(After getting into tussles over editing each other's words, we now have Jamye write in italics and Dave write in standard script)
Winter is in the air in Argentina, and so no more lounging around sidewalk tables till 11pm... people are reading the news and getting pumped up for Politics...lots of demonstrations, strikes...... we were ready to get out of town and saw an add for a trip to Mendoza for 5 days and four nights... travel/lodging/most meals/and a trip to the andes for approx 3oo bucks....
The above photo taken from the bus, with about 10 minutes of grace time hooking up with friends on the south side and this is the tail end of maybe 400 metal workers near the palace of the pres. who assembled in the intersection one block ahead. bus stop, cab stop, car stop, bicycle good. everyone on the bus just kicked their feet up and focused on their walkmen. after ten mins. of wait, we got off, walked three blocks, found a cab and were only ten mins. late, very prompt by local standards. at least two demos per day, frequently in front of the pink house. some of them are, like part demonstrations. for instance, the bank workers union struck for two days in a row. the first day, from9 am to 1 pm, the second day, from noon till three. go figure.
Mendoza is the third largest city in Argentina... about 2 million. Its a twelve hour bus ride from BA, through miles and miles of flat prairie/cow country.... but as you get near the Andes and Mendoza, there are miles and miles of grape farms.... these had a shade cloth over them.... more wine is produced here than any other city in the world....
And as you get nearer to Mendoza, you start seeing more and more olive orchards also....
some of the high tech olive oil dudes are starting to process an ultra triple virgin double hubba hubba quadruple expensive oil wherein the olives hit the press within one hour of harvest in a 48 degree plant, bottled in very dark brown glass, and sold refrigerated. haven't bought any yet.
There are only two cities in the world that still have a system of aqueducts to bring water to folks and Mendoza is one of them. This area is really a desert, but you wouldn't know it with the amount of farms and trees. Every house and business has set hours and days when they can open their gates and get water. The city is known for being clean and tranquil.... businesses still close down for siesta and we saw no garbage or graffiti.... but we also didn't see any great art, or find any good music.... cant have it all i guess....these canals run at maybe a gallon a second in the dry winter, but wait for the spring melt from the andes! every property has a street side valve, allowing this water in to the garden, the extra tank for laundry, car washing, the pool etc. it's probably perfectly potable, but the folks in charge want to be sure that it has it's proper dose of chlorine etc. before it hits the regular water supply.
We did find some great food and wine... thanks to guidance from two texan transplants to Mendoza, Mark and Kristi Addington. We met via the Internet Argentina blogger's world....they took us to their favorite restaurant for an amazing lunch...These desserts were to die for... the three sorbets were lavender, mango and maracuya... with flaming scorched sugar crisp decorations
dining with serious oenophiles was pretty cool. a fine restaurant, to be sure, with two sommeliers and a list of twenty plus pages. two pages of california, three of france, four from patagonia and the rest local
No comments:
Post a Comment