Birthday Mayhem in Mendoza

we had always planned to take a little break in mendoza - lay low for a little, do some wine tasting and some horse riding.

i dont think that either of us were really expecting the last week or so that we have had here in mendoza.

firstly - the weather is wonderful ! it is hot, it hardly ever rains and our new hostel (Break Point) has a swimming pool.

when we arrived we were staying in a hostel over the other side of the Plaza and San Martin. we only spent a couple of nights there but it was enough time to meet Matt and Shaun from Australia and enjoy a few steaks and a wine tour with them. we also met Charlie and Kimi on the wine tour and had a great night out again eating steak and drinking wine and we all went along to a Tango Show.

the first wine tasting tour we went on was only a half day tour. but aside from tasting wine ...

... we also went to an olive oil factory and learnt how extra virgin olive oil is made. and i thought that was really interesting.
the day that kimi went back tosantiago, we went for a walk in the park first and then Charlie and Nell and I walked to the zoo (which was MILES away)

when Nell and I moved to Break Point we met Pablo (photo below on the left). Pablo worked at the hostel and was really really great to us. he organised for us to go riding with Enrique (on the right) who shall forever be known as Hot Horse Guy.

Nell has some more photos of that day which hopefully she will post too - not only did we have a great ride but Enrique followed it up with an awesome BBQ and loads of wine.

Enriques ranch is just outside of Mendoza city. Not only does he have great horses but also a pool !

My birthday was on the 28th of Nov, and so the night before we all got rather pissed and decided to go and play pool. At midnight, I had Happy Birthday sung in Afrikaans, Swedish, English and goodness only knows what else !

and then the tradition of the 4am swim was born !

thats Rory and Nell in the pool. Rorys wife Lana is Australian and Rory is Scottish. They were staying at Break Point with us and Charlie and it just turned into debauchery.

Rory was either the first to suggest a beer (maybe at lunch depending what time we got out of bed from the night before) or the first to agree that yes a beer was a good idea.

On the actual night of my birthday, Pablo organised an amazing BBQ. Basically all the food and wine we could consume ... so consume we did !

and as Charlie had a reputation as the Tango King, Pablo proceeded to give lessons by the pool and Rory bought sexy back.

The day after wasnt pretty. Thank god for the pool (we didnt seem to get out of our bikinis and boardies for very long) but the day after my birthday was Lanas birthday.

Nell had been told about a lovely bar on the 10th floor of a building in Mendoza where we could have a quiet drink and watch the sun go down. So we went there and it was lovely.

and then it was Lanas Birthday !

we had a pretty chilled out day, we went to the Aquarium and to the Serpentaria (or the Snake Pit) but we started the day with a glass of bubbles just to make sure we didnt break tradition !

i guess you are thinking that we have really been rather lazy. and you would be right. but aside from the drinking and the swimming and the eating - there was table football to conquer ...

and crazy conversations had that would lead on to silly photos and a group of people just cracking up laughing in the streets of Mendoza ...

and then there were the bicycles.

Charlie and Rory and Lana left on Sunday so before their bus we took taxis out to Maipu and rented bicycles to ride around the wineries.

a lot of the wineries were closed but we found a couple that were open and just enjoyed some nice tastings (and some not so nice) and a lovely day in the tree lined lanes.

but thats not Mendoza over for us.

tomorrow we are going rafting and then on Wednesday, Nell and I are going riding again.

can you guess who with ???? ...

oh yes ! Hot Horse Guy