Adventures Abound in Mendoza

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My recent posts on the Jerome Microbrewery in Potrerillos, Mendoza and the post on luxury wine tourism made me start to think that I should write on my experience in “adventure tourism” in Mendoza. Although I’m guessing your average oenophile isn’t an adventure seeker, there’s something out there for everyone.

If you have four days in Mendoza, you may want to break up your winery visits with a day of fun in the Andes. The mountains are spectacular in Mendoza and just driving through them is fun. I’ve had the chance to go to Potrerillos on three different occasions to twice mountain bike and to go rafting once.

In October, 2005 I headed up to Argentina Rafting on a bus that left the central terminal in Mendoza, which is a bit of a walk outside downtown Mendoza. The bus was extremely cheap (a couple dollars) and it left me off in Potrerillos right in front of Argentina Rafting. In December of 2006 I was with my brother who was paying, so I took the Argentina Rafting bus that picks you up at your hotel. The bus costs an extra US$9 but its definitely worth it if you aren’t very adventurous, don’t want the hassle of getting to the bus station and waiting for the bus, or don’t speak Spanish. If you’re on a tight budget, definitely take the bus from the terminal. It’s also a much more authentic experience (i.e. you won’t be sitting next to other Americans and Brits).

Once you’re at Argentina Rafting you can sign up for a number of different activities. Most activities are done twice a day depending on the demand. If you want to do the morning excursion you should get there before 9. You can also do excursions that last several days and offer a lot of different activities. So you can choose between doing rafting, kayaking (although you will need to do a course there if you aren’t experienced), hiking (known as trekking in Argentina), mountain biking, horseback riding, zip-lining (known as “canopy”) or hidrospeed (you go down the river on some sort of disc). Every activity is really cheap at around US$20 for a half of a day.

The rafting trip was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I had never gone rafting and have been trying to go again ever since. The river is not dangerous at all (they provide helmets and life vests) but it is fast enough to be enjoyable. I only fell out once but it was no big deal – I just got back in. They employ a photographer to take pictures all the way down the river which you can buy on a CD at the end for a very low price. The guides are extremely knowledgeable and make sure you have a great time. There’s enough time for some chatter on the boat, and I made friends with two doctors from the province of Buenos Aires. I’m quite sure all of the guides speak good enough English to tell you whatever you need to know.

The other two times I went I decided I wanted a workout and went mountain biking. The first time was on a Saturday and was alone, which was fine. I was in a relatively large group of ten. I had a great time and got a good workout. I would say that you should be in decent shape to do the mountain biking, although the course isn’t very challenging at all for a novice. The second time I went I was with my brother and we were alone with the guide. He was great in tailoring the course to challenge us a little bit. We were also able to rest when we wanted to. I would suggest going on a week day to have this kind of an experience.

All in all, I had three great trips up to Potrerillos. A day of “adventure” up in the Andes would be a great way to work off the calories from those gourmet meals you’re having back in Mendoza City.

New Links / Nuevos enlaces

I’ve added two new interesting links that can be found in the right-hand column. The first is the blog by the South American Wine Group (SAWG). I did a quick google search on SAWG and didn’t come up with much, but I can say that it is an excellent blog updated almost daily. Today, SAWG, written by Pablo Gimenez Melo, writes about the importance of women in the wine market.

The second link I’ve added is that of Vines of Mendoza. Vines of Mendoza is a company that was founded a few years back by a couple Americans and, what do you know, Pablo Gimenez Melo! These three guys have really been growing their business with a wine club that is set up to send wine lovers abroad 4 unique bottles every month from boutique wineries in Argentina that can’t be found in the U.S. They also have a really cool tasting room that I went to with my brother a couple weeks ago and had a great time after being given a free voucher at our hotel. But these guys aren’t done. They are also creating their own vineyard where tourists will be able to come and make their own wine – very, very cool stuff. The final phase of their plan is to open a five-star resort, or as they say “winemaking retreat.” It’s quite clear that these guys understand how to link the wine industry with the rapidly growing tourism industry in Mendoza.

