A car and a public holiday – Day 10

Lujan de Cuyo - the potential visit

You know that things work differently in another country but you still make assumptions.  That was the learning B and I had yesterday.  It was Labour Day and a public holiday.  In NZ and Australia shops mostly stay open and people go about their usual buying activities.  We discovered in Argentina, at least in Mendoza that is not so. 

The car we had rented turned up at the appointed time and I paid the cash and signed the documents then keys were exchanged.  We have the car for three days and it includes a GPS so we can find places.  The car is a VW Gol which is a South American version of the Polo.  There are no bells and whistles in this car.  No electric windows, or remote unlocking.  No cruise control and it is manual.  I assumed that the GPS would have the facility to change language.  It does but only to Portuguese or another version of Spanish. Interesting!!  The challenge was then to input the information into the correct place.  I sort of managed on a trial and error basis.  Such are the challenges of travel. 

Where our hopes of tasting were dashed

Once we had the car we realised we had left a camera and a map in apartment.  Bev wanted to practise unlocking the doors and operating the alarm.  While she did that I sat in the car getting used to it.  As I was sitting there I heard this load thumping noise coming from behind me getting louder and louder.  I couldn’t for a moment figure out where it was coming from until I saw this large old American ute, like the ones you see in movies set in Latin America, come past that had a flat front tyre and the car was literally going about 10 or 15 km/h on the rim of its wheel.  The tray was packed with stuff and these two small people were sitting in this large cab looking unconcerned.  I didn’t have time to locate the camera to take a shot. 

Vines with the Andes n the background

I had planned for a winery visit in Lujan de Cuyo which is one of the better wine areas of Mendoza.  Apparently, it is a bit higher than Maipu so it is a bit cooler during the night. 

The French Gates

I had selected a winery which had a good reputation to call into but when we got there it was closed.  Then we headed to another winery nearby but it too was closed.  By that time we figured that everything was closed so headed back to our apartment and still believing there might be something open we went for a walk to find something.  It also gave us an opportunity to look at the French Gates which form the entrance to the park near us.  The park was full of people and also their litter.  While generally the city is very clean around the park there is rubbish everywhere. 

As we walked through the downtown area everything was shut.  There were a few bars and cafés open but they were not well patronised despite it being a such nice day with very mild summer like temperatures. 

Needless to say, there was not a supermarket or convenience store open.  In fact, about the only thing open were petrol stations. 

The canopied streets of Mendoza

It was interesting driving.  Lanes in the city are not well marked. They are either faded or not there at all.  Many of the city roads are concrete rather than bitumen.  While quiet to ride on compared to our coarse chip surface, it is not well maintained and the quality of the repair is not great if at all.  In the wine area there were a few gravel roads reminiscent of parts of New Zealand even today.  They are dusty and tested the suspension of the car.  I suspect the rattles in the car are testament to the kind of roads it has been on.