Mendoza

After spending a couple of days in Mendoza; and taking a city tour, we have a better sense of this lovely City. With the nearby 17 Districts, probably close to 1 million people, although Mendoza proper about 100 thousand. The city was founded in 1561. The central area of the City, where we are staying, is bustling with people. Wide tree lined streets and many green areas. There are 5 central plazas in the downtown, arranged like a 5 on a die. The Plaza Independencia is quite large and houses an art gallery and a theatre. At night many vendors are set up selling their pottery, jewelery, baskets, etc., quite interesting to be there. The first night we came upon a competition of local folk dancers in their native costumes. One of the other squares, Plaza Espana has beautiful mosaic walls and fountains. As we walk back from dinner, usually around 10 p.m.; things are just getting started. Families are out in force this late at night, even with their young children.

Of the numerous fountains that we have seen in the City, the majority of them do not hold any water. Additionally a lot of the parks have not replaced/ cut down dead trees or replaced broken street lights...we wonder if this is not a cause of the financial woes in this country.  They do however have an extensive irrigation system of ditches everywhere. This area is basically desert like, but getting water from the nearby Andes, is what helps make the many orchards (peaches, apples, cherries, olives, etc.)  and vineyards thrive.  We are told that 70% of Argentina's wine is produced in this area; but due to the scarcity of water, only 4 % of the land area here is cultivated. During the summer months, they also have water restrictions...similar to some places in Canada....can only water your lawn or wash your car on certain days, etc.

Must mention that on Christmas Eve and morning we were able to speak to all of our families on Skype...got to love computers and technology. We were even able to video skype with Rich, Lisa, Christine, Gav and Caitriona in Ontario, Denis, Debbie and their friends Suzanne and Norbert in Phoenix and a friend, Tim Mew in Australia. It was so great hearing everyones' voices and seeing some of you live!  Also around midnight, fireworks went off in the City for about 1/2 hour.

We notice a large presence of police officers here in the City. Different types of police, but all wear flak jackets and have guns. Although  could be unnerving to some,we find it quite assuring. We didn't see this large a presence in Chile. Nothing as scary as in Central America, when we were there 4 years ago.

Cleanliness of the cities and towns we have visited to date in both Chile and Argentina seem to be top of mind. You even see young men cleaning the streets on Sundays and holidays. We even saw one sweeping with a palm frond. We have been told that both in Chile and Argentina that they re-use/recycle whatever they can. An example being wine casks. After aging the wine, they can no longer use the casks, so they use the wood for floors, planters, etc. 

On Christmas Day, we took a walk down the pedestrian walkway. Although not very busy, still a few cafes open. Along our walk we came along a church (must have been God's message to us!) so we went to the Christmas service. Very nice to be with the local people celebrating this special day.  We also took a tour of the City. It was amazing to see the hundreds of Mendozians that were out picnicking in the numerous parks. Seems to be a tradition at Christmas with the middle/lower class.

During our city tour on Christmas Day, we visited the Parque Centrale, which covers 7,000 acres. This park was jam packed with people picnicking and visiting.  Also visited a monument on Cerro  de la Gloria to General San Martin, who liberated Peru, Chile and Argentina from the Spanish. A truly magnificent monument. Then onto the Church of Lourdes in the El Challao district. This church was originally a Spanish colonial church, very simple, but on the inside were thousands of plaques offering up prayers and appeals to the Virgin Mary of Lourdes. While it is not entirely clear, we think there may have been an apparition in this area. Today, a new modern church has been added to accommodate the tens of thousands of pilgrims who still come here to offer up their prayers.....looks like an huge American Evangelical type of church. Also drove through some very upscale neighbourhoods, which of course are all gated communities with guards.   We also did notice during our tour, that the directional signs here in Argentina are the normal Spanish (Norte, Sur, Este and Oeste) vs. the naval signs in Chile; which we referred to in a previous blog.

Will say that it is much easier here in Argentina for currency conversion...basically 3 Argentinian Pesos to the Dollar; while in Chile it was about 500 Chilean Pesos to the Dollar.

Another interesting aspect, is the way they label their wines in Argentina. Each label indicates the wine characteristics, flavours, aromas, temperature that it should be served at and drinkability (when it should be consumed)......and Susan you have been taking all those Sommelier courses!!!

On Boxing Day (not here really.....oh gosh...I missed the sales....and I am such the shopper...not!!), we visited 2 wineries and an olive oil factory in the Lujande de Cuyo valley. The first winery, Bodega Y Cavas Weinert is a larger winery and produces some 800 thousand litres of wine. They had one of the biggest casks in Argentina which was beautifully carved. The second winery, Carmine Granata,  was a family run operation using traditional methods, which only produces 200 thousand litres a year. They only export to the Scandinavian countries. We have been told time and again that the Scandinavian countries are the biggest buyers of Argentinian wines, especially Denmark. The majority of wineries pick their grapes by hand; so very labour intensive. Considering it only rains 3 days a year in the Mendoza area, their irrigation system is very wide spread. At one time, they used to flood the fields, now they use trickle irrigation.  In 2001, when Argentina had its financial crisis, the peso dropped so much that you could buy wine for $1.00. Our guide told us that Argentina is always in a crisis about something!!  For those of you who want to buy a good Malbec, we are told that 1999 was one of the best years in the last 30. Think you might be paying more than $1 for this one!! 

Then went to an olive oil factory called Pasrai. They also dry apricots, tomatoes, peaches and other fruit. This tour was focused on the olive oil production. They also use very traditional methods. It takes 6 kilos of olives to create 1 litre of olive oil.  They only produce extra virgin olive oil. They sell the by product of their press to other manufacturers who produce simple olive oil.

They always say that its a small world. On one of our tours we met a young woman from Wisconsin, who had just climbed Aconcagua, a mountain almost 19,000 feet high. When we started speaking to her about her climb, I told her that there was a young Calgarian woman named Norma Bastides, who was attempting to climb the world's 7 highest peaks in the shortest time period. Well, guess what, she had been on the same climbing expedition, but unfortunately, Norma didn't summit due to dehydration.  We feel so bad for her.

Spent our last morning in Mendoza walking around the City and sitting in a cafe enjoying life passing by. Flew into Buenos Aires around 4 p.m.

Hopefully can get to an internet cafe to update some photos...not something we can do on our small notebook.