Mendoza parties

The city is getting ready for the giant Vendimia festival next weekend with a series of cultural events. Starting on Thursday at 8pm there were cultural events for 24 hours straight culminating last night in the crowning of the Vendimia queen for the city. Now all the Vendimia queens from each region of Mendoza have been crowned and one will be chosen next Saturday to be the Queen of Vendimia. Jake is rooting for Paula from Las Heras (when asked what vegetable she would be, she said a tomato because it is ripe and juicy), I think I might root for the queen from Tupungato, location of my favorite wine so far this trip. Vendimia is the wine festival.

On Thursday we watched a comedic play called "Superheroes of the city" about a plumber who could fix anything, a woman who could turn air into gas, and a curandera (like a witch who gives potions to fix broken hearts etc.). We then strolled along the Alameda where there were outdoor sculptures, street artists, crafts, and several stages for music. We walked up to the end where there was supposed to be tango, but they weren't dancing yet, so we walked a few blocks back to a Mexican restaurant for some dinner. The food was actually reasonably authentic and had a truly hot sauce!

On Friday we started at 9pm with the "Megadegustacion de Vinos", the giant wine tasting. For 20 pesos you get a glass and tickets for 8 wine samples. There were probably 50 vineyards there with all kinds of wine. There were long tents set up in a park area between the lanes of Belgrano street where the train used to run. There were 2 tickets for premium wines, so I tried a very good Los Haroldos 2006 Malbec and a 15 year old wine from Norton vineyards that was a little past its prime. Still, it is the oldest wine I've ever tried. The vintners would pour almost a full glass of wine, so after my 3rd glass I started just tasting rather than drinking the whole glass. The best varieties from Mendoza in my opinion are malbecs, cabernet sauvignons and torrontes (a white wine). We ran across several fellow students including Sindra, the Norwegian who had been in my class, and 2 Australian women from northwestern Australia.

From the wine tasting we went to the Extravaganza, at a big stage set up in Plaza Independencia. All seats appeared to be reserved, so we stood on the plaza where we had a decent view. Firt they introduced the 20 queen contestants announcing their eye and hair color and field of study. The extravaganza featured dancing and music, lights, occasional fireworks, some participation from the fountain in front of the stage, and props floating over the stage across wires. The general theme was Vendimia through history. It went on for about an hour and a half ending with a shower of golden confetti. After this, the queens were brought back on stage and the current city queen and vice-queen and Vendimia queen and vice queen were introduced. They then proceeded to announce the votes for each queen individually. As each vote was announced that queen would step forward to applause. The vote announcements went on and on until eventually it became clear that it was a close race between #11, from the Club de Regattas and #20, representing something like the transportation union. Finally, #11 was declared the winner, #20 the vice city queen and the queen was crowned by the former queen. People were still crowded around, so it was clear this was not the end of the show. Sure enough, patriotic music and fireworks followed for another 20 minutes. Jake and I were extremely tired of standing by this point, but we did stay for the fireworks.

Note from the photo that even McDonalds serves wine during Vendimia!