Mendoza Nov 23 - 25

Mendoza has been a really pleasant stòp, and an ideal introduction to Argentina. Mendoza is set out in a grid format, with all the streets lined with towering sycamores. They provide its residents with plenty of shade to escape the hot sun - life here would veer towards being unbearable otherwise.

The trees are irrigated using open water channels whereby water is taken from the rivers which flow off the Andes, is then diverted through all the channels, and is collected at the end and put back in to the river. It was a technique created by the Incans, enabling an otherwise desert location to grow crops and the aforementioned trees.

Mendoza also has a number of beautiful plazas (large open squares) which the locals enjoying sitting around talking in, smooching in, and playing chess in.

It is impossible to to notice the high percentage of teenagers who have mullets (approximately 100%). It is perhaps inappropriate for me, in particular, to comment on hair trends, but this one really is a shocker (no pun intended). The straggly mullet is accompanied by a huge swathe of a fringe which waves well down across the eyes, and I am quite sure that if the trend continues, in ten years time it will be compulsory to cut two holes in order to provide vision. We have decided that the collective noun should indeed be ´a Mendoza of mullets´.

Santiago and Mendoza have both provided evidence of elaborate displays at traffic lights. Forget your evening paper, some flowers, or a dude doing window washing - on this continent that just doesnt cut the mustard. In Mendoza I have seen a troupe of three jugglers run in to the middle of the road and starting hurling Indian clubs into the air, but even this was nothing compared to Santiago. Here, two burly blokes stand in the street, accompanied by a female acrobat. She commences by doing a massive back somersault many meters into the air, and continues with standing on one foot on the man´s upstretched hand. The display finishes with a final flourish being a twist culminating with a horizontal drop into the mens cradling arms, and the performance is over.





Speaking of traffic, we watched with amusement on Saturday night as a stag party came past. The groom to be was chained in to the back of a ute - standing, and totally naked. Town was absolutely packed, and the locals loved every minute of it. Whether it´s a tradition or not remains to be seen - we´ll have to keep an eye out next Saturday. And hope its a hen´s do instead !

Yesterday we went for a great walk in the Aconcagua National Park. As mentioned earlier, it is the highest mountain in the Americas - indeed it is the highest peak outside Asia. Ariel, our host, went so far as to describe it as the third highest mountain in the world, but I had neither the heart nor the exact answer at the time, to correct him. I believe it is actually around 150th or so.

The walk took us to some lagoons which provided a great view of the mountain, although it is not overly spectacular due it being reasonably round-topped.





Some of the surrounding peaks, though a lot less lofty, are stunning. We also stopped at Puente del Inca which features a natural stone bridge with thermal springs incorporated into its walls. With many centuries of minerals pouring over them, they are an incredible brown colour. We had our togs ready as we had been told by the guidebook to expect an ¨"unforgettable dip" but unfortunately it had been closed for a year or two.

After our endeavours, we decided a slap-up meal was in order, and we went to La Barra which is one of the cities better eateries. The matambre (fillet) de cerdo was perhaps the best pork I have ever tasted - the light skin salted and a modicum of garlic - and then barbequed to absolute perfection. I refused the temptation to horrify the cocinero (chef) who was also the owner/host by asking him for some apple sauce. This is meat that needs no accompaniament at all. We ate like kings, drunk excellent wine, and paid around NZ$70 each. Not as cheap as many places here, but for a top notch restaurant, this would have been double the price in Wellington.

Things here actually aren´t quite as cheap as you´d expect - yes, they are less than NZ, but the whole equation has had the edge taken off it over the last few months with our dollar losing around a third of its value. Consequently although things are reasonably inexpensive, we are not finding many examples of jaw-dropping bargains.

On our final day in Mendoza, Craig and I did a tour of three vineyards. They varied greatly - the first an organic vineyard, the second a small boutique vineyard, and the third was of factory proportions a la Montana or Villa Maria. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the afternoon was the storm that descended on the region. Where we were, there was hail the size of cherry tomatoes, but when we arrived at the third vineyard we were astounded at the size of some of the hail that had fallen. Check out the size of this puppy !

The severe hail storm had caused loads of leaves and small branches to break off the myriad trees, but its not uncommon and the locals were straight out into the street to sweep it all up and into bags to be collected by the council. Some of the streets had temporarily been converted into rivers, and Ariel chuckled as he explained to us that back in Mendoza there would be people inadvertently falling into the irrigation channels - unable to identify them from any other piece of flooded road. As it turned out, Mendoza had escaped with barely a drop of rain - hard to believe with hailstones the size of this one falling only 15 km away !

And so Mendoza draws to a close, and at 8pm we are on the overnight bus to Bariloche - a mere 17 hours away. We are assured by other travellers its actually a surprisingly enjoyable experience - one would hope so given the cost - around NZ$130. Admittedly that is for ´Premium Economy´- quite what that entails remains to be seen !