Mendoza the beautiful

Another great bus ride in the front two upstairs seats brought us here to Mendoza. In the third seat was a handsome young man who is a chef here in Mendoza...he is trying to learn english and was a great help...especially when the first thing they did on the bus was to play a sort of bingo game. They called out numbers and one had to punch a hole in the number on the card and get all the numbers. For me it was a great way to learn...especially when this fellow kindly called out the numbers in english. I have a long way to go to be able to count to ninety!
We travelled through the pampas...great flat swathes of farm land with wheat, corn and soy the main crops...They can get all 3 crops off in one year if the weather cooperates..this year it is a drought so the wheat has dried up. There are few buildings on the pampas as the cattle and sheep don´t need shelter from this kindly weather and the people live in town and drive out to their fields...much more civilized than at home. Saves all those school buses that drive miles to pick up students.
At night, on the bus, I struggled to sleep but certainly it was better than the plane. Dinner this time was at 9:30 after the movie and then lights out! the moon was almost full...it looked wonderful through the bug splats on the window. In the morning we approached Mendoza and the mountains as the sun rose behind us...the mountains were snowcovered and pink in the early morning sun. Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Western hemisphere rose solemnly in the distance and called to the Swiss mountain man in the seat beside me.
We arrived in Mendoza and were able to book a 4 star hotel...named, of course, Hotel Aconcagua. We are currently exploring this most beautiful city on foot. The streets are lined with magnificent trees that make tunnels over the roads. As this is really a desert area, water from the Andes races through trenches at the foot of the trees and replenishes them. There are many beautiful squares where they actually water the grass with the same water and the fountains are working as well...which was not the case in most of the other places we visited.
Mendoza is known for its wine- mostly reds, Malbec for one. It is obviously quite affluent here and is able to handle tourists. Already one lovely senor approached me and spoke english ..he says he is a writer and has a friend in Quebec. Lovely conversation..especially when he said to congratulate my husband on having such a beautiful wife...how can you beat that! So I told my Swiss senior senor that and he, of course, agrees.
We hope to rent a car and drive to view the great Aconcogua up close and visit a winery Matias´family recommended. What a country! This is the life and temperature is in the 20´s with sun here everyday.
hasta luego!