Last week, Cecilia put us in touch with Graciela, a friend of a friend who lives in Mendoza. When we connected, she offered to show us around Mendoza or do wherever we wanted to go. We had already booked lunch at a winery for Saturday, but we hadn’t organized a means of getting there. Graciela said she would be happy to do that, so we added her to our lunch reservation and it was all set.

She wasn’t coming for us until 11 am Saturday, so we went out for breakfast and did some wandering. We were really lucky with the weather. In Mendoza it starts off cool and cools off again at night, but the late morning and afternoon is when it gets nice and warm. The sun shone on us all week and the sky was clear blue.

Graciela took us on a little tour, and then we were off. We were going to the bodega of Nieto Senetiner, which is a wine Venetia and I both like, in the Lujan de Cuyo area. This is the wine region that is closest to Mendoza itself, and it only took us about half an hour to get there.

The tour was interesting, but the best part was the setting of the bodega itself. I’m adding some photos showing the rows of vines with the Andes in the background. It was spectacular.

The lunch was so-o-o-o good! We all chose salmon, which was done on the asado and was mouth watering.

Before we left, Venetia and Graciela sat chatting in front of the bodega, while I made the sketch below. Graciela spoke no English, and Venetia said she hadn’t spoken that much Spanish in months!

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When we came back to the city, Graciela took us to the huge Parque San Martin, which was all lovely but had two highlights.

The first was the Fountain of the Continents, a huge bronze fountain with depictions of four continents, beautiful sculptures and water coming in all directions. The water in the pool around it was red to represent the wine, a fun feature of the Wine Harvest time in Mendoza.

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But for me the highlight of the day was a huge monument high up above the city called Cerro de la Gloria (the Hill of Glory). It commemorates the crossing of the Andes by General San Martin and his army, from Chile to Argentina. They went on to liberate Argentina from Spain, earning San Martin his sobriquet of El Libertador. He is Argentina’s greatest hero.

The monument itself is quite spectacular, with bronze carvings around the sides representing the various groups of people who went, and donkeys with their eyes blindfolded so that they couldn’t see over the edge. Mind boggling. As we walked around the monument, my mind also went to the event itself. Cecilia and I drove on those high mountain roads, and that was hair raising enough, but doing it with no roads at all doesn’t bear thinking about. I found myself quite verklempt!

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It was another great day, and I was more than ready for an early night!