On to Mendoza

Sunday, November 19, 2023
Mendoza, Mendoza Province, Argentina
So it certainly was an interesting day to land in Mendoza.  Sunday was election day, the run-off election for President.  We knew that it was likely to be very quiet—no protests or rallies but it was an interesting day nonetheless.  Our taxi driver from the airport was a Mario Andretti wannabe and, despite the fact that his car already had one foot in the scrap yard, he got us to our apartment across the street from Plaza España in record time.  When we went out to pick up some supplies at the little grocery store around the corner, we got a shock.  No alcohol sales on Election Day until 9 pm, when the polls close!  Hmmm!  (And we had left wine and beer in the fridge in Córdoba!)  Anyway, we went out to find some lunch and had some empanadas with Coca-Colas over at the beginning of Aristedes Villanueva, the main restaurant and bar strip in Mendoza.  After lunch we went a little farther along Aristedes (as the street is known) and found some people sitting at a restaurant having beer and wine.  Not everyone follows the rules, it seems.  And it’s not like they were hiding it.  So, we decided to take advantage of this good fortune and had a couple of drinks there.
And we decided to come back later for dinner, as this place, La Rosadita, had amazing looking barbeque in their open-air fire-pit.  Well, when we did come back, our eyes got a bit too big for our stomachs, as our one rib and steak was way, way too much food for us to eat and we ended up taking home more than half of it.  As the evening went on, the street got very busy, and well before the polls closed at 9:00, it became clear that Milei, the outsider right wing Libertarian candidate had defeated Massa, the establishment Peronist candidate, and Massa conceded.  Then the celebrations started.  Cars were steaming along the street waving flags and honking and yelling.  It was quite a scene!
In the morning, we went over to see if we could arrange a winery tour for the afternoon, but the place was closed—it happens that Monday was a national holiday.
So we decided to explore the town a bit.  We headed south for a while and saw a few interesting parks and the municipal government buildings, then headed west to the huge Parque San Martin, which lies at the western edge of the city.  We just saw the eastern edge of the park, but it goes on for miles, and it was being very well used on this Holiday Monday by bikers, runners, walkers, rowers and people just lounging in the grass.  This took us back up to Aristedes, and we stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch and our eyes were once again too big for our stomachs and we ended up taking home half of our antipasto tray.  So we had a very good meal of leftovers from 2 meals for dinner. 
Tuesday, we got up and went and booked a tour for Wednesday, a very classy wine-tasting tour to the Uco Valley.  Hope it turns out to be worth the price!  Then we headed out for some more wandering around town, this time heading north from Plaza Independencia and checking out the old train station and Parque Central, which is not very central at all.  The train station was kind of neat, but most of the old trains that are stored there are hidden behind fencing.  Parque Central was nothing special, a fairly big park with a decent pond, but kind of sparse.  We then wandered back down to Plaza Independencia along some of the busy shopping streets.  What a difference walking around on this day, after Sunday (Election Day) and Monday (a National Holiday).  The streets were teeming with people and cars!  (Of course we neglected to take any pics of this!) One thing that we have found odd here is that we have not seen a single church!  They seemed to be everywhere in other cities, but not here.  We had a nice lunch (from the breakfast menu, so not too big) at a restaurant back near Plaza Independencia, after a false start at another place that had run out of bread for our French Toast and Croque Monsieur.   Then home for a nap, some hand laundry (our ground floor placed place has a nice private courtyard with clotheslines) and a quiet afternoon sorting photos. 
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