Lovely Mendoza (2)

The first picture here is of a typical street in the center of town. Notice the "acequia" (irrigation ditch or canal) on the right side of the picture that runs between the sidewalk and the street. The entire city of about 1.3 million has acequias on both sides of every single street; a fascinating public works project that keeps the city full of trees. The climate in Mendoza is very dry, and like So. California it would be almost a desert if it weren't for irrigation systems. I shot this photo Sunday morning around 10am, so most people were still in bed after staying out late on Saturday night—we got to sleep a little before 3am.

The second picture is the wide, pedestrian-only street (Peatonal Sarmiento) where we had coffee before going to dinner on Friday night. This was also shot at 10am Sunday morning, so it is only just beginning to fill up with people going out for breakfast.

The third shot was taken Saturday night while sitting at the dinner table in a very charming restaurant located in the former home of the Catena family (Catena to Argentina is almost like Mondavi to Napa-Sonoma) in the very chic neighborhood of Chacras de Corria, about 15 minutes from downtown Mendoza. We were sitting on an outdoor deck underneath some huge trees (the restaurant was called "The Decks"), and there was a rather large irrigation canal that runs right alongside the Catena's house and under the deck. The house now is home to a collection of restaurants. Naturally, we got to the restaurant a little after 11pm, and left around 1pm, then drove around and had some ice cream at 2am. The city was still buzzing with life.