Today is our last day in Mendoza, Argentina. This city is all about wine. They even have fountains in a creepy redish color.
There are vineyards and wineries all around and signs on the sidewalk offering wine specials. Yesterday, Alex and I toured two wineries and an olive oil factory. I had never really given a lot of thought to the way wine is produced, and it was all very interesting. It's a little sad that despite all the explanations of how much goes into each bottle and the tastings, Alex and I still don't actually like wine. I feel like I needed to confess that here. We do love olive oil though, and appreciated trying all the different flavors. I even understand the difference now between Extra Virgin and regular (but I'm not telling).
Mendoza is also big on "adventure sports". We went white water rafting a few days ago. The scenery is beautiful, but the water is straight from the mountain tops so its very cold. There are some hilarious photos of our heroic faces and efforts to keep one another from falling out, but the photos are on CD, Internet cafes don't have machines with drives anymore, and my iPad looked at the plastic disk and started laughing. I will upload them later though.
Before Mendoza, we visited Iguazu Falls. If you are unfamiliar, they are among the worlds most impressive. I might even be so brazen as to say that they were cooler than Niagara because there are a lot of them. The park has two different circuit walks that show different falls and different perspectives. They also have a 50person boat that takes you right up close (second picture). You can't actually see anything though because you are busy being drenched and can't really open your eyes. I was surprised to read that huge waterfalls like these are not a great way of generating electricity. Something about the flow not being consistent enough and air pockets effecting the turbines. Seems a shame.
Iguazu was a mini-trip within the ten days spent in Buenos Aires. I've been to BA a few times, but this was the first trip I had a lot of time to explore and just hangout. The city is very large and probably the only one where our feet and subway were not always sufficient. Taking cabs can make you grumpy because you often get the feeling that they choose the most circuitous route to your destination to better exercise the meter. Makes you almost miss the cities where you had to haggle over the fare before you got in.
Cafes, with their own language for coffee sizes, are ubiquitous. Some are really classic and beautiful. As for restaurants, we would give the mixed reviews. I knew steak is big here, but I had forgotten that they put ham on everything from lasagna to pizza to hamburgers. We've taken to asking now regardless of what we order.
Some neighborhoods still have signage with a typographic style from the turn of the century called "fileteado". Some people who still practice the art form (mostly for tourists) are called "fileteadoras". On my list.
They are very proud of their tango, and Alex and I quickly learned its not the sort of dance you can just sort of "wing". It's nothing like swing and we would really have to take a lesson so as not to step all over each other.
Even though BA is big and busy and frenetic, it has a lot of leafy green spaces that we enjoyed. Renting bikes turned out to be a real hassle but were were successful in Mendoza.
Our next destination, Salta, will be our last in Argentina.
Oh, almost forgot. A couple of the weird mammals we encountered (one of which appears to be pooping a pigeon)..
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