Plazas
Independencia
Copious
Leaving Santiago we left Chile for the final time on the trip - so sadly that is one country that's done and dusted.
We drove high into the Andes experiencing stunning views that sadly I could not replicate with photos. Ithaca had to traverse up a 23 curve switchback before reaching the top of the mountain pass. Mendoza beckoned and we drew towards the city.
Arriving at Mendoza late on 5th Jan meant we were landed in a hive of activity. The 6th Jan (the Epiphany) is a major holiday among locals and the streets were thronged with people and small kids. It was 11pm before any of us got food, oddly enough this is a typical Argentine time to have your main meal. Sadly after 7 weeks we came across our first terrible Pisco sour, Tony was not impressed with the amount of egg white he got and the lack of Pisco! We were all shocked at how little kids were still roaming streets (with their parents mind!) at like 2am. It is completely normal for kids to stay up late and even be eating at 11pm - this is a custom I just cannot get my head around at all. We find that a lot of us are silently tutting at parents when we see this. Worlds apart!
On our first night we headed to La Reserva which is a small gay bar, which usually hosts a mixed crowd due to claims of an 'outrageous' drag show. The bar had a dance pole that many of our group tried their hand at. Unfortunately the drag show was severely overhyped, or maybe our mediocre Spanish just didn't cut the mustard and stuff got lost in translation. However a fab night was had regardless. Sue and Duncan were called up on stage, paired off with some locals and made participate in a dance off. Unfortunately for Sue the competition seemed to be tipped in Duncan's favour as Gangham Style serendipitously was the chosen song. Seeing as this is Dunc's trademark song, she didn't stand a chance, and he won the bottle of bubbly!
Now for a bit of general city info: Mendoza was levelled by an earthquake in 1861. In the rebuilding of the city it was decided that another earthquake should be anticipated. For that reason, the city has really wide avenues (for rubble to fall into) and numerous spacious plazas (evacuation points).
Plaza Independencia is the largest plaza and has craft fare and music every Sunday. Off this large plaza are four smaller plazas two blocks from each corner. Plaza Espana was lined with beautiful mosaic tiles and was my favourite, Plaza Italia and Plaza Chile were both nice also.
Heather and myself did a bit of a trek around the Parque General San Martin which is 420 hectares; obviously we barely made a dent in that figure. We did notice many crazy people in the park doing exercise and yoga in the extreme heat - complete nutters each and every one of them.
Mendoza is also conveniently located in the middle of Argentina's best vineyards. We visited three: Don Arturo, Florio, Vistandes, and an olive oil production facility, Pasrai. Copious amounts of wines were tasted. My least favourite venue was Florio as they only dealt in dessert wines and the majority of those were just too sweet for even my tastes - yuck! The olive tour was added as we knew that after frequenting three wineries we would definitely need food and what better than homemade bread, olive oil, and tapenade to help with soakage. Oh it is a hard life that we lead!!
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