Post by Grubb. In 1817, at the beginning of his campaign to liberate Chile and Peru from Spain, San Martin followed a river out of Mendoza, Argentina and led his army into the Andes. Since then that river has been dammed to regulate the amount of water flowing into the acequias for the vineyards. The…
Author: Grubb
The men and their lenses
Post by Grubb. Yesterday we had a guide take us up into the Andes. With us was a couple, Nick and Patricia, from Rio de Janeiro, and a middle aged man, Bjorn, from Norway but now living in Great Britain. The guys had bonded the day before during a wine tour over the fact that…
Thank you, Walter White
Post by Grubb. Whenever Argentinians ask us where we’re from in the US and we say, “New Mexico,” their initial reaction is puzzlement, the usual confusion about whether we’re one of the united states crossing their minds. We attempt to clarify by adding, “Albuquerque.” Blank looks. Then the clincher, the option that always works: “Breaking…
Party gals
Post by Grubb. For three women in our winery group tour, this was their second winery excursion in as many days. They had taken part in a farewell party that concluded a Patagonia/Mendoza tour they had been on and were up till 2 drinking and singing karaoke the night before. The tour had been offered…
Bottoms up!
Post by Grubb. At each winery we stopped at on our tour of the Luján de Cuyo spread of vineyards, the conclusion of the brief inspection of gigantic stainless steel fermentation tanks along with taking in the vinegary odors of the racked oaken wine barrels led to the long table where vintages were sampled. Usually…
Wine with the tennis jock
Post by Grubb. Tooling through the Luján de Cuyo vineyards noted for their Malbec, I was often, when we were seated for wine tasting, given the chair next to the traveling tennis player from Toronto. He and his young wife had flown into Mendoza from Santiago where he had played a match. We didn’t talk…
Squaring Mendoza
Post by Grubb. The downtown center of Mendoza, a twenty-five minute walk from where we’re staying, has a central plaza, Plaza Independencia, and four surrounding plazas equidistantly apart. Square San Martin honors the general who successfully liberated Argentina, Chile, and Peru from Spain. As far as national heroes go, he’s quite the dude. No one…
Watch your step!
Post by Grubb. If my first impression of Bariloche was that it looked like a Patagonian Lake Tahoe, coming into Mendoza reminded me of the San Fernando Valley, a wide spread of low buildings among the irrigated greenery of an arid plain at the foot of the Andes. The acequias lining the streets (where one…
El Piso and the Promenade
Post by Grubb. (Bariloche) On Tuesday we made dinner reservations at El Piso, a narrow, unassuming restaurant along Ave. San Martin in Bariloche. Squeezed behind a tiny coffee shop in a back room that had six small tables, this little restaurant had a five star reputation among traveling gourmets. It didn’t open until eight, so…
Contrasting Conquests
Post by Grubb The westward expansion of Argentina wasn’t finalized until the end of the 19th century when English arbitration got Chile and Argentina to settle on the Andes determining the border between both countries. The Jesuit explorer and friend of the Mapuche natives who suggested the Andes dividing line was Perito Moreno. In honor…
The ever receding trail head
Post by Grubb. Searching my AllTrails app I found a trail labeled “moderate” that was midway between the Aerosilla chair lift and where we’re staying. I downloaded the directions. After we were unloaded from the lift and fortified by a cappuccino (for me) and a smoothie (for Ella), we caught a #20 bus and went…
Truchas!
Post by Grubb. When I was growing up in Los Alamos and pursuing my juvenile delinquency, whenever the cops showed up someone would shout, “Truchas! Truchas!” and we would make like a trout and try to slip away. Here in Patagonia I look for Trucha on the menu. The first time I ordered trout for…
Musical roads
Post by Grubb. Northwest of Bariloche where islets finger off from Lago Nahuel Huapi there is a promontory with a grand hotel called Llao Llao. The view from the forest surrounding the hotel was worth getting off the #20 bus to hike up a dirt road that had a weathered gray pointer with the barely…
Nabbing a seat on the 20
Post by Grubb. The #20 bus travels the Av. Bustillo route that follows the road out of Bariloche up the coast of Nahuel Huapi. Yesterday, after searching for a Sube card and discovering the small kiosk that sold them on a backstreet in Bariloche, we caught #20 bus on another backstreet (still no dogs!). Being…
Los Desaparecidos
Post by Grubb. A black and white photograph of a smiling woman in her early-twenties. It is fifty years ago and she is a student attending a university in Córdoba, the same time I was in college back in the US. She studies and goes to political rallies, just as I did. We were part…