If I have to eat one more cheese and ham sandwich…..?!
So, what a long time since last wrote….. Well as you know we left Buenos Aires in March to get away from the city for the weekend and think about what we wanted to do about teaching. We arrived in Mendoza then on the Saturday morning and by Sunday afternoon we were printing out CV´s to find work there. It is a really nice city, all low rise buildings (on account of the frequent earthquakes) and leafy streets and parks to humidify and shade what is essentially a desert.
Mendoza is also Argentina (and South America’s) principal wine growing region!! With over 300 vineyards in the immediate area. The whole area is irrigated by water from the Andes Mountains which rise over the west of the city; it is a really beautiful sight to see when you’re just walking down the street to the supermarket.
Anyway, we spent the first week harassing a number of English schools for jobs and generally exploring the city and of course sampling the local wine on a day long tour to some of the largest Bodegas (Septima, Catana Zapata and La Rural) and at a couple of tasting classes in the evenings – we can not swill and sniff like a pretentious pro!
That first weekend we headed into the mountains proper, staying in a small cabin in Uspallata at the foot of Aconcagua (the largest mountain outside of the Himalayas). We spent three days walking and horse riding through the mountains which was bliss, chilling out with the local brew in the evenings and watching the sun set behind the mountains! of course, we had to sit down after the horse riding, we couldn’t stand up!
But after three days of relaxing we headed back to Mendoza to do some real work. We spent the next two weeks on an intensive Spanish course at a local language institute, staying with a local family in a home stay. I can’t tell you how nice it was to eat home cooked food again. Don’t get me wrong, the food in Argentina is really good, but, and I hate to say it, it gets a bit boring eating out all the time. and as for lunch, if I had to eat another cheese and ham sandwich I would have killed someone – seriously, does no-one else think, “actually, I think I’ll have chicken today”?!
Tags: Argentina, Mendoza, Travel, Wine
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