Argentina: Mendoza and The Grape Harvest Festival

Due to the great distances between places in Argentina and the country’s (safe but) unreliable domestic air travel, Argentineans have perfected the art of long-distance bus travel. Traveling on a “Suite Class” bus is like flying first class on a plane. The service includes 180-degree reclining leather chairs in your own private pod, plenty of food, alcoholic drinks, movies, etc. Therefore, to immerse ourselves in the Argentinean culture, our group of four boarded an overnight bus from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, the heart of Argentina’s wine country. We had a blast on the bus and all slept like babies. We arrived to the metropolis of Mendoza ready to rock, and just in time for the annual Grape Harvest Festival, also known as Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, a passionate and elaborate string of cultural activities to celebrate the end of a year’s work in the vineyards.

After getting a lay of the land in Mendoza, including a stroll around the markets in Plaza Independencia and dinner on the trendy Aristides Villanueve, we headed 15km southeast on Friday to do some wine tasting in Maipu. We rented bikes, of course (!), and navigated the sometimes-dusty, sometimes-tree-shaded and mostly-hazardous streets of Maipu to visit a variety of wineries that are spread throughout the high plains in the area. With the lovely Andes towering to the west of us, we toured several different wineries, ate lunch next to grape vines, and, needless to say, tasted the delicious goods along the way. Some of our favorite wineries included Familia Di Tomasso and Bodega Carinae.

As for The Grape Harvest Festival, the action heated up on Friday night with “Via Blanca”, a colorful parade with spectacular floats, each presenting a beauty queen from the a nearby town. Beauty queens are an extremely big deal, and, in fact, are the main focal point of Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia. There are 17 queens in total and the competition is fierce. We bet 5 pesos each on an eventual queen, and the winner among us was required to wear a tiara (regardless of gender). Anyway, back to the parade, the floats threw out random (and sizeable) things, like melons, bunches of grapes, apples, and even steak sandwiches that were cooked ON THE FLOAT. The following morning, Saturday, another parade called “Carousel” took to the streets of Mendoza, featuring old-time carriages, musical bands and groups of “gouchos” (Argentinean cowboys). To cap of the weekend’s festivities, we made our way to a huge amphitheatre in Mendoza’s Parque General San Martin with 40,000 others to witness “Acto Central”, or the main act. This spectacular, unforgettable production reflected the history of wine in Mendoza and featured large-scale dancing, dozens of costume changes, live music and singing and a fireworks finale. Perhaps most importantly, however, (not kidding about this) The Grape Harvest National Queen is elected. Miss Santa Rosa took the coveted prize this year, making the crowd go wild and making Krista 15 pesos richer.

All-in-all, the Festival provided some great entertainment, tasty wine and plenty of memorable moments. We spent Sunday relaxing pool-side and deciding where to go next. Then, with a great four days in Mendoza, Argentina behind us, we headed back to Buenos Aires.