Mendoza

Mendoza is a beautiful little city. It has tons of little parks in the neighborhoods with fountains and sculptures (some even have some beautiful tilework), wide sidewalks where the cafes set up tables and chairs with umbrellas. Some of my friends has said it reminds them of Barcelona. There are lots of people always sharing time (and of course mate) together. There is a beautiful park within walking distance from the centro with a zoo, a manmade lake, sports facilities and a soccer stadium.
Mendoza also, as most of Argentina, love their siestas. A lot of things close in the afternoon from about 1:30 til 4pm or so and then open for the evening. They have an artisan market set up in the main plaza in the evenings from Thursday through Sunday. It think it is because of the afternoon siestas that they eat their dinner around 10 or 11 at night and the nightlife and dancing really does not start until around 2 am. they party all night long!!
















Shannon, Danielle, Helen and I went on a wine and bike tour. We got a great tour with a horse and carriage ride through the vineyards from the wine company Tapiz (it is sold as Zolo in the states). We drank some good wine and saw some snowy peaks on the horizon. Argentina is slowly becoming a front runner in the wine industry besides being known for their steak/beef and ice cream. It has been a close race for what I have consumed more - ice cream or wine. I even tried and ice cream that had wine in it. Eventhough it sounds pretty scary, it was surprisingly good.















But must I say, my favorite thing to do here in Mendoza was to go to a futbol match. WOW!!! So much fun! So much passion! The crowd sang cheers throughout the match, clapping, whistling and waving of arms.
Godoy Cruz, the home team, played the Tigres from Buenas Aires. It was a high scoring match with Mendoza winning 6 - 2. In the first part of the first half, I think I watched the crowd more than the actual game. Highly entertaining. When goals were scored, square pieces of paper and balloons were tossed into the air, people hugged and kissed. There were 3 older men sitting a few seats down from us. After every goal, they hugged each other, blew a kiss to us and did the ever famous hand and wrist flick. Kids were tossed in the air, cheers, arms waving. It was quite the spectacle. We were definately in the minority being women which was somewhat surprising because they had to pay double the price for the tickets. When I bought the tickets for the four of us, the woman asked me 3 times to make sure they were only for women. But what was really nice was there were a ton of boys with their dads present. The Argentinian pride starts right here at the futbol games.
They sure decorated the stands gracefully with lots of banners. The Tigres had a huge banner which took up the entire stand behind the goal. They unrolled it several times throughout the match.
But the security was intense. At the gates, I got patted down more thoroughly than I do at the airports. There is no alcohol allowed at any of the futbol matches throughout Argentina. They had riot police outside the venue both before and after the game and the riot police came onto the field once the game was finished. I am not sure what has happened in the past but they definately take the security very seriously.






























Dan and Shan learning the ever popoular flick of the wrist.