently strikes this region two times or so every year. We lost Linnea, Brittany got hit by a palm frond, sirens were ringing, doors and windows slamming, we were dodging flying trash and riding blind-eyed through twister style dust bowls. We had yet to taste a drop of wine. Once Nay was rescued, we braved the storm to walk one block down to the closest bodega to enjoy a very good glass of tinto- it was well deserved.
