Tonight, I am tired. I am full of empanadas, wine, and anticipation. In the morning, we move to our new apartment. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that we actually have an apartment in Argentina, but i'm rapidly warming up to the idea. No more hostels! No more annoying, drunk British travelers to wake me up in the middle of the night and monopolize the communal kitchen! From tomorrow, we will have a place to call home, right in the heart of Mendoza.

But enough about tomorrow, what about today? Today, we went wine tasting at long last! After nearly three full weeks in Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina, we finally managed to get our act together and make it out to Mr. Hugo, our friendly local wine bike tour guide. In fact, tour guide might be an overestimation of his job description. Mr. Hugo has a pretty amazing life. A genial man somewhere in his 50's, Mr. Hugo runs a brisk business out of his home in Maipu, just south of Mendoza and right in the middle of a number of vineyards. Mr. Hugo welcomes tourists and locals alike with a generous cup of wine as soon as you enter his front yard. Lined up against the wall of his garage are 50 or so bicycles, from cruisers with baskets to mountain bikes with gears. When we arrived, a group of six British tourists were all riding off on shaky tandem bikes. And that was before they started drinking. I hope they found their balance before they hit too many wineries. After the initial cup of wine, Mr. Hugo handed us a small map of the area while his wife drew in the various destinations. Then we chose our bikes and off we went!

Our first stop was the museum of wine making in Maipu, mostly because the tour included a free glass of wine. Can't pass that up! The tour was actually great, a self-guided romp through two centuries of wine making in the region. The museum also housed an active winery, with huge oak barrels lining the walls. These barrels were, we decided upon closer inspection, quite large enough to comfortably live in. In fact, it appeared that one of the barrels housed a small office.

Next, we headed to a chocolateria and liquor house. Here, we started our tasting with some delicious olive oil, followed by tasty olive tapenades. Soon enough, however, we came to the liquors. Along with chocolate and dulche de leche liquors, this little gem also featured absinthe tasting, tobacco liquor, and dead russian, a potent mixture of pimentos and vodka. Although the tobacco liqour was surprisingly delicious, the absinthe was brutal, even though all five us split just one shot. Note for future travelers: not the best way to start a day of drinking. We did, however, buy some of the tastiest dulche de leche con cafe I've ever had the pleasure of introducing to my tongue.

On the way to the next stop, one of our companions somehow managed to break the pedal off his bike. I mean, the whole contraption just sort of...snapped. Luckily, a kindly moto-cop called Mr. Hugo for us, who loaded a new bike into his mini-van and drove it out to us. He also gave us a free extra hour for our trouble. Best of all, our friend the motocop became our personal police escort, slowly following behind us all the way to the next winery. We never figured out his motive in this but we were highly amused. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, at least in comparison to the absinthe and police escort. We had some excellent wines in some beautiful locations, overlooking vineyards just starting to turn colors after the harvest. We bought a bottle of 2002 tempranillo, a new kind of wine for me. When we returned to Mr. Hugo, he filled our glasses full and invited us all to hang out for a bit, which we did, and enjoy the sunset, which was beautiful. Wine country, Argentina style.