Mendoza

Mendoza has been another wonderful find.




Maureen and I have become Malbec converts. We have been eating in a great restaurant beside the Plaza Independencia where you can eat a great chicken lunch washed down with a bottle of malbec for AUD18 for 2! We have our favourite table upstairs with large open windows opening out to the plaza. Then we stumble back to our hotel singing "Red red wine/goes to my heeeeaad/make me forgeet/I still need him soooooooooo" and have a nice long siesta.



Today we took the 173 to Maipu and it was a bone shattering trip. A couple of girls were breastfeeding their babies as they do anywhere here. The driver had very heavy feet either full on the accelerator or brake and one hand on the horn. The people standing were alternately piled up near the back seats or joining the driver in the front. Once at Maipu we hired bikes and went tasting wine, olives, olive oil, pickles, many varieties of dulce de leche, chocolate, jams, cheeses, liqueurs (including absinthe) - me gusta! Lunch in a shady garden restaurant was home made spinach ravioli and for dessert, can you guess? A selection of ice cream including malbec and cabernet sauvignon ice creams. Muy rico.



Tomorrow we cross the Andes. We have front seats in the bus and are looking forward to climbing the snow capped mountains we can see here from the distance.



Don't want to come back :(