Kathleen
April 22, 2014
It is always nice to be back among the vines and we had a quite relaxing stay at a little inn outside of Maipu. The one exception to this was that the internet signal was pretty sketchy where we were (no, not that surprising) so we had to run around trying to find wi-fi connections in order for Steve to get his work done and me to do some planning for days ahead and work on the blog. This wasn’t so bad, but the fact that we didn’t have a car meant we had to cycle around on dirt roads with our computer (Steve) and Ipad (me) in our backpacks to reach possible destinations for success. One day we rode into the town of Maipu and enjoyed spending some time at a little cafe on the central square. Another day, we tried the gas station up the road that had an outside seating area of sorts and professed to have wi-fi. Luckily, the connection didn’t work because we actually found a connection at a Bodega (winery) down the road which had a beautiful vinyard view and we were able to sit and compute away on a lovely veranda whilst having lunch and a little wine tasting to boot!
We biked around to several different vineyards and enjoyed the area and the wines. Our favorite find from this area of the world is the Tanant, which is a lovely fruity white wine made from grapes that are fairly specific to this area.
The best part of our stay in Maipu, however, was hanging out with our fellow visitors at our little pousada (inn). The inn was on a large piece of property shared with the owner’s home, some grape vines used to make their own wine, and olive trees from which you could sample the olive oil. There were only three rooms and a shared kitchen in our little building and we met, over the course of three nights, two Russian men (One living in St. Petersburg, the other in Berlin), a couple from South Africa, and a Canadian couple who are literally biking the world.
The first night the owner of our pousada arranged a local to come cook up an asado (a bunch of really good grilled meat) for our company of friends. Before dinner we shared some wine and stories with our new Russian friends on the lawn (they spoke English) and then the owner, manager and the lovely couple from South Africa joined us for dinner. Unfortunately, Steve was a little bit under the weather that night so he missed the dinner, but we saved a plate for him and caught him up the next day. When our new Russian friends left the next day, they were replaced by Jan and Paul, a couple from Vancouver who biked in Iceland, from Norway to Turkey, and now were in the midst of biking from the South of Patagonia northward as far as they can get by the end of May. They have an amazing story and blog, and you can check it out at 2lovecycling.com.
We greatly enjoyed our relaxing time in Maipu and were not anxious to leave but looking forward to seeing the beautiful region of Salta….
