Mendoza - love it!

Well it's been awhile it seems since I wrote the blog! We had a couple of long days driving thru desert/plains, not a lot to look at so nothing to write about.  Then we arrived in Mendoza Sunday afternoon and met up with our friend Tom.

Another spot near a river for the night

Mixed some goat cheese we bought along the way with an olive mix - very yummy on crackers :) 

Saw lots of these odd shrines painted in red with lots of red flags

We had to get around a mountain and the road was pretty curvy

View from the top of the river snaking thru the valley

Snowy mountain tops

Dips in the road are actually there for water to flow across during the rainy season

This was another very large shrine. The shrine is covered with a table and benches to sit on when visiting.

The actual shrine

Large glaciers in the mountains, but looking grey in the sunlight

Tom just moved into a new place for his last month here. Nice 1 bedroom suite for about $390/m including power, wifi, and nice and close to the tram. Our first night was of course catching up from not seeing each other for a year, so along with that comes Argentinian wine and beer. We know Tom and Annette from Honduras where they also have a house. So the next day I was a little slow, so Dwayne and Tom went golfing while I tried to get rid of my headache!!

The guys are trying to change the fridge door so it opens on the right side - but couldn't figure it out - not as simple as it should be 

So guess it stays as it was :)

In the afternoon we head to Mendoza centre on the tram. This city is very pretty, it has trees lining both sides of the streets so we are always walking in the shade. They have bicycle lanes here and lots of parks. Tom had an appointment to be at downtown so he went and we continued wondering around. It was a very hot day!! 35C and very little breeze. Not use to this heat, but glad there are lots of trees to find shade. There is even a Walmart here!!

Along the sides of the road are canals that are used to water the trees. 

Water fountain in their central park

Walking along the pedestrian walkway with lots of sidewalk cafes 

That's the tram we used to get around

Once we met up with Tom again he wanted to treat us to a steak lunch, but while he was at his appt we ended up stopping for a hotdog, so we weren't really hungry, so Dwayne and I split the steak and fries. The steak was really good and the price for that was 450AP ($10C).

Dwayne was a little thirsty!! LOL! Actually a litre of beer split between the 3 of us

After that we headed back to Tom's place. We went into Vanna and had a nap and Tom went into his place. Since we had such a late lunch there was no need for dinner. We got back together for a couple of hours and then back to Vanna to sleep.  We have her parked outside on the side street and have had no problems. But it is hot in there at night with only the exhaust fan and small fan to try and keep us cool.

Next day we had dental appointments that Tom had lined up for us. So we walked over to his office. We only needed cleanings but since we are not going to Honduras to see our regular dentist we needed to get it done since it's been a year. The dentist was good, spoke very little English but then again when he has his instruments in my mouth there isn't much we need to talk about anyways! LOL!! The appointment didn't take very long but it is way more expensive here then in Honduras!! We paid $77C here each while in Honduras it only costs us $25C each.  Oh well next year we'll be back in Honduras to get it done again.

Then it was off to the grocery store to pick up stuff for lunch and back on the tram to the apartment. After lunch we head back on the tram to go on a free wine tour that is located at the end of the line.  Interesting tour thru the different areas of wine fermination :)  A little smelly but ok.  Then we got to taste a white wine and also a red malbec. I still prefer the white wine, nice and cool and crisp.  This winery makes 12 million bottles a year and only export 5% of it. Guess they have lots of customers right here in Argentina. The winery has been operating since 1898.

The winery we visited

A couple of different vehicles in the parking lot

Inside the winery there are of course lots of wine choices to be made

Think I found mine 😂😂

Or you could buy a wine from 1956 for $1100C!! It does come in a case, with 2 glasses, opener and a booklet ;)

In the winery museum 

Oak storage units

This is the largest oak barrel! Think my camera was a little blurry from the smell of wine LOL!!

Delivery of grapes are just starting this week 

Dumping the grapes into the huge containers which then augers the grapes to another container to separate grapes from stems

Once we finished that we get back on the tram and we take it back downtown to walk around a little more! When we got home we had walked 8.5km - think we pooped out Tom 😄 He had to have a quick nap before I started making jambalaya for dinner. Guess it will be a late dinner :)

In the morning after breakfast we drive to Cerro de la Gloria to get a good view of the city.  This is where we can see how many trees there are in Mendoza.

Lots of plaques on the wall and it seems to be good luck to rub the nose on some of the plaques! They get a little shiny after awhile!

Another nice plaque

Army of the Andes monument on top of Glory Hill (Cerro de la Gloria) - tribute to Gen. San Martin and his men for freeing Chile from Spanish rule in 1817

View of Mendoza

This guy has quite the setup on his old 200cc motorbike! on the other side he even has a fire extinguisher ziptied on!

Couldn't figure out what country he's from 

Then it was time to stock up at the grocery store before heading out of town, but first we look for a pizza place for lunch.  Found one but when we got to it it is only for take out. So once we got our pizza we brought out one chair from Vanna and a table and ate outside the pizza place using their 2 chairs that people would sit in waiting to pickup their pizza, we had a pizza picnic! LOL!!!

Pizza was good :) 

Once at the grocery store we said our goodbyes to Tom as he was going to go to a smaller store to pick up what he needed.  Had a fun visit and a good tour of the city. We'll meet up again in Calgary this summer 😁 Mendoza is a really nice city and easy to get around. Might have to come back here sometime and rent a place for a couple months :)


***** Just before posting this blog while driving on the highway going south we get stopped by the police and Dwayne gets a ticket for 1020AP (22C) for driving with FLIPFLOPS!!! an actual paper ticket that has to be paid at the bank!***************