La Paz - the dangers of a little knowledge

If we weren't looking forward to Bolivia in general then I should probably clarify that it was La Paz in particular that was concerning us.

Having read the dire warnings in the Lonely Planet about safety and scams, and having talked with my fiancée's cousin who herself had been a robbing victim in La Paz we were more than a little concerned about the city.

We also both read Rusty Young's Marching Powder (a book about San Pedro prison in central La Paz, which I would highly recommend) on our way through Argentina, so our view of the city was slighty slanted as a den of corruption and police brutality (note to self too much info can be a dangerous thing).

Had the other half not needed to get a visa for Brazil (apparently being Australian in South American is annoying) we'd have certainly not spent the 4 days we did there. In fact we may have skipped it all together.

We didn't arrive in the best of moods, despite paying and astronomical 130 bolivianos each (13 pounds, but bear in mind the rest of our transport around bolivia was about 30 bolivianos a trip) for the bus from sucre to la paz to get a suite style seat (literally turns into a fully reclining bed) with bolivias premium bus company el dorado (the golden bus) we didn't get much sleep as the winding road meant every time I dropped off the bus changed the position i was sleeping in.

It was cold, cloudy, raining and early (6:30am) when we arrived so we weren't really in the mood for looking around we just jumped in a taxi for the hotel. We expected to be waiting around for our room but from this moment on la paz surprised us and began to change our minds about it. We were allowed to check in when we arrived (5hours early) and they even gave us a complimentary breakfast that morning !

Although basic the hotel sagannara was centrally located, had friendly staff who spoke english; pretty good Internet access, hot running water all day, cable tv including axn and a pretty comfortable bed

It also had a great view of the city out of the window. We had been so tired we hadn't really looked, but the city view took my breath away (this was a common theme as the altitude of 3800m above sea level will also do that!).

The Main Street (called various things but referred to by the locals as "El Prado") runs along the floor of the valley and streets climb off it at a dizzying rate, house cling to the steep mountainside, beautiful squares abound and the effect is stunning.

We found the people friendly and helpful, we managed to get proper coffee for the first time in a couple of weeks, with a choice of which country the beans came from! The food was also more varied, there were many options from Dumbo's (which is a Bolivian/Mexican chain fast food place), Thai restaurants a plenty (we tried one and it is certainly interesting to see other people's take on a cuisine, which I think I will cover in another blog post) to the fine dining in the Rosario hotel (the food pictured) which was incredibly good quality and put Bolivian cuisine in a fine dining environment at a fraction of what you would expect to pay in most countries.

I think this reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend after he moved into a house in East London, I was asking him if he felt safe walking home from the tube. His reply was that at first he didn't but then he stopped reading the London Metro and Evening Standard (who delight in saying everything is terrible and the city is going to hell in a hand basket) and since then, although he is still sensible and careful he's not been worried at all. I think I now agree reading too much into the dangers can really stop you from enjoying a place. Luckily La Paz is so amazing we'd forgotten most of the bad stuff we'd read almost as soon as we started walking around.

Pictures below (because the iphone blogger software won't let me put it anywhere else) are the food from the hotel Rosario, the beautiful plaza Murillo, San Pedro prison as seen from San Pedro square and the view from outside our hotel on sanganarra street.

Bolivia, Tupiza to Sucre (it's about beef)

Bolivia was probably the country I was looking forward to the least in our tour around South America. However I have to say that the 10 days I spent in the country so far have been really great despite the fact that we have stopped drinking for this part of our trip.

The people here have been much friendlier than Chile (although a pastor did spend 2 hours on a bus trip trying to convert me), the towns and cities have been a lot less run down than I expected and even the food has been much better than I imagined.

While in the country I have tried llama (very deer like, although a little on the chewy side it was very tasty) and several of the national specialities such as pincho de macho which is a pile of chips, steak, sausage, boiled eggs, tomatoes, lots of onion served in a beer based gravy and topped with cheese and jalapeño peppers and salteñas which are empanada like but with a different pastry.

