Lazy start. An immediate setback –today is a national holiday (Flag day) and Scania is closed!! The boys got under Bob straight away, hoping for a visit from a Scania mechanic, who offered the immediate diagnosis of a broken component inside the gearbox. He said it was a 2 day job. Unfortunately, the bolts at the back of the gearbox required a special tool to remove them. After hours of trying to manufacture such a tool, they gave up and resolved to go to the Scania workshop to do it there. This was later amended again and eventually they just went to the camp pub.
We headed into town by bus. I have been coerced into detailing the account of the first bus, which one of us waved down while the other one waved it away. It shot past us. Some 20 minutes later, just as about 8 of the group came out, another bus approached and we all boarded. The bus headed off up a mountain and all over the place before heading into town but we were in no hurry and enjoyed the scenic overview, although it was a tad murky.
Mendoza has a pretty town centre. It was rebuilt after a major earthquake many years ago and only has a few colonial buildings still standing.
It now features very wide streets so in the event of another damaging earthquake the buildings will not fall and damage each other. The main mall is tree lined and has a host of outdoor eating areas. The fountains in the parks and mall were all gushing red water. A tad puzzling until we saw “Miss Mendosa 2012” with tv cameras in tow and realised we are in the midst of a wine festival.
We wandered round a couple of the major parks, popped into a few travel agents, including that notable purveyor of tourism and voyaging – Wanka Ltd. The roads and parks all bore the familiar names and dates – 25 May, O’ Higgins, St Martin and Belgrano. Very few places open and we kinda felt like Maccas anyway so we went and tried the chicken, bacon and onion burgers. And coffees. And chocolato triangulos. We got back just in time to wave almost everybody off on a wine tour.
San Martin in yet another park in his honour
Sweeping using huge palm leaves, very effective.
On the nautical front, we noticed that the Star Princess was barred from entry into Ushuaia by the Argies because it is registered in Bermuda, a British protectorate. Such sore losers. Also, another Costa boat is in trouble – this time our old boat Costa Allegra is adrift off Madagascar after engine failure.
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