Back in my room, I put on a comfy bathrobe and order coffee and croissants for breakfast. The glass-enlosed walk-in shower has nozzles at multiple levels, so I slip in there for ten minutes or so with the water as hot as I can stand. Breakfast arrives, and I wolf down the croissants with lots of butter and several cups of excellent coffee.
There's good Wi-Fi here, so it's a chance to post to Facebook and download some photos. Later, I shower, shave, dress and head to the lobby to talk with the Concierge. With her help, I am able to plot a course to my campground. I also pick up a map of Mendoza-area wineries and detailed instructions on how to get to the wineries at which I have scheduled visits.
Checkout time is 12:00, but I linger until 1:00 mainly because this might be the last Wi-Fi for awhile. Eventually, I wander down to the paeking garage, load up and head for my campground.
A word about the driving here...which I anticipated would be a cross between “Death Race 2000” and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”. I have actually come to enjoy driving here. A few of the rules are different...lanes mean nothing, you can stay in one or straddle two. When you're stopped at a light, you keep your eye on the light of the cross traffic. When their light turns yellow, that's when you begin your full acceleration out of a standing stop. Hesitate for as much as a nanosecond, and somebody honks their horn. Slowing down to let people merge into traffic from an entrance ramp is a mistake...it confuses them, slows the traffic behind you and creates chaos. So now, with the help of my Garmin (which has performed flawlessly), I glide in and out of traffic...barreling along. It's all good.
I arrive at Suizo Campground around 2:00. I had emailed them to reserve a camping spot, but they emailed back saying that a reservation was unnecessary. Wrong. All of their Cabinas, as well as the covered tent sites, are booked. I switch to Plan B and head down the road to the next campground (there are many in this area). “Camping Mangrullo” has Cabinas available and, if I pay in U.S. Dollars, a Cabina is only $25.00/night. The owner (nice young fellow) and I go to take a look. My Cabina is clean, no critters (large or small)...there's a small gas stove, a sink, toilet shower...all good.
I unload my gear, and check out the map of wineries. It's 2:30, but I might be able to slip into a winery close by for a tasting and some food. In Buenos Aires, I has a wine from Nieto Sentiner...and there winery is only five miles or so away...off I go. I am met at the entrance to the “tasting building” by an attractive young lady who speaks flawless English (she spent two years working at a winery in Australia). I ask if it is possible to have a tasting...and purchase some wine. Hmm, she says...sorry, but tastings are by appointment only. I tell her that I understand, it's just that I've come all the way from the U.S....and I had their wine in Buenos Aires...and it was so good. Well, she says, let me see what I can do. Oh, I add, is it possible to get something to eat! No, she says, I'm afraid not...the kitchen is closed. She takes me to a the dining room area ansd asks me to wait for a few minutes.
About five minutes later, as if by magic, a waiter arrives at my table...with a plate of Empanadas. Then, he's back and pours me a big fat glass of Malbec. I practically inhale the first plate of food...then he brings yet another plate of Empanadas...and more wine!
Now I'm feeling pretty good. The nice young lady returns and guides me into into the tasting room for a “private tasting”. And so, for the next hour or more, we taste wine and we talk about wine. I love wine...I love drinking it, studying it, talking about it. I'm fortunate to visit a lot of wineries and when I do, I'm always careful with the questions that I ask. I want to learn things, but I don't want to came off as “Mr. Know-it-All”. So...I usually ask simple questions at first and more complex questios later depending upon the level of knowledge of my host/hostess. But...this gal here...she really knows her wine. So, we are able to talk about soil, climate, the types of oak used, the growing season, etc. Along the way, she confirms my theory that the local white grape, Torrontes, is related to the Viognier grape...it's all fascinating. I buy three bottles...a Torrontes, a Malbec and a Bonarda (a grape originally from Italy and offered by a tiny handful of Napa Valley wineries as “Charbono”). I do not know much about Charbono except that she was married to Greg Allman.
I'll need something tonight for dinner at camp, so I ask her to recommend someplace where I can get something to “take out”. She gives me a place and I program the cross streets into the Garmin. Then, I'm off to downtown Mendoza. “Maria Antoneta” is a nice little restaurant right in the middle of downtown Mendoza. Inside, I am met by a chef...I tell him that I need something “to go”...he will make me a sandwich, he says. I watch him as he makes me a grilled ham and cheese. He is very professional...he takes a chef's knife out of a case and sharpens it. He selects a long flat piece of bread and cuts it horizontally down the center. He open a refrigerated drawer and selects two nice slices of ham and cheese. He smears a little butter on the ham slices and tosses them into a hot pan. He puts the cheese on top and lets everything cook for awhile. Then he puts the ham/cheese on the bread and tosses the whole thing back in the hot pan. Then he wraps it all up, throws in a piece of marble pound cake...and off I go...back to camp.
At my cabina, I sit in the open doorway...enjoy a cigar. Later, I pour myself four fingers of Woodford Bourbon and enjoy that with some spiced pecans that I brought from home.
Around 10:00PM, I'm hungry again. So I heat up my sandwich in a pan on the small stove in my Cabina...and I open up the bottle of Bonarda. It's a great meal. There's a small television in my Cabina...it gets three channels. One of them, Channel 23, has a soccer game on...two hours of soccer ending in a scoreless tie...American football, it is not.
When the Bonarda is finished, it's time for bed.
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