Hola Beast Crew

Greg and I have been finding it difficult to get back into the swing of travelling.  After having been stationary in Australia for a year and visiting the UK for family weddings, the motion of movement has taken a while to get back into the swing of it all.  The other little things that you have to think about like where to get petrol, where to get spare parts, what happens about when you break down, where to park the Beast in a secure place, where to get your temporary importation document, is your visa overdue, is there any money in the bank… all those worries suddenly come back to you and can sometimes lead to massive arguments…all the worse now that there are only two of us.  So if anyone ever tells you that overlanding is just a holiday, they are wrong.  It can be incredibly stressful, full of worries, arguments and seriously doubting whether you should be continuing. 

But there is something incredibly addictive to overlanding.  We realise that not many others have the guts (or are stupid enough, I can’t decide) to do it and we have a fantastic opportunity that few others have, to experience the far flung parts of the world that can only by reached a car (as I write Greg is having a rather amazing experience of yet another hangover), with the sense of movement and the ability to go where you want and when you want, the only restrictions being if there is a road, food and petrol.

So we are staving off the reality of 9 to 5 for another few months and I bring you yet another update to brighten your outbox (or be deposited in your spam box)!

San Rafael – Tapungato – Mendoza – Puenta del Inca

25th September – 8th October 2006

“You can work 4 hours a day and stay here free with food and booze included,” said Annette.  “Have another glass of rum,” said John…and so the slippery slope of liver murder commenced.

Sandra and Javier of Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires had recommended that we contact John and Annette when we reached San Rafael.   They had met them at the Horizons Unlimited (a webpage for overlanding motorcyclists) meeting in Viedma a few years previously whilst they were on their three year round the world trip.  After trying to settle in the UK they decided to take on a new challenge, setting up a vineyard in Argentina in the foothills of the Andes. Their challenge was to find a vineyard but after 3 months of searching the region for a suitable vineyard they had bought a vineyard, plum orchard and walnut field as part of their 34 hectare property.  They are also intending to grow olives.

We had only popped in to stay a day or two but we ended up staying for 10 days.  As Alexis’s part exchange work she built an asado barbeque.  Greg, after a few false hangover starts, learnt how to drive a 1970s push button start plough and ploughed the prospective olive field that John and Annette are planting.  They showed us how they do their weekly watering of their crops by taking their water from the fast flowing canal that has been redirected from the rivers.  On their watering day they have a total of 23 hours and 17 minutes in which to water all of their crops.  The amount of time designated relates to the size of the property.  A complicated system of mud waterways weave their way across the land to the different orchards and vineyards and require constant attention to ensure that all the plants get watered.  They also explained about how the region gets affected by the summer storms which rip through the area depositing golf ball size ice cubes which devastate the soft fruit harvest.

They introduced us to some of the expat community who live in the area.  We met the lovely Sue and fantastic Vicki of Escape Artist who after a few beers consented to have a read of Greg’s book to potentially publish it on their e-book webpage. 

We eventually had to leave, the temptation to stay and eat Annette’s fantastic food and drink all of John’s rum had to be overcome, as we got back on the road and headed north to Mendoza – the wine capital of Argentina.  The snow capped Andes framed our view to the west, towering over the dry plains, occasionally dotted with green vineyards.  We pulled up in Mendoza and parked the Beast in a secure estationamento (car park), dumped our bags in the hotel and headed into the bustling Plaza de Independencia where local produce stalls and jewellery merchants all gathered.  As with most of Argentina, the bustling nightlife doesn’t usually start until 10pm which is when most of the families come out to eat… not that easy for a good European couple used to eating at 6pm!  There is a strong café culture in Mendoza with the Andes mountains a mere 100km away, towering over the town, bringing an early evening.  We discovered a wine festival at the Hyatt Hotel that enticed foreign buyers to experiment with the local delicacy; several Malbecs later we wobbled home.

The Beast has a rather pathetic range of 400km on 100 litres (a mere 4km per litre) before it will come to a spluttering stop.  Normally we carry some spare petrol with us but the passage from Australia basically meant that we had to take the car to the port with a minimum content.  The drive from Mendoza to Upsallata took us through some stunning brown caked gorges with the Mendoza river below gushing adventurous rafter down the river, but offered us no petrol stations.  We spluttered into a petrol station in Upsallata and filled up with a mere 3 litres left. 

Fully charged with driving juice we drove high into the windy Andes with staggering mountains reaching high up into the sky, crowned with snow slowly wilting in the impending summer heat.  We drove into the military zone and further up through the mountains to Puenta del Inca, a mere 16km from the Chilean border.  This border town has a claim to fame due to the natural bridge that has formed from the mineral deposits that run in the Andes snow melt.  An ill informed priest decided that he would construct his church in the wake of the gushing water.  Hundreds of years later the church has been enveloped by the orange and yellow deposits. 

We stayed over night in this deserted snow resort with only the military to keep us company.  All talk of our ex-british military vehicle had to been tampered so that we wouldn’t be arrested on the spot.  Tensions against the British may have shifted to the Chileans and Bolivians but there is still some talk of Las Islas Malvinas and the ownership.  We fell asleep that night under a freezing star spangled sky, gasping for breath at the 2,700m altitude, with a slight apprehension of vanishing over into Chile.

Thank you to Annette and John for an amazing insight into what is bound to be the new equivalent to the French Province area of South America, thank you for introducing us to so many interesting people and thanks for all the rum!

Notes from Argentina:

• The Mendoza region produces over 70% of the Argentinean wine.
• Argentinian vineyards produce a type of wine not marketed anywhere else in the world called a Malbec.  It is a red wine like a pinot noir but quite smooth.  The French use the Malbec grape to mix with other grapes.
• During the winter period, if it is going to drop to freezing overnight, all the vineyards in the San Rafael region ring each other and go out into their fields and set up drums of kerosene and sticks and set them alight.
• The San Rafael region takes water from the Andes and redirects the rivers into a complicated canal system that allows farmers to gain water for their crops for a set time period each week.  In order to get their water they need to remove a series of gates and allow the water onto their property. The canal system was set up in the mid 1500s and still operates very efficiently.
• To prevent the yearly demolition of the soft fruits, many of the richer vineyards and plum orchards have installed a mesh system over the grapes and plums to stop the hail from taking off all the young fruits.
• There is no planning permission required for properties outside of the city boundary, but any buildings constructed are required to have earthquake prevention measures built into the structure.
• Mr Norton, a British railway engineer, came to the region in the 1880s to construct the trans-Andes railway.  He fell in love with the region and a local Mendozan woman and set up a vineyard that is still producing excellent wine today.
• In the countryside, if you want to visit someone, rather than knocking on the front door, you stand at the boundary gate and clap your hands until they come and see you.