Our first stop was Tupiza, where we ate like cowboys and I even went horse riding, which was fitting for a town which is heavily linked with the real Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid. The town was kind of how I imagined the Wild West to be, lots of horses and dust (as well as a load of pickup trucks). The food was mainly meat based, lots of beef, which was usually grilled on a barbecue (and which tastes excellent) with chicken and some sausage available as well. In Tupiza the steak was always excellent and cost very little, the one piece of advice I would offer is steer clear of the touristy pizza places, they are double the price of the more Bolivian restaurants. If there are no Bolivians eating in the restaurant you have chosen give it a miss!

Next stop was Potosi, which used to be a rich mining town blessed with abundant silver (apparently it bank rolled spain for 200 years!). Nowerdays the silver has dried up but the mining for other minerals continues around this growing city set 4000m above sea level. We got to Potosi just in time for Carnival in Bolivia. This entails lots of people (kids, adults, women and men) having massive water fights. Tourists are in no way exempt (in fact we found that, lugging our bags) we were good target practice. The mainly problem we had is that this far above sea level running away is difficult, and the other slight issue is that this water bombing starts at the end of January and runs through most of February.

Potosi is not really a tourist city, although there are several hostels in the centre, the main attractions are the mines, mainly to marvel at the third world conditions the people work in to this day. There is also mountain biking and horse riding but we were simply passing through and none of these really fitted our time table, so instead we looked around the old Spanish architecture in the centre and had a meal at a cafe which claimed to be 4060 metres above sea level. The food we found to be almost as good as the Bolivian was the Mexican, there were tacos, quesadillas and nachos all with a Bolivian twist, definitely preferable to the South American take on pasta which has, without fail, been served in a watery tomato sauce.

Our final stop on this leg was Sucre, this was different again from the workman like Potosi, boasting a centre full of beautiful buildings courtesy of the Spanish. Sucre was the former capital (now judicial capital) of Bolivia. It certainly had a more affluent feel in the centre with several up market shops and cafes.

To satisfy my inner science geek we went to Sucre's Dino park where we saw some dinosaur tracks dating back millions of years (not for everyone, I know), they are on a cliff face which they discovered while mining for cement.

Food wise the Belgian run cafe in the main square (whose name shamefully escapes me) was a good source of tasty nourishment and information (and wifi), perfect for a breakfast or lunch before exploring the city.

Although it was a little out of our way I have to say that sucre was well worth the trip, the only downside being the 12 hour overnight bus to La Paz (via Potosi) which followed.

Coquimbito, Mendoza vineyards. Tempus alba and Mevi

The first Argentinian vineyards we cycled to as part of our time in Tikay killa (see previous blog) were Mevi and Tempus alba. Both these vineyards have very modern, picturesque tasting areas that double as restaurants boasting views of the vines with the background of the Andes.

We visited Mevi first and opted for a selection of reserve wines (quite often there are several tasting menus you can try at various price points) which were very drinkable. Although as it was only just past midday drinking strong reds on an empty stomach was a little interesting at first (although we soon warmed to the task).

We were served a 2010 Syrah (too young) and a 2011 Malbec (far too young) both of which would have been good in a year or two. The pick of the wines was (by far) a
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva. This is from mevi's Barricas del Plata range, the Reserva naming indicates it has been aged in oak, in this particular case for 12 months.

It was a very dark wine deep red and my notes suggest it smelt strong of booze at first but once opened up had hints of fresh cherries.

When drunk it was soft on the palette (not acidic at all) with hints of cherries, chocolate and perhaps a little touch of violet. The oak had given it a lingering slightly smoky finish which was very pleasant

I must have been hungry by this point as my notes said it would be good with a good strong cheddar or Sunday lunch!

The second vineyard was Tempus alba, which had some matched wine tasting with its food and allowed you to order and have a tasting glass with each course. Never people to skip food and matched wines we set about empanadas and a very good 2009 Malbec, followed by a steak and another very good 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon (similar to the Mevi one but with slightly more acidity on the palette.)

The star wine of our tasting was their Pleno (blend) from 2007, which was a predominately Cabernet Sauvignon with some Malbec and Syrah.
The Pleno is a deep red but still slightly translucent, it smells of red fruits, with hints of leather and oak.
It was great to drink, complete on the palette, not acidic and not too rich.

As you drink it there are hints of vanilla among strawberries and as you would expect there is a smooth finish with slightest whiff smoke that leaves you wanting more.

