Into the Andes

With a map in hand, and a Ford from Hertz, we headed off to the Andes...the back way.  The woman at the car rental place cautioned us that the road was very bad, which only added to the excitement of the excursion.  I remember white-knuckling it on the Princeton to Hope highway in the 80s, but that was a pleasure highway in comparison.  Anyway, let me continue with some pictures, okay?

After driving about an hour northwest of Mendoza, we encountered a little teahouse/chalet, but when the door opened I wasn't sure if I'd stepped into the Twilight Zone.  My first thought was wax museum? Except it smelled too good to be fake.

Our half-hour stop and the best ham I ever tasted.

The Chalet/teahouse

Outside the teahouse, this billboard map reassured us that we were on the right track.  We'd invested so much in getting this far that the wiggly part on the map didn't seem too daunting, and so off we went...

It didn't look too bad...just a short 22km jaunt up the mountain

Our "jaunt" took us about an hour and a half.

This was actually on a wide enough part of the road for us the pull over to take pictures.  Can you tell that Julie doesn't like heights?

It's called the "One-Year Road", for the 365 switchbacks

Ta - da!

We weren't the only ones taking in the view near the top. 

Just a little more to go...

The plaque commemorates the anniversary of Charles Darwin, who'd crossed the Andes a hundred and fifty years ago, an amazing feat without roads.

Our plan was to find the petrified forest identified by Darwin, but thin air at our elevation of over 8,000 feet and the slippery incline made it impossible.  So, here's a picture of something that looks like a stump of a petrified tree.

It's pretty desolate at the top.

To the east you see this...

... and to the west, this.

More about our travels on the other side of the mountain, next time.

Love,

Grace

Mendoza Wineries

If you've had any Argentian wines lately, chances are you've tasted a bit of the region we toured on Monday.  The wine, the company, the food, and the backdrop made for an unforgettable day--all in a very good way.  I can't profess to be any kind of wine expert, but the day's generous offerings made me feel like I knew what I was doing.  At least after the first two glasses.  By the end of the day, I'm embarrassed to say that those same generous offerings left me a dry-mouthed, sleepy, and slightly confused.  Was that a Malbec or a Cabernet-Franc?  It was red, wasn't it?  Yes, the wine was amazing, but the biggest impression of the day wasn't the fabulous lunch feast, the concrete wine vats, the reinvention of the Argentinian wine industry-- from a concoction dispensed in bulk from hoses into galleon jugs--to world-class vintages.  No, it was the magnificent backdrop, the Andes Mountains.  Here are a few photos from our day:

Cavas de Crianza, the first stop on the way, was one of the historic vinyards in the Mendoza area.

We happened to be there when the workers were packaging and labelling the wine, a labour-intensive job.

Rather than imparting subtle notes of cherry, leather, and cloves, the original, now unused, concrete wine vats imparted distinctive tar and sulphur flavours, requiring Argentinians to cut their wine with water and ice.  It didn't deter them though as they used to consume 70 litres per person per year in the old days, twice what they do now.

Jack, Julie and John

Our first tasting.

The Pulenta Wineries, stop 2

Here are the four wines.  They were delicious.  I'm sure that one of them was a Malbec, but the portion sizes were not conducive to recalling just what we drank...

Incredible.  Even in the photo.

Much hilarity among our small group of 8, including an ex-pat Argentinian-Canadian and his wife and a young Brazilian couple.  We made a great party.

Our lunch--er, dinner--stop

view from the balcony

Yes, this was the starter of a very large dinner.  The setting was as superb as the meal.

By the time we reached the last stop of the day, Benagas winery, we had a chance to see an old restored building, purchased by a third-generation Argentian vintner, in the late '90s, whose family had lost it during the troubles of the 1970s.

Crossing Down Over the Doldrums and Across the Andes

Getting from Saskatoon to Argentina isn't what I imagined it to be. It was more like waking from a Rip-Van-Winkle sleep, from an evening with Adrian in Toronto, shuffling through the first of the fall red maple leaves, to the next afternoon strolling through Plaza Independencia lined with trees unfurling their limey green leaves. It's taken a day or two to trust this late-baby spring, but I think I'm in love with her.

Adrian in his student digs.  I do believe that he actually cooks!

It was a treat to visit with Ado, even if for a few hours.  Thanks, Adrian, for showing me the pictures of your latest... 

The first glimpse of South America and the South Pacific, not far from Santiago, Chile.  Not quite sure what the big splat on the lower right is...  Anyone want to look it up on the map, Will?

Flying to South America from Canada has its advantages.  Trying to sleep upright in a kitchen chair overnight is compensated by a mere 3-hour time change.  While the result wasn't exactly dewy fresh, and the travel to "the Argentine" not nearly as romantic as it would have been a hundred years ago, the transition was easy.

The view from the window of the Santiago airport might make you think you're in Calgary, but just for a second.  The eerily tall Andes jut up from the flat foreground, a snow-capped wall of mountains.

Once in the air again, the green fields stretch over a Chilean plain.












As the airplane climbs, passengers are required to stay seated during the short 30-minute flight from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina, a distance of about 250 km.  The plane levels off what seems to be far too close to the mountains below.

At its shortest distance we're a mere 5000 ft above the peaks, but still at an elevation of about 28,000 ft.

At one point in the flight over the Andes, you can see the plains of both Argentina and Chile at the same time.

A relieved, happy little cloud on the other side of the mountains.

The area surrounding Mendoza is a desert.

and Mendoza, an oasis.

That's all she wrote for tonight, folks.  More photos about our trip to the vinyards and back into the mountains--this time by car--next time.

Love to all,

Grace

From Fall to Winter to Spring

Now, you may be wondering about these pictures. And why I posted them on a blog. I'm huddled in my corner of the kitchen, looking out my window to the backyard. For any Saskatchewanian reading this, you might guess the mood I'm in at the moment. I should actually post a picture of the sorry state of my backyard, how the summer flowers are dead sticks poking through the snow. But that's too depressing.

The first picture was taken out at Bob and Velma's cabin at Murray Lake two weeks ago, just as summer was beginning to turn to autumn. The second was taken out my front window last week. By my calculations, autumn lasted about 6 days this year. The weatherman says that it'll be up to 16 degrees by Saturday. It's a day late and a dollar short, as my dad might say. I won't be here to find out. John and I are off to Argentina, where the upside-down-ness of the southern hemisphere is pushing the tender spring shoots out of the earth. It's an odd and perplexing thought. How does one get from fall to winter to spring? Stay tuned to this station to find out...

Trying to stay warm...
Grace