Mendoza

Reading through what I wrote about Mendoza I was maybe a little harsh. Before I go on to say why I just need  to make sure Hector, a frequent correspondant has his dictionary, atlas, bumper book of facts, and someone next to him to interpret those nasty things called sentences, got them. Good I´ll carry on.

Its a relatively small town, it claims a population of lose to a million though god knows where it keeps them: the city centre is small, with a few high rise buildings and there doesn´t appear to be a lot of suburbs. The centre is built on a grid pattern. You would think that would make getting lost difficult; wrong. While the streets north to south keep their name throughout their length the streets running east to west change their name every block; thats town planning for you, its also a bloody nuisance. Every street in the centre is lined with trees whose branches stretch over the roads giving them a bucolic tunnel like appearance, which is broken only by a central square and four peripheral squares  full of the usual fountains and guys on horses; none of whom are called William. Together with all the bodegas, coffee shops and outdoor cafes it makes the town a pleasant place to walk about in. The place is obviously prosperous, though the quality of the streets, like all the Argentine towns I´ve been in, declines markedly the further you get from the city centre or the wealthy suburbs.

One aside which makes you ponder how much the dear green place has declined in economic importance is the gate to the main park in Mendoza, which is a massive piece of fabricated iron and gold leaf, which according to the plate on the main columnm was manufactured by McFarlanes of  Glasgow, wonder what happened to them? This is one of many capital items I´ve seen in Argentina that have been manufactured on the Clyde. I doubt we´re exporting them much these days, apart from whisky. Sad really.