More wine please!!! Mendoza & San Rafael

The overnight bus to Mendoza was not a bad ride, as the temperature was much better and we had the “high class” cama suites (the seats recline 180° and you are served champagne after dinner). When we got to Mendoza and rented the next car, we started round two of wine tours. We only had time for one vineyard in Mendoza, but it was worth it. We went to Familia Zuccardi and had an amazing private tour from an American guy who is living down in Mendoza. After the tour, starving, we began a difficult search for food. It seems that in parts of the country, restaurants don’t serve food at all between dinner and lunch. Since dinner doesn’t start until 8:00, it was hard to find something to eat in the late afternoon/early evening. Once we found a sandwich, we headed towards San Rafael, the first easy drive down a straight highway of the trip.

In San Rafael, we checked into the Hotel San Martín, a nice change from some chilly hostels. We had a delicious dinner in the hotel’s restaurant of chicken and butternut squash stuffed crepes. The next morning, Scott, Bree and Steve got up early and went to Las Leñas to snowboard in the Andes. I bummed around San Rafael, getting coffee in a café, doing a little shopping, and getting a massage at the hotel spa. When everyone returned from snowboarding, we cleaned up and went to a parilla for a nice steak dinner. The next day, on our way out of town, we stopped by a couple of vineyards in the San Rafael area, including Bianchi. We drove back to Mendoza and got on a bus to BA, sad that this leg of our adventure was over.