On our second day in Mendoza, Drew had booked us a walking tour, which, in my opinion, is a wonderful way to see any city. You get a much deeper historical perspective, and there is a lot to gain hearing a local's perspective as well. The first piece of info shared was that in 1861, Mendoza suffered a 7.2 level earthquake, which killed more than 12,000 people, and the entire city was basically destroyed. So you aren't going to see super old, colonial aged buildings within the city for this reason. The city was rebuilt in a slightly different location over the next few years. They integrated a plaza structure into the city planning, basically parks that provide safe open space for people to flee to if there was ever another earthquake of that severity. You can see the large Plaza Independencia in the middle, with four satellite plazas radiating off of it, for this purpose. The satellite plazas are: Plaza España, Plaza San Martin, Plaza Chile, and Plaza Italia. We visited Plaza España, Plaza San Martin, and Plaza Independencia on the tour, and then Drew and I hit the other two in our own explorations.
The next tidbit the tour guide shared was that in addition to the plaza integration, the city planners also wanted to provide the city with the feeling of an oasis. This part of Argentina is extremely dry, as the Andes block all of the moisture coming from the Pacific in the west. So all of the irrigation is brought in from rivers that come off the mountains, and it's controlled with canals, ditches, etc. So the entire city has these deep ditches in between the sidewalks and the roads, to control the flow of water. She said you're not a true Mendozian until you have a personal story of falling into one of these ditches, sober or otherwise. They achieved the oasis feeling by planting an impressive amount of trees, every 15 feet or so along every street in downtown. The skyline is not particularly tall, you so get the lovely, tree-lined avenue feeling throughout the entire city. The trees also take advantage of the ditches for water. The trees also provide much needed shade, as apparently in the summer, temps can get up into the 90s.
There were also trees I had never seen before. This was my favorite. It looked like a weeping willow, but it was huge, and the leaves were more fern like. No idea what it was specifically; any tree lovers out there that can shed some light?
The first plaza we visited on the walking tour was Plaza España. The first thing you notice when you start walking through it is that the entire thing is covered by beautiful little colored tiles. They do repeat eventually, but there must be 24 or more different patterns. I think they're supposed to represent different provinces in Spain?
In the center of the Plaza is a lovely fountain that leads you to a large statue and tiled mural. The statue depicts the relationship between Spain and Argentina during the 1600s and 1700s. Spain is the lady on the viewer's left. She is larger and more mature, and she holds books, representing the culture, history, and learning Spain provided to Argentina. Argentina, the lady on the right, is smaller and physically more immature, and she holds grapes, representing the agricultural fruits of labor Argentina provided. You can also see the ox and plow on the bottom section of the statue, mirroring this same sentiment, while above that is a ship, showing the immigration from Spain.
The tiled murals were impressive. The one in the middle depicts the meeting of the indigenous peoples with the Spanish immigrants, having peaceful, Thanksgiving vibes at the founding of the city by Pedro del Castillo in 1561. Guessing it didn't go down that way, but that's what it shows.
The mural on the far right is a scene from Don Quixote. The scene to the left of that is more farming love. It's clear what Argentina was valued for back then. The dry climate with mountain water irrigation makes it the Napa Valley of Argentina.
The mural on the far left is a scene from another famous literary work, this time a poem called The Gaucho Martin Fierro written by José Hernández in 1872. To the right of that, the mural depicts the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. In the moment, this surprised me; why did they care about Christopher Columbus? But this was quickly followed by a "No Shit" second moment. Christopher Columbus discovered the Americassssss as in plural. North and South America. In 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he actually landed in the Bahamas. And, to be fair, more of South America was claimed by Spain who funded Christopher Columbus than in North America. So they have an even stronger connection to him than us North American folks. And yet, my US default mentality was "That's our history, not yours!" Wrong.
After Plaza España, we went to Plaze Independencia, which is the largest one in the middle. We had actually visited this plaza the night before, that was where the boys gathered their fan club. But this time around, we got more insight on the large fountain in the middle. Originally, this plaza was going to house the Parliment Building, and they even began construction on it. But then they changed their minds, and moved all government buildings to a different Civic Park a few blocks away. They then converted the foundation of that palace into the modern art museum we breezed through the night prior and a theatre. The fountain was added to decorate the outside later on. Pretty cool huh? Once you realize that info nugget, you can picture the ghost of that palace, can't you? Pretty cool.
Along the tour we passed by the gorgeous old Banco Hipotecario National or National Mortgage Bank, which now the center of Culture in Mendoza. The building is younger than it looks, built in 1924, but I loved all the intricacies of its neoclassical architecture.
We ended the tour in this very non-descript building that inside has this gorgeous stained glass ceiling. I honestly don't remember what this building was, now it's just a little shopping mall. But this is why I love walking tours with a local. We would have never seen this otherwise.
After the tour, we went for lunch/dinner at a restaurant recommended by the tour guide called Fuente y Fonda, which serves traditional Argentinian dishes family style. It was delicious and right up our alley. We ended the day by going to the arcade that was directly below our Airbnb. The boys had been eyeing it all weekend, and now, when you ask them what their favorite part of Mendoza was, they say the arcade.
Overall I loved Mendoza. It felt like Old Town Fort Collins but bigger. The food was definitely more expensive than what we were used to in Santiago, but it was delicious, as was the wine. It has very nice, tranquil vibes. I would definitely go back for a long weekend. Until then.
No comments:
Post a Comment