Mendoza

On the last full day in Ushuaia we hiked up to the nearby Glacier Marital and then slowly walked back to town with a long stop for lunch at a place called Chez Manu. Saturday was pretty boring as it took us almost all day to fly to Mendoza, but at least I finished the book I was carrying around and napped a bit on the plane. For some reason my ipod reformatted itself so there were no tunes for the day of planes and airport waiting time.

Mendoza is good so far. Our hotel is nice and in a central location, but it seems to make a point of hiring bitchy unhelpful 20-something concierges. And while my job search to be an attorney hasn´t panned out this past fall, I do not intend to submit an application here. I may be bitchy from time to time and I do have some months left as a 20-something, but I`d like to think that I am helpful, at least when I want to be, so that should disqualify me from the running.

My purpose of being here is to eat and drink, and I am proud to say that I am fulfilling my purpose in this short phase of my life. Last night I rang in the New Year with some tasty goat and a great malbec. Today we walked around the deserted city and visited the pretty plazas and huge Parque San Martin. Mendoza is the most Spanish of the cities I´ve been to in Argentina, with its numerous plazas, wide boulevards, and sidewalk cafes.

Back to food. I had wine (borgoña, mini-bottle for U$S 3) with my pepper steak lunch and again (merlot, regular bottle for U$S 7) with my dinner of ngocchi. Tomorrow the plan is to rent a car and visit a few of the region`s wineries.

(The sign is only funny if you hablar a little español)