Heading up north

I am now in Mendoza, which is the heart of Argentinian wine country and guess  what; I have found another microbrewery, called Mackreprang.  I know I have been twittering on about these  breweries, but the thing is I haven´t been looking for them, which means there must be a fair amount of them. Oh as an addendum this mob make quite nice stouts and ales again all very strong. Argentine breweries seem to like their alcohol content.

As for the town itself, its pleasant, laid back, but non descript, it has plenty of tree lined avenues and leafy squares, but few striking buildings, unless you count a poor attempt at the Chrysler tower in the middle of the city: nowhere near as good looking and less than half the height. Apparently an earthquake accounted for the old buildings a few decades back, which let the planners in.

While the town is non descript the surrounding countryside is on a different level entirely. once you get past the vineyards, the mountains are like nothing I´ve ever seen: Mendoza isn´t very far above sea level but some of the peaks are over 6,500 metres: thats 20,000 feet in old money.

As an aside I booked into a backpackers here, I´m sharing a room with three German ladies in their twenties. On one level I can only dream, on another I can pretend to be asleep for a while. Anyway I´m getting tired so I´ll sign off.