It is perfectly drinkable all by itself (good for "Big Dave" as my fiancee put it, mainly because she wanted a "Cougar Town" reference in the blog) but i think it would also be great with any red meat or cheese.

Will definitely keep an eye out for it in the UK but I can't imagine it will be anything like the same price.

Then for the sake of research we ordered dessert with, as you would expect, a dessert wine accompaniment. This took the form of a pear poached in wine. This was truly excellent, a great dessert for a hot afternoon, served chilled with some ice cream, a biscuit and a small cup of the wine reduction it was poached in.

Despite the fact that we had now had a substantial amount of wine and it was not yet 3pm I did manage to make notes on the dessert wine, which was a sweet Malbec.

This was served slightly chilled and was really dark, almost black, in colour. The overwhelming theme was cherries, the wine itself was not too sweet, perfect wine for someone without a sweet tooth or a good introductions to dessert wine.

It was smooth drinking with a nose of vanilla and red fruits, pleasant and light on the palette with a long finish with hint of tobacco.

After all that wine the 5km journey home was a touch wobbly on bikes, but we made it just about in 1 piece.

Undurraga vineyard and tasting

In Chile wine tasting is a bit different to the Australian cellar door, one of the main things are that the vineyards require a reservation or that you are part of a wine tour, where they tell you a bit about the grapes, show you their massive vats for fermentation, tell you how special your wine is before getting you drink and trying to sell you as many bottles as possible. The tour usually comes with an associated cost.

As i have mentioned getting by in Chile with a smattering of rusty Spanish is tricky so we booked a tour to Undurraga (founded in 1883, one of the oldest wineries in Chile) with a local company Turistik, who also run the sightseeing buses. this was mainly because they were the only tour company whose sales people we could understand, and who understood us (and also promised us a tour in English)

For our 29,000 pesos each (45 GBP) we got an afternoon of being driven to a winery on a bus, a tour, a tasting and a free glass to take home. Our guide on the bus gave us an interesting introduction to Chilean wine and its history and told us about a drink they call an Earthquake, this is a mix of pineapple ice-cream and pipeno, which, after you have drunk enough, apparently makes the ground feel like it is shaking. Something I will have to try at some point.

The tour itself was interesting, especially learning about the Carmenes which the Chilean's imported in the 1880's from France, but then forgot about (mistaking it for merlot). During the following century it disappeared from French vineyards and from Chilean recollection until someone noticed the merlot they were picking was in fact not merlot! It has now become one of Chile's signature wines.

As well as being a beautiful setting in the maipo valley (pictured) the wines themselves were also good. If your not interesting in the tasting notes skip to the next blog but here are some thoughts on the Undurraga wines we tried (I even made proper notes this time as usually after a few glasses I forget everything I have drunk)

Sibanis Reserva Especial
Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
This was still a bit young despite being aged for 12 months in American oak. It was certainly strong weighing in with a handy 14% it had some impressive legs.

The wine itself was a bright deep ruby colour with hints of Oak and vanilla on the nose surrounded by ripe reds fruits. Strawberry and cherry came to the fore when drinking and although it was not too acidic on the tongue there was some acidity during the peppery finish.

Collera (pictured) sold as Founders Collection in UK
2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Aged for 16 months in French oak this was quite a deep red with a hint of violet, it had a bouquet of blueberries and ripe red fruits. These were also noticeable on the palette with a long smooth, slightly smoky finish, definitely a good wine for a joint of beef on Sunday lunchtime.

Tikaykilla and the Coquimbito, Mendoza wineries

As our first stop in Argentina we settled on Mendoza, set with the spectacular backdrop of the Andes and laced with vineyards.

This is the expensive passage of our trip and accommodation in the vineyards around the city is exclusive and not cheap. We did manage to find one place in Coquimbito which was cheaper than the rest despite boasting excellent reviews on trip advisor, this was called Tikaykilla (http://www.tikaykilla.com.ar/en/index.htm). It is well located, a short taxi or bus from central Mendoza and gives you an excellent starting point if you want to explore some of Mendoza's vineyards. It also has Francesco, the owner, whose knowledge of the area and the wines as well as his happy to please attitude certainly contributed to our enjoyment of our stay in the region.

