Argentina is 1/3 the size of the U.S. Argentina was once one of the wealthiest countries in the world (in the top five rankings in the mid to late 19th century. Now it is weaker economy based almost completely on livestock and agriculture. They have some shady politics resulting in many revolutions. A lot of their national government stuff seems a bit behind. Mostly in the way of road systems and social care. The country is broken into provinces (like our states). Most of them have a city named after their province--like Buenos Aires (in bright green) is a city and a province. Mendoza (in purple) is the same--a city and a province. There is an extreme gap in those who have and those who have nothing (in this way similar to the U.S. I guess). Their middle class is dying. They get most of their cheap labor from immigrants from Bolivia--sounding familiar yet. Anyway enough of the politics. Historically: Argentina is very different from many South American countries because it was mostly settled by Europeans and not very influenced by the indigenous people. Translation: most people in Argentina are very light skinned and many are blonde and blue eyed. Most of the Argentinian settlers were Spanish then Italian then Russian and German and so on. Buenos Aires was heavily influenced by a desire to emulate Paris. Mendoza on the other hand is very obviously influenced by Italy. They created these vineyards to look just like Italy in a desert at the foothills of the Andes. Argentina was heavily engineered early on. Buenos Aires was created on a flood plain with no natural trees. All the trees were brought in from overseas or other parts of the country--crazy! Mendoza province has no natural trees. Every single tree growing was planted by man, and has a canal that brings it water--even crazier because there are tons of trees.
So all of the buildings in Buenos Aires that are gorgeous were built in this golden age or as they call it, "Belle Epoch." People built what look like palaces to live in. Now they are hotels or foreign embassies, but they still hold onto their former prestige. These neighborhoods are still the nicest in the city. Babble babble babble--sorry. Just some of that is necessary to appreciate the pictures.
Day 1 was full of crazy travel. I'm going to include our itinerary each day just to give you a peak.
DAY 1 – Monday (April 25) Departure – MIAMI
6:30 leave St. Louis to drive to Memphis to catch flight to Miami
Arrived Miami 4:10
9:40pm Depart MIAMI to Santiago, Chile (I barely slept on this 9.5 hr flight). I watched a movie--not so great, but you got to choose your own. LAN was a great airline.
DAY 2 – Tuesday (April 26) MENDOZA Dress Attire: Travel
7:05am Arrive at Santiago International Airport (connecting City)
10:05am Depart Santiago on LAN CHILE #930
11:00am Flight Arrives to Mendoza, Argentina
Michaela & Jimena will meet & greet group at the airport –transportation to the hotel
Check-in: Park Hyatt Mendoza, Hotel Casino & Spa
Lunch available at your leisure
FREE AFTERNOON TO EXPLORE THE CITY/rest
8:00 pm Meet in the Hotel Lobby to head to meet and greet dinner
Informal Group Dinner at L23 Gran Bar (optional) with Catena family winery employees
We were greeted with sparkling wine and toured the cool winery shop. Then in the courtyard we had tapas, a DJ, bocce ball (complete with a fenced court and referee), fire pits, and tons of wine!
The travel to get to Mendoza was ROUGH. But we made it. They warned us on the bus to watch out for a certain scam in Mendoza: you give a taxi driver a small bill like a 5. They come back to you and say it's ripped and they want a different one. The "ripped" bill is counterfeit, so they get double the money. This happened to us at lunch. The waiter came back saying the $5 bill I gave him was ripped (it wasn't). He at first claimed another girl at our table had given it to him (she hadn't--she'd paid with a 20). I was so angry. I had over paid for his tip, so I took the 5 back and gave him a dollar (so it only cost me an extra dollar). I can't wait to take it to the bank to assure myself it is counterfeit. This put me in a very bad mood after all that travel. I promptly went back to the hotel and took a nap--which helped.
Our dinner/party was awesome that night. The winery was a shop that was in the old governor's mansion in Mendoza city. It was walking distance from our hotel, so we could leave when we were tired.
Happy at lunch prior to the con. We ate at a covered sidewalk cafe--that didn't take credit card. We learned quickly to check in Mendoza after that experience.
The city sign at the park from across our hotel's front patio
Just after walking in and receiving our first glass of sparkling wine at the wine shop. See those chandeliers? They were in every room--there were probably 10 small rooms.
sorry for the fuzziness, but this is the bocce court. It even has a scoreboard.
A view of the courtyard.
Another view of the old mansion/courtyard
This palm tree was right in the middle (remember how I told you every tree has a canal (not a better English word for it) feeding it? This palm was huge--well over 2 stories tall.
These were the coolest fire pits b/c they let the heat out from every direction.
the dj
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