LA4243 MDZ-AEP 23 NOV 12 (ECONOMY)
Posted: 28 Jan 2013, 22:27As I said in my earlier TR, we were met by our chauffeur who brought us to our first winery, Piatelli all the while giving us a brief and interesting snapshot of Mendoza. We were greeted by the owner who immediately reminded me of the baldy guy in “The Devil wears Prada”.
He was very welcoming, gave us a tour of the place before inviting us to taste some of the wines. By this time it was somewhere between 10 and 11am and here we were beginning a day of booze! We tasted a Torrontes, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Malbec and loved all three. The owner was lovely and really engaged with us even to the extent of, realising that we had gone there straight from a flight from Santiago, going to get us some cheese and crackers. 
Of course we reciprocated by purchasing some of his wares.From there we were brought to our second winery but we stopped en route to view another place which was styled in the manner of a Mayan pyramid.
Following that the driver was supposed to bring us to our hotel but he mentioned that there was a guy who had a wine tasting in his garage and so we decided to go there. After the plush, modern facilities we had visited we ended up in what essentially was a lock-up!
Our bags were delivered to our room and by this time I had acquired a second bag which I had brought with me from home and for which I had used a combination lock. However something had happened to the lock and try as I might, I couldn’t open it so that eventually we had to get someone from the hotel to come and smash the lock. 
That necessitated a trip into the town centre, which was within walking distance, to buy a new one. This was eventually accomplished by going to the visitor centre and drawing a picture of one and then a picture of a suitcase! 
On our second day in Mendoza, we had signed up for a adventure day - or more correctly, Chris had signed us up for such delights as white-water rafting and zip-lining! And I was due to get my bus pass in exactly 3 weeks time (which is issued much, much later than in the UK) However, to Chris’s chagrin our booking had been amended to horse-riding and white-water rafting. We were collected from the hotel in a minibus and we were the oldest people there.
There were a couple of English guys sitting in the back of the bus who, as soon as the bus set off, expressed at the top of their voices their hope that things would be sorted out when we arrived at our destination as they did not want to be held back by anyone (namely, me) and then spent the rest of the trip boasting loudly about all the places they had visited all of which we had also seen (and probably others they hadn’t!) I could have forgiven them if they had been callow youths but when we arrived and they left the bus it was obvious that they were in their forties (as was Chris) and probably at the beginning of a mid-life crisis! Fortunately we didn’t see them till our return journey so I refused to let them bother me and thoroughly enjoyed our horse-riding 
That night we had celebrated Thanksgiving in one of the restaurants recommended by everyone in Mendoza. The meal was excellent and a fitting tribute to our stay in Mendoza. One aspect I particularly liked was that we were brought into a separate room to choose our wine and it proved a suitable venue for the day in hand.
The following day we were due to leave on a flight that left at 2:05pm and our pick-up was due at 12:30pm. To be honest I felt that was a tad late for my peace of mind but I had no doubt that our travel planner knew best. Early that morning we breakfasted and then finished packing, carefully wrapping our newly acquired treasures from the wineries in our clothes and breathing a prayer of supplication to the Almighty that they might arrive intact. We had a final stroll around Mendoza before fetching up at the hotel to await our driver. 12:30pm came and went, as did 12:35, 12:40 and 12:45. By this time I was mildly freaking (translation: climbing the walls)
and Chris went to reception to make enquiries. A phone call evinced the information that our pick-up was at 12:50pm and the driver was on his way. 12:50pm for a 2:05pm fight?!! 
All I could think of was the cut-off times we are used to over here and had visions of us being denied boarding! Finally at 12:55pm our driver arrived and even he freaked mildly when we told him the time of our flight. However fifteen minutes later he delivered us to the airport and an empty check-in desk where, judging by our SEQ numbers, we were the last to check in - oh and the fact that they closed up the desk after we left! We then joined a long line for security but we weren’t the last there as others who had checked-in earlier fetched up behind us. Security was easy and once in the gate area we were able to see our aircraft hadn’t even landed. In the gate area there was a small duty-free area (which was unavailable to us) looking for all the world like a stall in a church bazaar but more importantly, there was a priority line for OW Sapphire members which status was printed over my boarding pass. As we waited we noted that nearly everyone was carrying on wine in bags and boxes and there were ours, reposing in the bosom of our bags as we had packed them according to the dictats of our governments. Makes a bit of a mockery of the US/EU rules, doesn’t it? The incoming flight landed and after about 20 minutes we were allowed to board. We were served a snack-box and coffee and about 90 minutes later were deposited in Aeroparque where our driver met us and took us to a new adventure for me - a gay hotel!
