In early September, Brent and I were enjoying the outdoor patio weather at Katy Trail Ice House with one of our good friends Taylor. He's an international consultant that travels the world so much that he puts my 35 passport stamps to shame! I was asking him where his next adventure was and he told us he was going to Mendoza, Argentina for business and then flying to Santiago, Chile for spring skiing. His upcoming business trip has been one of my dream trips since Brent and I went to Buenos Aires in 2007. Since then, I knew that Mendoza was known for one thing and that's really good wine! Malbec to be precise, but in any case Mendoza is the Napa Valley of South America and since 2007, I had yearned to go back to Argentina and visit Mendoza and then ski the Andes mountains in Chile. So with only a week and half notice, I checked the flights to Santiago and luckily they were wide open! On September 19th, we lucked out with first class seats for the 10 hour, overnight flight to Chile and then boarded a LAN airlines jet to Mendoza where Taylor picked us up and the wine tastings began!
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| Belasco De Baquedano has a great lunch with views of the vineyards that are to die for! |
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| Achaval Ferrer was my favorite winery! |
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| Outside the Mayan temple inspired Catena Zapata winery |
After a few days of wine tastings in Mendoza, we flew back to Chile to spend the next three days discovering and partying in the beautiful and modern city of Santiago!
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| In Santiago, we stayed at The W Hotel and were upgraded to an amazing corner room with a huge balcony! |
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| On Sunday, we drove out to the beach and had the funniest "lost in translation" lunch ever! |
Although we missed the snow skiing by just a few days, we discovered the swanky city of Santiago, the laid back town of Mendoza and another dream to return to South America again soon!