The local region around the lodge is becoming more and more geared up (excuse the pun) for cycling tours with parts of the main street boasting cycle lanes (with more being built) the police also keep a close we on the traffic so while you are cycling, even on the main roads after a vino or two, you never feel in too much danger, as, certainly towards the end of the day the drivers assume you are drunk and give you plenty of room.

The terrain is also almost completely flat so riding around is not too much of a problem even for the less physically fit of us (Although when the temperature is over 35 it does seem like hard work).

You should also note that the maps which are given out with the bike are not to scale (which we found when we tried to walk one day) and gaps between place (and the distances on signs) frequently say the same distance to your destination for kilometre after kilometre!

Bike hire was 35 pesos (5 pounds) a day and included several discounts for vineyards and restaurants as well as a (not very) stylish helmet.

As with Chile you are expected to pay to taste the produce but this is usually only 30 or 40 pesos (4 to 6 pounds) for 3 or 4 glasses of wine.

There are around 10 vineyards in the area who have tasting and tours, I will cover a few in my next couple of blogs (along with some of my favourite wines). There are also several olive oil producers (you can do a tasting there too) and a boutique brewery called 'beer garden' whose larger style beer I would definitely recommend on a hot day.

Finally it wouldn't be a food blog without mentioning the local cuisine. We had a couple of excellent meals from "casa de campo" which is a family run place near the accommodation who have a lunchtime restaurant where they serve excellent veal (pictured) and an evening restaurant where they do steak (of course) and an Argentine barbecue (meat selection or "death by meat" as it quickly became during the 5 courses of pork and beef). We also had a great beef sandwich overlooking the lake in the main park in Mendoza.

It was not all awesomeness though as my fiancée had what she described as "the worst pastas she'd ever tasted" from one roadside restaurant during our cycling tour from a restaurant which shall remain nameless.

I would definitely recommend a week or two in the area if you are fond of red wine and steak.

Healthy eating on the road

We picked a number of our destinations for this trip based on the food and drink available there. Chile and Argentina were especially selected for their interesting wines and Argentina for its complimentary steak.

Our first stop though was Santiago de Chile. Chile is not overly tourist friendly for English speaking people, very few people there spoke any English and even for Spanish speakers the Spanish spoken there was incredibly hard to understand. I am no Spanish expert but even our Chilean tour guide for one of the wine tastings has led me to agree with various guide books that the Spanish they speak is equivalent, and as untranslatable, as to listening to a drunk Glaswegian after a couple of pints, in a noisy bar.

This itinerary, following a prolonged spell in Australia with my fiancées mother and her Italian heritage of never stopping feeding her guests and my heritage of never saying no to good food, looks like leaving me a few kilos heavier than I wanted with a wedding looming in 3 months, so in order to get into my wedding dress drastic measures are being taken. I ran everyday in Australia, and in chile we walked miles every day, this included climbing the big hill with the Virgin Mary statue (pictured), this was also worthwhile because of the spectacular view, we also made full use of the apartments gym. Argentina will be all about bikes, although we will be using these to travel between vineyards so I am not entirely sure that will be enough.

Eating healthily is also tricky when you don't fully understand the menu, In chile they love to feed you hunks of meat, usually in large quantities, disguised as a platter or some other traditional dish. Sometimes this comes with with bread, but as often as not with chips, always doused in salt.

I have included a picture of 1 platter, which as well as empanadas had a selection of deep fried stuff, some of which such as the sopillianos (sliced, fried plantain) was really tasty but definitely not good for you.

If it is not with chips is it often baked in pastry empanadas style, which is again like having a Cornish pasty (or two) this would be ok but it is usually served as a starter. I think the biggest surprised was that the best meal we had in Santiago was probably at a vegetarian restaurant called Naturallist (definitely a shock find) near the plaza de armas, this also constituted the healthiest.

Other than the rabbit food the only solution we have found to eating healthy was to order a meal and share it, while studiously not drinking (we only had the 4 glasses at the Chilean wine tasting in our time in the country!). This may have made us look like poor student backpacking types but at least I stand a chance of getting into my trousers for the wedding!

Australia's beautiful Hunter Valley (and its wines)

The final Australian wine tasting was in the Hunter Valley. This was a very different feel to the industrial vineyards in the Riverena and the more rural ones on the outskirts of Canberra. The area is quite hilly and there are quite a lot of picturesque locations with lakes and trees surrounded by grape vines which you can enjoy while sampling the fruits of the vines.

