Tarija

Trip Start Sep 06, 2010
1
18
48
Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Bolivia  ,
Thursday, October 14, 2010

On our first morning on the way to the main square in Tarija we spotted a women selling what look like fried mashed potato balls. We asked her what was in them and she told us that one was rice with meat and the other potato with meat. I couldn't resist trying one and had a potato one which was essentially a deep fried ball of shepherds pie! It was really tasty, so tasty in fact we bought another one each and also tried the rice version. I found out later they are called papas rellenas and can have various fillings including cheese and egg. We went in search of coffee and ended up in a very smart café in Plaza Sucre. There were some old boys sat having coffees and saltenas and we started talking to one who had very good English as he had lived in the States. He introduced us to a younger guy called Gonzalo who apparently worked in the Middle East for the UN. He asked whether we wanted to join him for a drink that evening but we were a bit vague and said we didn’t know what we were doing. We left the boys to their chatting and went to book a tour of the wineries for the following day
Papas Relleanas!
Papas Relleanas!
.

The winery tour started at 10am and we had a guide and a minibus to ourselves. We started with Campos de Solana which according to the blurb 'is a relatively new company but was formed by two families with a long history winemaking. They have burst onto the scene and now have the largest market share of sales in domestic Bolivia. They use the latest in production techniques and also use grapes grown in the highest vineyards in the world which allows them to produce extremely tasty and aromatic wines.’ We had a short tour and then went to the tasting room where I had to choose which wine we were going to sample. I know nothing about wine but went for a Malbec which was very nice although we were a little horrified when they poured us both a full glass which we were expected to drink pretty swiftly, not usually a problem but it was 10.30am!

The second place we went to was Casa Real where again we had a half bottle to drink between the two of us. The third and we thought final place we went to was Casa Vieja  which is the best patero (foot-stamped) wine. Its atmospheric Bodega Casa Vieja is in the village of Concepción, about 30km from Tarija. The guy who showed us around was really sweet but he poured us a huge glass of red and then another of white
Our first glass
Our first glass
. By the time we finihsed the red we were starting to flag and actually ended up leaving some of the white. On the drive back we stopped off at a canyon to take some photos and then we pulled into another winery! We couldn't believe it but somehow we both managed to put away another glass of red. When we got back to the hostel we both had a little lie down and then went for some food to soak up some of the red wine!
The following morning we were confirming our flight with the airline when we spotted the UN guy. He was booking a flight to Santa Cruz for the day after. He said he had been looking for us the previous night in the square but didn't see us (oops!) we ended up going for a coffee with him and he was an interesting guy who had worked in lots of different places around the world. We said our goodbyes and set off for the sirport for our flight to Santa Cruz.
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