Maipu.....it´s not what you are thinking...

On Thursday, we arrived in Mendoza, Argentina after a pretty spectacular bus ride along switchbacks that went up and over the Andes (the 155km route took 6 hours and included a frigid stop at a control booth in the middle of a factory-type building that lasted 45 minutes). Mendoza is a pretty neat colonial town nestled in the Andes, with a fabulous plaza lined with cafes and shops. The main plaza, Plaza Indepencia, has 4 other plazas surrounding it in an equidistant fashion, where we were able to hang out on park benches and soak up some of the sun (it was disappointing that only 1 of our 3 days had sun since Mendoza gets over 300 days of sun/year on average). The walking, eating, and shopping was great, but they are particularly known for their wine...Malbec to be exact. So we began Friday with wine tour just outside Mendoza in an area referred to as Maipu, and yes Shaun, it´s pronounced the way you hoped it was pronounced.

Our wine tour lasted a full day and included tours of 3 different wineries as well as a huge Argentinian lunch of meats, cheeses, and various vegetables marinated in the Malbec wine. We are now well versed on the process of testing a wine, which means we know that you smell it once (where you could pick up on scents of mildewed cardboard and budweiser or something like that), swirl it to oxygenate it, smell it a second time (where you are supposed to pick up on different aromas that were released, like grandpa's leather leg rest with Miller High Life), take a generous swig to coat your mouth, swirl it to get the flavor, and then finally let the syrup into your belly. Despite being given this knowledge though, every wine tasted the same and so we still can´t say we are connosieurs of any alcoholic beverages other than Bud light.

Anyway, the only other highlights of the trip were when a bird Maipu'd on Conor´s sleeve and the Irish's come-from-behind win that was just as exciting watching the text version on ESPN Gamecast. Time to head up to Iguazu for a few days of exploring the jungle and the falls...