Post cruise trip report - Valparaiso to Mendoza by bus

[owl61]

This is a report on our post-cruise travel from Valparaiso to Mendoza by bus and the 4 nights we stayed in Mendoza, two of which were spent doing wine tours.

 

Valparaiso

 

We disembarked the RCCL Radiance of the Seas in Valpa on Sunday, Mar 29. We opted to stay at the Harrington B&B located on Concepción hill which is the nicest part of Valpa. It was $46,000 pesos (+/-$80) per night which included a light breakfast. The Harrington is owned and operated by a French couple, Olivier and Veronica. He speaks some English. It´s a boutiquish sort of place with modern bathrooms and otherwise ordinary furnishings which included a small screen flat tv that had some English language channels. I give the place a B+.

 

We booked a tour guide named Michael Arnold, aka the German pirate, for a walking tour of Valpa (see http://www.myvalparaiso.cl/). Michael is knowledgeable, entertaining and a bargain at about $25 pp for an entire day walking tour (though there appears to be some controversy surrounding whether he possesses a valid tour guide license). I give him an A-. Besides giving a good tour, prior to our arrival he was kind enough to go out of pocket to purchase our bus tickets to Mendoza aboard CATA.

Price of one way bus fare was 14,000 pesos pp (+/- US$25). Bus left Valpa at about 8 am. The trip across the Andes was superscenic (we sat in front seats on upper level). With a compulsory hour long stop at the border crossing/customs we arived in Mendoza at about 5 pm. Make sure you safely keep your Chile entry document your cruise ship gives to you when it returns your passport to you. When you attempt to exit Chile you may be required to go back to the US Embassy in Santiago if you lose it. I got very lucky with a kind hearted custom official who let me slide. It´s not always the case.

 

 

 

Mendoza

 

We stayed at the Plaza Italia B&B in Mendoza, a smartly refurbished home fronting the plaza. It has 5 bedrooms each with a dedicated bathroom albeit the bathrooms of two of the rooms are outside, adjoining the bedroom. Our room (US$80 per night) was large with a comfy firm bed and down pillows, large bars of high quality soap, and plush towels in the bathroom. The tv had cable which received several English language channels. A full breakfast was served downstairs until 11 am in a well appointed dining area that opened onto a pretty flowered patio. The OJ was fresh squeezed. The service was attentive. There was a computer in the hallway available free at all time. Owners Tito and Mercedes were charmingly hospitable and were always ready to make suggestions, give directions, call to make dining reservations or for a taxi, or call the airport to get flight info, etc. It seemed they liked doing these things for their guests. I give this place and its owners an A.

 

Prior to our arrival I had negotiated with Merecedes´adult son, Javier, to take my wife and I on 2 wine tours, one in the Uco valley ($155 pp), the other in Lujan/Maipu valley ($135 pp). Javier was testimony to the adage about the acorn not falling far from the tree. That is to say, he was extremely personable and eager to make our trip pleasant by sharing his knowledge about the wine country and wine with us. He cheerfully drove us to and from banks so we could use ATMs as well as to and from the bus station so we could ship a box of clothes to our apt in Buenos Aires.

 

On April 1, we visited Andeluna (midsize winery), nearby La Azul (tiny), and then drove about 75km to O´Fournier where we lunched from a fixed menu (choice of filet mignon or mushroom risotto for main dish). The latter is a fancy, modern winery. Some might like it, but I did not think it merited the considerable extra driving to visit even though the route was through the scenic pre-cordelliera hills. If I had been aware of the location of O´Fournier I might have opted for lunch at Salenstein which is very close to the other wineries we visited (though I have not personally toured/tasted there).

 

The tour and tasting at Andeluna was excellent and was priced at between US $20-25 pp depending on one´s choice of wines. The tasting consisted of four generous pours (about 4-5 oz each, quite unlike anything you get in Napa/Sonoma). Our tasting cost was included in the price of our tour at all wineries.

 

The tour and tasting at La Azul cost 10 pesos and did not include their tasting their best wine (100 pesos or US$ 27 per bottle). The tour itself was brief and unremarkable. The O´Fournier tour was something of an afterthought as by the time we finished drinking (not tasting) the wines paired with lunch, the warmth of the afternoon sun (78 C) in concert with the warmth generated by all the wine dulled our interest in the tour. Keep this in mind when arranging your own schedules. Three wineries with tastings are probably right for most and pace yourself at that. From the outside the O´Fournier winery itself looks like the spaceship US Enterprise. That the winemaking process utilizes gravity is the most salient feature I recall about the tour of the place. The dining room is picturesque, but the meal was ordinary. In fact, I asked the owner´s wife, who was giving an outdoor cooking lesson when we arrived, if the meat had come from feedlot cattle (a definite no no for Argentine gourmets). I´m not sure, but I think the lunch with the wines costs about 140 pesos ($40).

 

On April 3, Javier took us to nearby the Lujan/Maipu valley where we visited Benegas, an old "family" winery. An extremely interesting tour was presented by an enthusiastic and fluent English speaking guide. I highly recommend this winery. Thereafter we went to Achavel Ferrer, a fancy place with a decent tour and tasting of the lower end of their high priced wines (430 pesos for their reserves). We visited another winery (Vistuble?) for an indistinguishable tour/tasting before heading off to Ruca Mulen winery for another prix fix lunch with wine pairings. I thought the meal was better here than O´Fournier though it, too, was filet mignon or something else, a pasta, I believe.

 

I didn´t ask Javier about the cost of the tastings or lunch at any of the Lujan/Maipu wineries, but when one calculates the probable cost of the tastings and lunches, together with the costs of driving, etc, the price charged for an all day tour is not exhorbitant. In any event, I definitely would not have been capable of driving after lunch on either tour. Moreover, Javier gifted us a bottle of wine each day including a bottle of the Achavel Ferrer Malbec which cost 89 pesos (US $25). I give Javier an A.

 

When we dined out in Mendoza, we tried Praga which is a very good seafood place. The mussels provenzal and black raviolis filled with centolla crab in a shrimp sauce were excellent and not expensive. We tried light dinners at Azafran twice and came away sorry we did not have the appetite to explore the menu more thoroughly. It is a great restaurant with a talented chef. I found the food at both Praga and Azafran to be better than at the wineries where we lunched.