We were very lucky on this occasion to be in the company of someone from the area who also drove us around (she deserves a big thankyou as well as the wine that we bought with her).

The biggest difference I noticed straight away with the tastings themselves in the Hunter was that some of the vineyards charge to taste some of their more expensive vintages at the cellar door (although this is usually refundable if you buy something). This discouraged casual drinkers and guaranteed that the tourists from overseas (who aren't going to buy any more than a bottle to take home) don't drink all the profits, however I think that this is a little sad as we'd never have bought the wines from McWilliams (see the blog post on the Riverena vineyards) if they had been charging for us to try it.

The first vineyard we visited was the Lambloch estate, this one has won awards for its new cellar door and it is easy to see why, boasting great views (pictured left) from the tasting bar as well as having an interesting selection of wines, although most of the ones I wanted to try were at a cost (and because I hadn't paid for any tasting so far I decided to pass in indignation). My fiancee did grab a buttery Chardonnay from there which did taste pretty good (although I know that the buttery Chardy is not to everyone's taste).

We then went to Brokenwood, I had big expectations as for the last few weeks I had been drinking wines from there as my Father in Law (to be) used to be a member of the winery and so has a selection of Brokenwood wines from 2008-2010 which are now at about optimum drinking (and we have been having a bottle of two of these of an evening). Sadly the tasting there was not great, due to the time of year (just after Christmas) there appeared to be a huge amount of people out to restock their cellar after a week of boozing, the wine there was also all deliberately warm, this apparently was to allow you to get a better taste of the white wine. Sadly we didn't really get much chance to confirm this as we were widely ignored by the servers managing to get 2 samples in 30 minutes, obviously as these were only the cheaper end of the wines on the list and so were difficult to rate, in the end we left in disappointment and frustration not least because the 2008 Brokenwood Shiraz is one of the best wines I have had the pleasure of drinking during my time in Australia.

Next on the trip was another busy and popular vineyard, "Audrey Wilkinson" which is another vineyard with a great view and modern tasting bar. The contrast between the tasting here and at Brokenwood was very stark. Despite the large amounts of people at the cellar door we were served quickly and attentively with the people working there  giving us descriptions of the wine and telling us about the history of the place.

As well as a good story the server also provided us with the usual variety of recent whites (a very good Verdelho and some reasonable Semillion and Chardonnay) and reds (a reasonable but young Shiraz and an average tempranillio) plus an added bonus, the 2010 Lake Shiraz. This is made from the oldest and best Lakeside vines on the estate, pictured above and sells for 65 AUD a bottle. Although not yet at its peak you could tell from the scents of blackberries and the rich plummy taste with a slightly peppery finish that this will be a very good wine in 5 years time. I managed to resist buying this while my fiancee once again purchased a chardonnay (I sense a theme developing here!).

The next winery we visited was Poole Rock. Where along with the traditional selection of Hunter wines we were treated to these, pictured on the right. These are both traditional Hunter style Shiraz wines, from 2003 and 2007 not being too sweet or jammy, but instead having a very earthy (in a good way) taste and a slightly peppery aftertaste. The 2003 is apparently at its peak and was a really smooth, fruity Shiraz whereas the 2007 could still be cellared for a couple of years, although I think if I knew it was in my cellar I would be tempted to drink it before it got too dusty!

By this time we had sampled a fair number of wines and decided on one final stop would be enough, this was at Petersons house who specialize in sparkling wines, I would have to say this was definitely worth a stop as there are several really good sparkling red, white and roses wines from the region, although I seem to be alone in my liking for the occasional sparkling red (even the person serving us admitted she did not drink it) my main issue for commenting on these in detail is the fact that I may have swallowed a little too much of the wine in the previous vineyards and am struggling to recall much detail.

Next stop is going to be Santiago in Chile, followed by Mendoza in Argentina, so I image that wine, vineyards and tastings are going to be a pretty prominent part of the next few blogs as well. I promise that in order to write a better blog from there I will be taking copious notes (at least for the first few vineyards of the day) rather then rely on pictures and my memory as I have found from the last few blogs that these can prove  sketchy at best for some of the less impressive wines, although this is probably acting as a filter so I am only writing about the really good wines we find in all of those places.