Mendoza

Quite a nice city, It was rebuild after an earthquake wiped it off the map and it has very nice wide streets (so you can avoid the falling rubble when the next big one hits).

Lying in my bunk having a quick rest after I arrived I felt my second earthquake of the trip. After pretty much all the places I visited in Peru were destroyed by the earthquake there I'm starting to be quite glad there's only 6 weeks left!

Anyway, Mendoza is the big wine growing region of the country, so it's off on another wine tour.

Can you tell that it's winter time? It's fricking freezing.


Here we can see some oldie world wine making equipment. The grapes would be put into the cow skin and then some slaves would then jump up on down on them to squeeze out the juice. The big earthenware pots would the be used to ferment the wine. Apparently the taste would approximate a good vinegar.



Here we see some nice wines stored in French oak barrels



Apparently the combination of the completion of the railway link to Buenos Aires and a wave of immigration from France, Italy an Spain led to a massive modernisation of the wine industry and a massive jump in quality.

And the production of lots of lovely wine:



Catching a bus to Bariloche tonight, leave at 8pm and get in at 1:30pm - a nice quick 17 hours or so...