Steak and Calamari portions bigger than your head

It is a bit cooler today in Mendoza, but the sun finally came out. We had a huge steak and fried calamari for lunch. It was a .5 kg steak and platter of calamari. Great, the restaurant is Carmelo's on Villa Neavo st. Yesterday we went on a wine tour for a project we are working on and we drop in to Acheval Ferrer winery and the ask if we wanted to join a tasting. Well I thought to myself this is the best wine in Argentina, hands down, Ha, clairo (of course). We tasted 5 of their best wines. The Altimira their best sells for $135.00 USD down here. We were added to a group of Brasilians but the tasting was in english because the Brasilian told us that they speak spanish but they cannot understand the Argentines. So I do not feel as bad. I don't think that most of the Argentines can understand each other. I meet a woman from Columbia the other evening and she told us she could not understand them either. A lot of the letters in Argentine spanish are spooken so soft that it is hard to hear them. They sort of mumble. Oh we we are still trying and we get by fine.
Today the landlord came by to fix both sinks that were leaking. This is a new high end place. The workmanship, not so good. It is a shame. They just need a little leadership to guide the way to building guality products. GM and Fiat have a plant here and you see a lot of them on the road. We saw to Harley's today. You have to be very rich to own one of them because of the import tax. Shopping is also very interesting here. The shops are open from 8:00 - 2:00 than closed for siesta and they reopen at 5 till whenever. We have bread shops and butchers shop near by. It is fun to go get your food everyday from the different little shops. America has lost that pleaure. We have vegitable stands everywhere and their food is very good. You can buy a single egg in the street. We found so great little take out places also. It seems that not very many people cook around here. The ranges are very small and the kitchens smaller. All apartments and houses have wood grills. You can buy small bags of wood everywhere but there is no charcoal. The local tell us the the Chilians use charcoal and it is not as good. Argentina does not like Chile.

Bienos Notches
Jeff