The wine tour was a great success, with us all ending up having a meal togather. The area around Mendoza produces more that 70% of the wine produced in Argentina! The grape that hey seem to be so proud of is Melbec. This is similar to Merlot but they say it is abit more mellow(it all tasted the same to me. We also visited an organic winery where they use other plants such as Walnut trees,Olive trees, Roses and other flowering plants to encourage the birds and insects that either eat the bad pests or encourage the good insects.
The reason that this part of Argentina is able to produce such crops is that they have a bountiful amount of water thanks to their proximity to the Andes(no i this time)and the engineering of the Incas back in the 1500 who were the first to irrigate the area. This water is so plentiful that the town of Mendoza has water channel down the edge of all the roads that they flood to get rid of the debris and dirt in the town centre. I'm also told that these drains also catch drunk tourist who fall into the drains at regular intivals!
The Road works? well on our way back across the Andes we had to negotiate some 90 yes 90 kms of roadworks. I cannot understand why they cannot start at one end and go on from there but no they start at many different points and half finish before moving to another area, this resulted in our bus hurtleing down a steep hill on the wrongside of the road at 50 mph on dirt track overtaking 15 lorries who were slower than us to be confronted with a fully laiden truck coming up the hill at 3mph. We must have saved at least well 2 minutes at best and on a 6 hour journey was it worth it?
So now I'm back in Chile! I've gone through Santiago and ended up in Valpraiso on the Pacific coast. Guess what's here? yes the tall ships have arrived and are in port! So I'll see them again!
Not sure if I'll be back next Friday as I understand there are no UK flights at present! What a shame! I might even miss the election!!!
Chow!
