A Good Friday

Well, I didn´t quite manage an update before I left Patagonia....here´s what I did write though....

I wanted to spend time more exploring Patagonia, learning about it, but because I am so nosey I keep getting distracted when I meet other visitors so much of my time and thought has been focussed on people I´ve met. Having said that it is hard to get out into "el campo" en solo and sometimes group excersions are a bit tedious. But the countryside is what Patagonia is all about and I am sorry not to have spent more time there. (Pic from Caña Colihue woodland in Puerto Blest, nr Bariloche)

It would be easy to pack back around Patagonia and only see the towns. But it´s the miles and miles (900,000 km² actually) of vast emptiness that makes Patagonian what it is. The population is only 1.7 million which when compared to the UK´s 218,595 km² and 58 million people, makes Lewis looks densely populated. (Pic of glacial river from Valdivian forest near Puerto Blest)

Anyway, here´s what I have been up to.........

Last Saturday I shared the morning with a management consultant from Chicago. Although we worked the same hours and had similar backgrounds and skill sets our ages and salaries were rather different. Unfortunately neither were in my favour. But then he worked for the best management consultancy on the planet. Charge out rates 5 times that of Booz Allan and Andersons...10 times the value apparently. One night he´s staying in the Dorchester and the next he is digging a hole as a restroom on the camp site on his overland camping tour. I didn´t get chance to mention I work for the world´s leading supplier of integrated solutions.

I´ve met a couple of other management consultants about my age but far more investment bankers. Mostly girls who´ve quit once they´ve got their bonus...... fed up with working in the City but armed with a plane ticket and some cash. The single en suite rooms in hostels seem to fill up their single rooms quickly with such people who have the money to stay in a hotel but the desire to stay in a hostel and meet other people. I´ve also chatted to lots of women in their 50s, 60s andone who´s in her 70s who are travelling solo. Everyone has a story and it´s usually interesting to hear it.

Before I left Bariloche I went on a "canopy tour" joining up with a friendly Israeli family. Apparently a canopy tour (pictured) constitutes for ecotourism...........I assume it is because one travels by the power of gravity through a forest canopy (on a zip wire) offering the chance to view the trees from above. I´ll overlook the small matter of 50 miles worth of fuel to get to the start point and the noise made by the wires which would scare any winged/legged living thing away. The wires were up to 70m off the ground, and the descent at the end was by rope. I am so glad they didn´t tell me that before we started. I was more amazed that the guides´ child, aged 3.5 years went on some of the 200m runs on his own, and did the descent on the rope alone. The descent depended on the descendant´s (?) ability to control the rope as per abseiling...a glove-behind-back operation. Kiddy managed absolutely fine on his own. But he is only three and a half!!! Ironically he was much better at controlling the abseiling rope than he was his personal plumbing....a little mishap on the walk home. With rent costing 100 pounds a month for the most modest studio flat and salaries averaging 125 pounds per month, child care is out of the question for some working parents, so children do seem to hang about the workplace a lot. Still, the Isreali family and I both found it hard to believe the little boy was "learning the ropes" at such an early age.

Before my 20 hour bus ride up to Mendoza (waiting area for buses- pic on left -remarkably like a disused rail line) I had chance to look round the shops in Bariloche...there´s an artesans´ market on the street too where you can buy direct from the craftsman. Some of their wares I could have put together myself in half an hour with a Pritt Stick, but for the most part the items are beautifully crafted. I only hover at stands if the guy looks vaguely clean and honest (getting very predjudice and judgemental in my old age!). The average hourly pay seems to be 60 pence, excluding material costs and other overheads. Which is nothing when you consider a coffee and cake is three pounds in the coffee shop opposite the market.

Monday (2nd) was the 25th anniversary of the invasion of Los Malvinas (ahem, Falklands) by Argentina, but there were few commemorative public events around Bariloche but loads of media coverage. I have spoken to various people about it and have heard some interesting views. Not much anger or resentment towards the Brits though, from those I have spoken to.

Since Monday I´ve met Colin in Mendoza. He´s found adjusting to a new country difficult but it shouldn´t be too bad given we are in a nice hotel and have been out for delicious dinners and wine tasting tours.

Very naughty for Good Friday, but yesterday we went on an indulgent day of wine tasting, horse riding tour of the vineyards and olive groves and then had a delicious Asado. The Asado is an Argentine BBQ where the dead animal is skinned and put on a cross and staked in to the fire for a few hours to cook. Suffering and the Cross. After that we watched the solemn procession of several thousand Catholics through the streets of Mendoza, listening to the Passion account from John´s Gospel which was profound to witness.

Today we went on another tour of the vineyards and wineries, without horses this time, but with our new friends from New York City, Jeff and Sarah. We all enjoyed it, and they were really fun people to share it with...we were supposed to make it to 3 wineries but after the first two and a gigantic lunch with a bottomless glass of vino tinto we were ready for home.

All the Mendoza wineries from yesterday and today have been very different in size, history and production (not to mention taste). Each one has adopted particular techniques throughout the process resulting in distintive wines between each winemaker, and the different microclimates also made for significant variation in the wines. I learnt a great deal, anyway. And wine is always fun to learn about! All had great views of the Andes though, and beautiful weather.

Today´s first winery, Catena Zapata, (http://www.catenawines.com/eng/index.html) which produces the Alamos brand which I´ve been buying at home also had an incredible feat of architecture in the form of a recently completed winery. It was inspired by Mayan pyramids but was build using local materials. I can envisage Kevin McCloud animatedly enthusing about each room. Colin´s got some good pictures and I´ll put them on when we have them from the camera.

Pascua Feliz!