02/08/2010, Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is the capital city of the province of Mendoza, Argentina. It is in the north central part of Argentina. It is situated in a rain "shadow" area, just east of the Andes. The Andes take the moisture from the air as it blows across the mountains, depositing rain and snow in the mountains. The air when it arrives on the eastern side of the Andes, where Mendoza is located, has relatively little moisture left in it. Thus, Mendoza does not get a lot of rain and has very low relative humidity. What a contrast for us from last week when we were in the Amazon. The temperatures are about the same (mid to upper 80s), just no humidity here.
The city of Mendoza has a population of about 120,000 people and the metropolitan area has a population of about 850,000. The city strongly reminds us of Sacramento, California with the streets being lined with large, broad trees casting great shadows onto the sidewalks and offering wonderful shade from the sun. Sacramento boasts that it has more trees per person than any other city in the US. However, just looking around here in Mendoza, we would have to say that Mendoza has even more trees per person than Sacramento.
What we saw of the city this morning walking around, we really enjoyed. Their stores and shops are very modern and they seem to have every type of store you could imagine. The standard of living in Mendoza seems to be the highest we have seen in the Latin American countries we have visited so far. There are lots of cars, fewer taxis, the infrastructure (electricity, water, sewage, communications and roads) is very good and in very good repair. There is even a beautiful freeway here, which we took to get to the vineyard, where we are now staying.
If you have been to northern California, just imagine Sacramento being in the middle of Napa - Sonoma valley with the Sierra Mountain just a few miles away and you would have a reasonable view of what we are seeing.
We have a very nice suite in a vineyard that is about 20 km south of Mendoza, called Finca Adalgisa. Here they grow Malbec grapes and bottle their wine. Each evening starting at 1800 they serve tapas and offer a tasting of their wine (for free!) so we are looking forward to enjoying their wine this evening. Mendoza is the heart of Argentina's Malbec country.
The grounds are well manicured and beautiful, the service is very good and the staff is exceptionally friendly. Being here is such a radical difference from being in the Amazon where our accommodations were spartan (i.e., no running water, no electricity, latrines for our bathroom, mosquito netting over each of our small beds a necessity, high humidity, etc, etc, etc.). I feel a little guilty being surrounded in such luxury here in Finca Adalgisa.
We tasted the wines this evening. What a wonderful treat! MM who enjoys a little taste now and then and had two Wonderful glasses and enjoyed every drop! Yummm! The tapas were lovely as well. What a calm and restful day we had - what a lovely time we have to look forward to in the next few days. We will post picture of this idyllic place tomorrow.
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02/07/2010, Mendoza, Argentina
Yesterday afternoon we spent our last day in Lima taking a 4-hour tour bus ride of Lima. This was something that Mary Margaret had wanted to do going back to when we were here last September. The tour was very nice and its highlight was the Church of San Francisco. Below this church they have the catacombs that are filled with the bones of 25,000 people. Joe Kennedy and I traipsed over these hallowed grounds last September but Mary Margaret never got the chance to see the catacombs. Because I had taken lots of photos last September I will refer you to the blogs back then to see the remarkable shots I took.
While on our way to the catacombs we stopped at the Plaza de Armas, which contains a large fountain. The significance of this fountain is that on July 27 of each year, they replace the water with Pisco Sours. This is the national drink of Peru. It is alcoholic and reminds me of a daiquiri. The Pisco Sour was invented in a bar near the park and the Peruvians take this drink very seriously. Anyway, large lines of people form on July 27 as people wait their turn to get their free Pisco Sour by dipping their glass into the fountain. The photo attached to this blog is of Mary Margaret and I in front of this fountain.
Late last night we checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the airport. Our flight to Santiago, Chile, which connects to Mendoza, Argentina, was scheduled to leave at 0055 in the morning. The flight was nice and was only a few hours but given the time change, we arrived at 0600. The bad thing was that our connecting flight to Mendoza was not scheduled to leave until 1345. This meant that we had a layover in the airport of over 7 hours! At one time we thought about actually going through customs and then exploring the city or even getting an airport hotel to sack out for a few hours. However, Chile charges $130 per person for a visa if you are from the US. They do this because the US charges Chileans that much to get a US visa. Thus, it would have cost us $260 just for the pleasure of wondering around town for a few hours or getting a hotel room. We decided to pass on the visa and just hung out at the airport. Not our favorite pastime but what can you do?
After sitting in the airport for 7 hours we finally boarded our plane and flew the 45-minute flight to Mendoza. Going through emigration and customs was a breeze and a short taxi ride put us in our hotel.
The climate here reminds us the Sacramento, California area with summer temperatures averaging between 85 and 90 degrees and very low humidity. It felt great when we left the airport. The skies were sunny and bright with no clouds. The Andes rise sharply near by to round out a beautiful view.
Tomorrow we go to the vineyard Finca Adalgisa where we will be staying the next four days. It is in the heart of Malbec wine country so we are really looking forward to it.
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Here is the last of the videos showing the "traditional" dances of Peru. This one was called the dance of the Virgin Mary. While we were watching it we could not understand why they named it the way they did. However, Mary Margaret had the answer. She said when the dance started, all of the ladies were virgins and they all were named Mary!
Now I know I joke about the skimpy costumes the ladies were wearing in such a conservative country as Peru, but I must say that the evening was very enjoyable and we had a wonderful time. If you are every in Lima, this is something you need to see.
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Here is another of the traditional dances we saw.
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Here is the last of the videos I have showing the different dances the locals of lima did last night. Why is it that the women, no matter where in the world you are, can dance so gracefully and are such a joy to watch while we old fart men just pale in comparison? I could have done what this old fellow was doing but I would be too embarrassed to do it!
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