A Gol (and flamingos) in the Mist

There was traffic on Ruta 40 this morning – a large herd of goats was crossing the road. It was far more interesting than traffic in LA. At the moment, we are in Malargue, which is a tiny little town about 3 hours south of Mendoza. It is ¨pre-cordillera¨ which means it is desert-ish with the Andes looming on the horizon. We had quite an adventurous day here yesterday.

We first explored the ¨Caverna de las Brujas¨ (Cavern of the Witches) which is a gigantic system of subterranean caves complete with stalagmites and stalactites. Equipped with helmets with headlamps, our guide took us crawling on hands and knees and climbing up steep walls to the very deepest part. There was a wall full of crystals that shined with our lights. And when we all turned off our lights, the crystals continued to reflect the light for just a second...and then it was pitch blackness. I only knew I was blinking when I felt my eyelids move.

Once we were back into the daylight, we hopped into the gol and drove (rally argentina style) and drove an hour further to the largest lake in this part of the desert ¨Laguna de Llancabcelo¨. According to the park rangers logbook, we were the only visitors for the day, so I practiced my stick-shift driving for a little bit (Martin was a great teacher). When we reached the main part of the lake, which is famed as a bird sanctuary, we were a little disappointed to see only a few swans. It was beautiful though, a deep blue with the darkness of the Andes behind it. As we were leaving, we stopped on the side of the road and walked though a cattle pasture to a lagoon on a smaller part of the lake. We saw more white swans, black-necked swans and black ducks. All of a sudden, we saw a flock of birds flying overhead. They looked pink which I figured was from the sunset. But as they flew closer, they appeared bigger, and pinker, and we realized they were flamingos!!!!! They flew right in front of us and noisily landed on the lake. It was amazing. As we drove away, we saw one of the best sunsets we have seen here (probably in honor of mother´s day).

Before arriving in Malargue, we a day in San Rafael, a smaller city a little to the north. In order to blend in with the local folks we rented bikes (San Rafael has the largest number of bicyclists in the country). We road a little ways out of town intending to visit some wineries, but ended up visiting an olive oil factory instead. It was neat, and tasty!

Truth be told, it was better we visited the olive oil factory in San Rafael because the previous day, we drank a lot of wine. We spent the day in the vineyards of Mendoza visiting both large and small wineries. Although they don´t let you taste as many different wines as they do at the California wineries, you do get a tour of their facilities including the machines that mash up the grapes, the tanks they filter and ferment the wine in, the gigantic wooden barrels they store the wine in, and lastly, the bottling, corking and labeling area. We should have taken better notes. Our two favorites were a small artesenal winery which only makes 250 bottles per batch, and a larger winery (who´s wine we buy from the market occasionally) that makes thousands of bottles a day. We also stopped by a family-run place that makes home-made chocolates and liquors (including dulce de leche). This was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

There are lots of great photos!!

http://picasaweb.google.es/martinswims/MendozaMalargue