Local Delicacies

Mendoza, Argentina
We are enjoying fall in South America. The leaves are turning yellow on the trees and the air is crisp at times, and sun quite warm at others. I was quite interested to learn that kiwi fruit grows in Chile, so we been catching up on local seasonal fruits: kiwi, plums, delicious pears, and of course grapes. It feels a bit like when we travel through the Okanagan valley and that quality of fruit. We left Chile on Tuesday by bus and had a beautiful ride through the Andes. The buses are quite nice here, given our previous Central American standards. Our seats were in the second row of the upper floor of a coach bus. It´s like having the view from the drivers seat but it´s okay to drift off every once in a while!
On Thursday, we met up with Michelle, a friend from Sherwood Park, and her travel companion Nick in Mendoza. Our first evening together, they encouraged us to try a Parilla which is a very traditional Argentine meal consisting of many unusual parts of the cow. Kidneys, intestines, blood sausage etc found its way onto our plates. We feel good that we tried it but are not likely to repeat the adventure. The last couple days we visited several wineries in neighbouring Maipu. Along the way we came across a great restaurant serving local delicacies and found that we share similiar tastes in both wines and food. Piccaditas are roughly equivalent to tapas and consisted of sun dried olives and tomatoes, cheese in olive oil and oregano, prosciutto ham, fresh italian style bread with oil and balsamic vinegar, and pickled eggplant. For the main course we shared a couple plates of slow cooked roast with potates and vegetables. It felt like quite the feast.
In need of a walk, we discovered there was a store about a km away that sold artesan chocolates, liquers, and preserves. When we arrived we were treated to an amazing array of flavors of which we were free to sample. Some examples are a sour-orange chocolate, dulce de leche liqeur, and Malbec wine jelly. Needless to say we walked away with a couple treats for tonights bus ride.
Tonight we have cama-suite heading north to the town of Tucuman Argentina. The bus leaves at 9pm and arrives just before 10am tomorrow. The Cama-suite is the first class of bus travel. The seats are wider, fully recline, and are equipped with night table. All this for only a $6 increase in price. We`re quite excited.
We`ll be travelling with Michelle and Nick off and on for the next couple of weeks up into Bolivia.