Mendoza, Argentina is just on the east side of the Andes mountains and is situated in a fertile desert valley that is the largest wine producing area of Argentina and has made Argentina the fifth largest wine producer in the world. As well as vineyards there are vast olive, fruit and vegetable farms in the area. Peaches and field tomato harvest is in full swing and while traveling on buses we would meet or pass semi-trailers loaded with crates of fresh picked produce. Road side stands are full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Loreen and I spent a couple of days looking at the plazas, the parks and the city in general. The city was laid out with a central plaza, which is four city blocks in size and then has four smaller plazas situated equal distance from the main plaza. There is also a huge park that includes a two kilometer long man made rowing lake and a world class soccer stadium.
Mendoza Rowing Club |
Our daughter Keenan, joined us in Mendoza and will complete the balance of our trip with us. She was in the process of moving back to Alberta from London and as I was in a place where I was considering canceling the balance of our trip she opted to come and act as our translator.
Keenan, the translator |
After she joined us we took an independent bicycle winery tour, but we got caught up in just biking through the countryside and only made it to one winery and lunch. I am amazed by the irrigation systems. It is all flood irrigation through an intricate canal system. The Mendoza river has been completely drained and switched to canals. They are running water as far as 25 kilometers in some places. When the Spanish settled the area they found irrigation canals that had been built by the Incas and expanded the system to what it is today.
Biking in Argentina |
We took our last winery tour in South America out of Mendoza, a half day tour that featured one mediocre winery, a very modern upscale winery (Vista Andes), with wines worth buying if you find them, and an olive oil farm and factory. Wineries are wineries, some just a lot better than others, but the olive oil farm was a new experience for us. Olives are hand selected and then are crushed, pits and all, in a large stone tub, by large stone grinding wheels. Then the mash goes through a hydraulic press to extract the oil, then the oil is filtered and on into the bottling room.
Cows grazing in the Olive Trees |
The wineries are well established and some produce very good wines, mostly for export to Europe and the US. The Argentinian wine industry crashed in the 1970's as people switched to beer and coco-cola like products and just now is in a resurgence due to producing an exportable product that is in demand. Then off to San Raphael, a small farm/tourist community about a three hour bus ride south of Mendoza. Although our main goal here was to visit a high school friend of Keenan's, Sam Mottishaw, who spends his winter here, we managed, through Sam's help to have a really enjoyable experience. Sam helped us move from a less than totally fine hostel to a small hotel in the country and took us to a lovely ice cream parlor. This is the kind where they make the ice cream in house and have 26 flavors, yum-yum. Then to a friends home (the friend has duel Argentinian/Canadian citizenship and works in Canada part of the year) for a true Argentinian asado (meat cooked on an outside grill). The Argentinian asados are a time to visit friends and family, drink, debate politics and generally spend the better part of a day or night or both just having a good time. I learned a lot about the Argentinian political makeup during the evening from various viewpoints, a Canadian that lives there, an Argentinian that also has Canadian citizenship and has lived about half and half between the countries and a fourth year university student who has never been out of Argentina, what a debate when they discussed in English.
The Asado Grill |
We also sampled the Argentinian drink fernat, which is mixed with lots of ice and coco-cola and still tastes like a bit of oil sands in your mouth. It has a high alcohol content and could sneak up on you pretty quick. I manned up and had the mandatory one glass full and then went back to a nice mild beer.
Sam, in the beard, and his friends |
The next day we took the bus out to the main tourist attraction, Valle Grande, located in the Canon del Atuel. The Canon del Atuel is a rugged, rocky valley similar to the Grand Canyon. The upper water of the Rio Atuel has been dammed off for hydro production, but below the dams, Valle Grande has a number of small tour operators that provide rafting, Cool River (float tubing) and kayaking. While Loreen and Keenan mastered the wild Rio Atuel on float tubes, I stayed ashore as the designated photographer. Actually I just didn't push myself out of my comfort zone that day, I am really proud of the girls though.
The girls and Cool River |
A day of rest at the hotel pool and then back on the bus in the morning for a nine hour trip from San Raphael-Mendoza-Santiago, Chile.
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