Mendoza: Wine, Wind, and Weird Vibes
so i'm sitting here in this little hostel in mendoza, trying to write about my last few days here, and my brain feels like a blender full of leftover malbec. the weather-yeah, i looked it up-it's like 26.72°C right now, but feels like 27.21°C. basically, it's warm enough to make you question your life choices but not so hot that you want to die. perfect for wandering around with a half-empty bottle of wine in your backpack, which i may or may not have done yesterday.
mendoza is one of those places where you think, “oh, it's just a wine town,” but then you get here and realize it's also a city that breathes through its plazas. plaza independencia is the big one, but honestly, i kept getting distracted by the smaller ones-plaza espana, plaza italia-each with its own weird statue or fountain that looks like it was designed by someone who had a fever dream about grapes.
and the wine. oh man, the wine. i went to bodega catena zapata because someone told me that’s where you go if you want to feel fancy without actually being fancy. the tour was...fine. but what really stuck with me was the guy in the tasting room who kept calling me “che” like we were best friends. “che, try this one, it's got notes of blackberry and existential dread.” i laughed so hard i almost spat malbec on his shoes.
if you're into food, mendoza won't disappoint. i had this insane asado at a place called 1884 francis mallmann. yeah, it's a bit of a tourist trap, but the meat was so good i didn't even care. someone else mentioned this tiny empanada spot called la empanada de la abuela, and now i'm mad at myself for not going. next time, i guess.
mendoza itself is chill, but if you get bored, san juan and santiago are just a short drive away. not that you'll get bored-unless you're the type of person who gets bored in places where the sun feels like a warm hug and the wine flows like water.
anyway, here's a little map so you can see where i've been wasting my time:
and because i'm feeling generous, here are some photos i stole from the internet:
if you're planning a trip here, just know that mendoza is the kind of place that sneaks into your heart while you're busy drinking wine and pretending to understand terroir. it's messy, it's warm, and it's exactly the kind of chaos i needed. 🍷
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