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After four or so days in Santiago we took a seven hour bus over the Chilean Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. We passed some of the local ski resorts on the way, as well as some amazing geology, and as soon as we were over the border the clouds miraculously parted and the sun shone once again. As it turns out, Mendoza is actually a desert, hence the lack of rain. Not that you´d actually be able to tell mind you, the town itself is full of trees and parks, thanks to their extensive irrigation system. Magic.
The one thing all people do here is visit the bodegas or vinyards, and so off we went for a sample of the local produce. Luckily the guides all spoke to us in English because my vocabulary doesn´t yet extend as far as ´tannin´or ´distillation´. In fact, as an incident later that evening proved, I´m better off not trying to communicate whatsoever to the local gente.
We decided to eat at a really nice restaurant, and using our newly fangled grape-related knowledge, asked the lovely waitress to recommend us a good bottle of Shiraz. She duly brought us the said red, and asked who wanted to try it out. Jack quickly pointed at me, and she poured a tasting into my glass. To make conversation I laughed at her and said ´Well we don´t know anything about wine but I´ll give it a try´(in perfect español obviously). She looked a bit taken aback and then continued to pour the rest of the glass and scurried off hastily. Well there I was sitting there all smug like, being able to have a bit of banter and all, when five minutes later the horrific truth hit me. I´d in fact used completely the wrong gramatical verb form, and in fact told the nice girl ´Well you don´t know anything about wine but I´ll give it a try´. Ooops.
Not knowing how to rectify the situation without making it worse, we eased our consciences by leaving a large tip and the half a bottle of wine we couldn´t drink, for the waitresses and kitchen. Only later did it dawn on us that this act may have been construed as confirmation of our unintentional insult!
Needless to day, today has been spent appreciating the scenery and reading the dictionary. Will let you know how that works out!
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