Mountains, and Gliders and Wine, Oh My!

With one hand on my stomach and the other hand on my eyes, after 24 hours of stomach flu / food poisoning, I waited at Jorge Newbury Airport for our plane to Mendoza with a combination of excitement, and "I sure hope that I don't shit my pants." After many delays, and an aircraft that looked like it was a relic from the 50's (seriously, the overhead bins were taped to the ceiling in some parts and the aircraft was yellow on the inside from the days of smoking on planes), we finally landed in the welcoming little town at the foothills of the Andes.


While I slept the rest of the bug off, Trevor set out to take some pictures of the city, that I posted here for you very much viewing pleasure.


The building aboverwas kitty-corner to our hotel.

Mendoza has really amazing parks. There is one giant, perfectly squre park smack dab in the middle of the city. Four satellite parks, are all semetrically placed three diagonal blogs from the larger central park, and all have neat themes. This one is taken in Plaza Independencia while the sun is setting, and I'm starting to feel a bit better.

The above photo, again taken by Mr. T, had neat metal panels that had rusted over the years to create a quilt of different coloured panels.

A few short hours after waking up the following day (and might I remind you, the first day that I don't feel like I have to monitor the location of bathrooms and not stray farther than 20 meters) we went on our full day wine tour and tasting!

Both the above and previous photos were taken at Alta Vista winery: one of the oldest in the region.

Surprise, it ain't wine, it's sparkling wine! Did you know that the bottles are stored like this for 6-8 months and re rotated (manually) daily to move the sediment int he bottle around? You're paying for the daily turn, baby.

Mr. T tasting some grapes, fresh off the vine before lunch.

Click to see the panaramic picture in a new window. It's worth it! Like I said, the vineyards are really at the foot of the Andes. This was our view at lunch (On. A. Monday!).

Speaking of the Andes... In a moment of exhausion combined with his late afternoon hangover from wine tasting, Trevor instructed me to organize an activity for the following day. I did as I was told, and headed out to the tour office to sign us up for paragliding! I think that at first Mr. T regretted his decision to give me carte blanche.

The highest peak you see, in the picture above, was where we jumped off. It's taken from our base camp.

Here's a quick 30 second video to show you the what it's like to be on a paraglider. I took it just after we ran off the cliff and sat down. The audio is loud wind, so you might want to turn the volume down a bit.

Mind my knees:

Did spot the cow? For real real, not for play play.

I just loved this flower, because is was the *only* colourful thing breaking up the brown/black/grey landscape that day. That and the fact that it grew right out of a pile of rocks.

I love this one! That's Alejandro, our instructor right behind Mr. T.

Well, that's it folks. We leave BsAs tomorrow night.