January 27,

We were up and readied around 0800 – mind you, Jeff gets up before I do. He reads or plans on his phone in bed, waiting for me to awaken. This morning we had our Javas with the last of our chocolate pudding cake. (We had started it yesterday at lunch and the wine.) It was warmer today, so we had a laid back morning. We had really exerted ourselves yesterday, climbing that hill!! We put in over 17,000 steps. I laid down a bit, but no sleep. Jeff did quite a bit of planning.

We went out for lunch. We chose Jack House. It’s a recommended hamburger place. I ordered a pork with bacon, hamburger classic; but it was a pulled pork with bacon, not a hamburger at all. It was good with great french fries. Jeff had a smashburger with cheddar, caramelized onion and an egg. His order was a hamburger, but not a smashburger. It was also good and he had fries as well. The establishment obviously used their verbiage loosely or our Google translate was having issues. Anyway we paid 32,670 ARS, ($23.68 was what our credit card was charged). After we finished, we walked to a supermarket and then back to our place.

I then had some GI issues and laid back down. Jeff did more planning… for our routing after Antarctica and Patagonia. I did not really eat supper, Jeff had a PBJ sandwich. We watched some Star Wars and then talked with Jeff’s sister via WhatsApp. It was a, “simply living, some place else,” kind of day.

     January 28,

We were up and about, and had our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurt. We decided to go out around 0945. We headed over to the Parque O’Higgins – that had the Parakeets; and then to the Plaza Pedro del Castillo – this is the one that has had many different name changes. Right next to this plaza is a Museo del Area Fundacional, a museum displaying ruins of old Mendoza. It was free and opened just when we arrived.

The description placards were only in English, so we had to translate as we went along. What we gathered – place housed an area of excavated foundations of the former Mendoza as the translated title said. There was more information also relating to how water was established into this desert area – for the city to be here and grow. The city was known as the “forest city”(after the big earthquake) because of the irrigation canals enabling trees and gardens. Also the placards explained a little of the local Indian, the Huarpe; the Inca; and the Spanish. Overall it was a good little museum. Of course there were artifacts, and explanations of the foundations. One foundation was described as the ruins being that of a town hall/Municipal Fair(?) building with a multi-arched facade, and another one of a slaughterhouse with tools still embedded in the earth. The Jesuit Ruins of San Francisco were mentioned in the Museum, as well as the 1861 devastating earthquake. We finished and went to the Jesuit ruins that were catty-cornered from the Plaza.

The ruins were free, and this is the only part of pre-1861 Mendoza that is known to exist. Much of the structure was non-existent, but metal beams add some support and give one an idea of what the building looked like. We walked around and explored it some. Then we walked back to our place by way of a cool building we’d seen in the museum and through a covered type of open mall. The covered ceiling was stained glass – that was impressive. Then back at our place we ate a salami cheese sandwich for lunch and prepped our supper. We had bought some beef from a local butcher and carrots, potatoes, and onion from the local fruit/veg place we frequent. We made a red wine beef stew in our oven. It was ready in three hours and it was so gooodd!!