Anadé dos nuevos enlaces interesantes que se puede encontrar en la columna a la derecha. El primero es un blog del South American Wine Group (SAWG). Hice una busqueda rápida sobre SAWG y no encontré mucho, pero puedo decir que es un blog excelente que está realizado diariamente. Hoy, SAWG, escrito por Pablo Jiménez Melo, escribe sobre la importancia de las mujeres en el mercado de vino.

El segundo enlace es de Vines of Mendoza. Vines of Mendoza es una empresa que fue fundado en 2004 por dos norteamericanos y, quien sabría, ¡Pablo Gimenez Melo! Estos tres hombres han estado ocupados durante los dos años pasados. Su primer negocio fue un club de vino para extranjeros. Ellos envían una caja de cuatro botellas de vino cada mes de bodegas boutique de Mendoza. También, ellos tienen un “tasting room” (cuarto para probar vinos) muy cheto donde fui con mi hermano hace algunas semanas porque nuestro hotel nos dio un voucher para probar cinco vinos. Pero estos hombres no terminaron allí. Están creando una bodega donde los turistas podrían venir y hacer su propio vino – muy, muy buena idea. La fase final de su plan es un hotel de cinco estrellas, o como dicen ellos, un “winemaking resort.” Es claro que estos hombres entienden como vincular la industria vitivinícola con una industria de turismo creciente en Mendoza.

My brother and I in Mendoza / Mi hermano y yo en Mendoza

Two weeks ago my brother Ned came down to visit me in Argentina, and after a few deathly hot days in Buenos Aires we headed to the "interior" of the country. After stopping in Rio Tercero, Cordoba to visit some friends and relatives there, we took an 8 hour bus ride to Mendoza. As a big mountain biking fan, my brother wanted to head to the Andes one day and then hit up the wineries on Tuesday.

Hace dos semanas mi hermano Ned vino a visitarme en la Argentina, y después de algunos días calurosos en Buenos Aires fuimos al interior del país. Después de una visita a Río Tercero, Córdoba para ver nuestros parientes y algunos amigos, tomamos un bus a Mendoza. Mi hermano es un fanático del mountain bike (aunque su trabajo como un abogado en Manhattan no es exactamente perfecto para su interés) y quería visitar algunas bodegas.

On Monday, we went to the Andes, or more specifically the "pre-mountain range" to do some mountain biking at a place I’d been to twice before, once for rafting the year before and once for mountain biking in October. Needless to say, it was awesome.

El lunes fuimos a los Andes, o mejor dicho, la “pre-cordillera” para hacer mountain bike en un lugar que había ido dos veces antes, una vez para rafting hace un año y una vez para mountain bike en Octubre. La visita fue absolutamente espectacular.



On Tuesday we hired a driver to take us to several wineries. We first went to La Rural (which I had been to last year), which is nice because it is a very typical Mendoza winery in that it was started in the 1890s by Italian immigrants. What is different about La Rural is that it has an excellent wine museum. After La Rural we drove to Familia Zuccardi, a very well-known winery (at least in Argentina) which is completely the opposite of La Rural in that it was started in the 1970s and likes to be known as an innovator. The incredible asado (Argentine barbecue) we had at Zuccardi definitely makes it worth another visit.

El martes contractamos un chofer para llevarnos a algunas bodegas. Primero fuimos a La Rural (visité La Rural en 2005) que es muy bueno porque es una bodega típica de Mendoza porque fue fundado por un inmigrante italiano en los años 1890. Después de la visita a La Rural, fuimos a la bodega Familia Zuccardi, una bodega muy conocida (en la Argentina) que es el opuesto de La Rural porque fue fundado en los años 1970 y es conocido por su innovación con nuevos varietales. El asado increíble que comimos en Zuccardo vale la pena para otra visita.

At Zuccardi, we were assigned a personal tour guide who showed us the process in making the wine. After the short tour we got to try several wines directly from the tank. It was just an absolutely awesome experience, we have to give major props to our guide Matias (in the picture below) for giving such a comprehensive tour.

En Zuccardi, caminamos por la bodega en un tur guiada que nos mostró el proceso de hacer el vino. Después del tur tuvimos la oportunidad de probar vinos distintos directamente de los tanques de acero. Fue una experiencia absolutamente espectacular y tenemos que decir “muchas gracias” a Matías (en el foto) por darnos un tur tan extenso.