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Amanda Barnes is a British journalist who makes her own bread and butter by drinking wine around the country. Actually, she spends her bread and butter on wine.

4 New Year’s Resolutions, Mendoza Style

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If you are still struggling to come up with some New Year’s resolutions, then let Mendoza be your inspiration. Here are five New Year’s Resolutions that you can achieve in Mendoza, whether you are here for the whole year or just a week on holiday.

Learn a new language
The age-old resolution that usually starts with a handy app, expensive books and reaching boredom by week 2. Learning a new language is never as easy or fun as to when you are in the place that speaks it. Mendoza is a great destination to learn Spanish, with one of the easiest Argentine accents to understand, willing locals to practice with and affordable intensive courses that usually involve a class of tango or two.Where: Try Green Fields (www.green-fields.com.ar) language institute for an intense course or private tuition; and practice your new lingo at the weekly free meet ups for english-spanish language exchange (Every Tuesday, 9.30pm, at Lerot Resto Bar, Aristides Villanueva 263).

Train on Aconcagua
Climbing Aconocagua might be a bit unrealistic for this season (although who knows about 2015/2016?) but this almighty mountain is ripe to explore all year round. In the winter you might find it a bit more snow-dusted, but you can still spend a long day hiking around the base. Training at this altitude (which starts at over 3000m) is excellent for altitude training and a great fitness workout.
Where: On the road to Chile, you can do daily hikes on your own or speak to Hotel Ayelen (Facebook:Hotel-Ayelen-de-montana) for hiking weekend packages (in season), or Inka for private guides or excursions (www.inka.com.ar).

Master the Art of an asado
Delicious and fun, making an asado is a great social skill to master this year. The art of a great asado is not just getting the fire just right, but rounding up a good group of friends, letting the wine flow abundantly and creating a relaxed few hours of good food, good conversation and good times. You’ll need to get plenty of tasty practice in for this one!
Where: If you want to train through delicious observation, check out Siete Fuegos (http://www.vinesresortandspa.com/wine-dine/siete-fuegos-restaurant/) with seven courses of mouth-watering asado. If you want to learn all the tricks from what meat to buy in Argentina to how to cook it to perfection with a one-on-one asado class, talk to local chef and expat Angelo Gonzalez (Facebook: Chef-Angelo, angelozalez@gmail.com)

Learn to tango
If you are looking for a new skill this year, tango is the ultimate Argentine dance. Sure to revive the romance in any relationship, or attract romance to any singleton, this saucy dance is not easy to learn - which is why it is impressive to watch - but it isn’t as difficult as you think either! Take a few classes and you can nail the basic steps and let intuition help you develop the rest…
Where: If you are in Mendoza try Ana & Luis for English-speaking classes (http://anayluistango.com.ar/en/). If you are in Argentina long enough, don’t miss out on a red-hot rendezvous in Buenos Aires, the world capital of tango.

Amanda Grapepicking ColourAmanda Barnes is a British wine writer living in Argentina, and is a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. With at least one new resolution per week, throughout the year. Usually on a Monday. www.amandabarnes.co.uk

 

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