9th February 2015 – Mendoza

Today is a rest day in Mendoza, Michael and a few of the other guys are up early to work on their cars. Goldie needs a front shock absorber replaced with a new one that was brought from Buenos Aries for them. Red car is having trouble with their new alternator and Casper has a problem with their ignition lock and both are going to see an auto electrician. Michael and a few others are going to a workshop with a hoist.  Michael changed the oil in our car as we’ve done about 8,600 kilometers so far, plus checked things over & greased what he could.  We girls had a shopping trip with Ellie, which is very fortunate for us to have a local to speak for us, especially in the pharmacy & optometrist. The pharmacies here don’t have everything on display you have to ask for it, so of course you have to know what to ask for. The first time we wanted to buy glucosamine tablets in Chile they didn’t understand what we were saying, it’s called glucosamina but pronounced different. I can now take the bottle with me, so that’s easy.  It takes a while buying things when you are not used to the brands and have trouble asking about different products, it will be fun when I have to buy a hair color, I checked them out yesterday and I think I know what to get, but will leave it to Lima as I don’t want to carry it.  This afternoon we are booked for lunch at a beautiful old winery called Nieto Senetiner. We drive in convoy with our new MG Argentinian friends to have lunch together. It’s a hacienda style building and we sat out side under a huge portico overlooking the vines. We were given a different wine with each of our 4 courses, so champagne with a corn mouse and sausage entree,  white wines with empanadas, red wines with meat & salad, a sweeter champagne with desert and a late picked malbec all delicious and all for $130 for the 2 of us.  Willie joined us after lunch with his family in his 1986 BMW:-Michael’s favourite of course:-It was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon with our new Argentinian friends who sang their National Anthem for us with gusto & passion.  We then sang ours with all our might, followed by Waltzing Matilda.No dinner tonight!