Day 14--Mendoza

Our posada is charming and quiet, only 8 rooms, surrounded by trees and birds, and there is a delightful buffet breakfast (as usual in our hotels) of homemade breads, fresh fruit, yogurt, cheese, ham, cereals, jam and the obligatory dulce de leche (caramel--featured everywhere, in candy, ice cream, sauces, puddings). And the coffee, always wonderful, but this morning we get cappuccinos, as many as we like. The vineyards are mostly closed today, and Richard's head cold is slowing him down, so today is a day of rest.

Unlike Patagonia, Mendoza is flat. A couple-mile walk reveals we are in a nice area of "haves"--one nice low bungalow after another, often with pool and tennis court, sometimes with grape vines, behind hedges, walls, concertina wire and barking dogs. We experienced the dogs on our horse ride in Bariloche as well--fierce and scary, even from the back of a horse. Each house has several--cheaper than a security system, we guess. When they are not behind fences, dogs are wandering around docile and sweet, never leashed. The exception has been in BA, where as in NYC hired hands walk the dogs. One walker we saw had nine dogs at once of all sizes. The dogs walk in formation without getting all twisted up on the narrow sidewalks--how is it possible?

The posada finds me a bike and I toodle around for a couple hours on flat, straight, tree-shaded roads, trying not to get lost or run into. There are few sidewalks and of course no bike lanes on these narrow rural roads, and it seems safer to ride with the traffic than
against it. Intersections are fascinating--there are no stop signs. In Ushuaia we figured
out that the cars going up and down the mountain have the right of way over those traveling parallel to it--but here the protocol is not clear! I discover some fancy vineyards, a couple of restaurants, a gated community going up with 2-story brick homes, two schools, and a little town center, but it's pretty quiet. There is an impressive open-air grill on my way home, and people are lined up to get some, so I do, too. Lamb on a cross-type skewer so it's marinated by its natural juices, and beef, beef innards, blood sausage, whole chickens, roast vegetables, all on an open-fire grill. Plus packaged pies, salads, olives--this is Sunday
lunch in Argentina! It's all take-out, so I wheel home with an enormous bag of goodies to surprise Richard with a midday feast, and it is delicious.

There is only one other couple staying here and we have the lap pool and courtyard to ourselves. Tiring of the new-age music the're playing here over and over, Richard talks them into putting on his Hawaiian slack-key guitar, which the staff of two like a lot. We both finish our books, have a pizza and empanadas for dinner, some cribbage, and bed!