The hotel Petit is petite in every sense of the word: the lift barely holds one person, while the two single beds in our bijou room are barely large enough to accommodate two normal sized people. I think Christi and I have discovered Lilliput and it’s in Mendoza! On the plus side our tiny room does have a small TV and a private bathroom so it’s bijou luxury. Breakfast is included, which I hope bucks the bijou trend.
Mendoza is surrounded by arid desert terrain, but a massive series of irrigation channels carrying run-off from the Andes criss-cross the city, keeping it green and lush. Mendoza feels clean and fresh and the wide streets and abundant plazas make it an easy place to explore on foot.
The next few days will be dedicated to gastronomic and enologic delights in and around the city. Christi is thrilled. No more deserts and no more mountains – just good old-fashioned culture and civilization with lots of food and wine. Bacchus would be proud. Having said that, our pesky LP guide extols the virtue of exploring the nearby Maipu wine region (some 15 km southeast of Mendoza) by bicycle and Christi thinks this is a grand idea. The local tourist information office supplies more details which we absorb while eating brunch at an outdoor café on Sarmiento Avenue – a pedestrianized street to the east of Independence Plaza. The OJ, croissants, coffee and tea are a delight.
Tired after the sleep-deprived bus ride from La Rioja, we easily succumb to a siesta – as does the rest of Mendoza. Of course when we wake up we’re starving and we head out to dinner at the ridiculously early hour of 7.30 pm. We waste some time wandering through the trendy university/restaurant district along Av Colon/Aristides Villanueva, before settling on a family-run parrilla (grill) called La Barra. Even though we don’t arrive till 8:30 pm, there is only one other couple there. The ambience at La Barra (old world French farmhouse with wooden platters) is fantastic and the matambre de cerde (a huge piece of grilled pork) that Christi and I share is simply delicious. The gastronomic adventures begins well – Christi is very, very happy. Tomorrow we embrace enology.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching tale
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