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Published: November 5th 2012
Red red wine
You can not see Ali's strawMendoza is set in a desert some 100 km away from the Andes' snow capped mountains. The city has a water system using the snow melt from the mountains which is channelled down along irrigation channels to the the city, the roads have irrigation gutters which run along both sides of the road which supply the sycamore trees that are planted in the gutters. The sycamore trees to give the streets shade during the hot summer months. The irrigation system also supplies the farrms and vineyards which would not exist without it. Plaza Independenica is the main square this offers green space and fountains to the public one of the fountains spurts red coloured water is this to remind visitors that Mendoza is the main wine producing area in Argentina. There are 4 smaller squares at each corner of the plaza Independencia, plaza Espana has lovely Andalucian tiles covering the stone benches surrounding the square and fountain.
The mountain Aconcagua is 3/5 hours away by bus travelling along the route 7 where the old Trans Andean railway runs along side the route. The bused passed the Uspallata Valley where Brad Pitt filmed Seven Years in Tibet and the ski resort
Irrigation gutters
waters the trees and plants at Los Penitentes where at the time people were going down the smaller ski slopes on mountain bikes. Further along the route 7 the bus passed two bridges. One is called Puente del Inca made from natural stone which has been erroded away by the mineral waters that run beneath the bridge. In the 1940s a former Health Spa used the mineral waters in their spa baths. The bridge is no longer used by the public so as to preserve it from furhter damage. Another bridge was built by the Spainish army when they came across the Andes' from Chile to take the area of Mendoza. You could only use this bridge and route during the summer when the water levels and snow were low. This bridge is also no longer used as it is now is under a national preservation trust to protect it.
The Mountain Aconcagua " Cerro Aconcagua " is 6959 m it is the highest mountian in both north and south America, the Aconcagua faces are surrounded by 5 glaciers. The bus waited while we along with our guide walked a couple of hours along a trail to take the mountain views in. We were
only the two walkers in our group who wore shorts, in the sun it felt quite warm, when the wind blew it did cut through your clothing and pushed you around a bit. On our way back to the bus we meet a group of students who were amazed and laughed at our bare legs, but we showed the true British spirit, smiled and continued along our way back to the bus.
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dean
non-member comment
robbing a bank?
lets start a riot