ARGENTINA: Tunyuyan - Harvesting in the Shadow of the Andes Mountains

Tunuyan, south of the city of Mendoza, has high altitude vineyards with the Andes as a backdrop.

The grape vines were heavy with fruit as the end of February is harvest season in the southern hemisphere.

We felt "lucky" one day as the workers were picking in "our" vineyard.

We asked if we could watch for a bit. 

The fruit is beautiful, juicy and sweet. YUM!

 

 

The workers get paid by the number of baskets they fill.

 

 

So the faster they work, the more they get paid.

 

 

They literally run to the collection point to drop off their full baskets. 

Once their basket is empty the boss man tosses a token into their basket. 

 

 

I took this photo of the tokens from one hanging in our accommodation. 

I can imagine it is tough work.

There are vineyards as far as the eye can see.

As would be expected, we went to a vineyard for a tour (and tasting.) 

She is drawing out some wine from a casket, still aging, for us to taste. 

A beautiful backdrop for wine tasting. 

Contrary to popular belief, we don't go wine tasting everyday. 

I love the mountains, so one day we had to go for a drive west heading into the mountains. 

The roads are steep.

In the spring this would be a raging river carving through the mountains. 

But at the end of the summer it was pretty dry and easy to cross.

I am not sure if these are wild horses or just enjoying a good scratch on the signs.

It was so peaceful watching them.

We found this one enjoying a cool drink of water. 

We had to stop at this point. 

Heading deeper into the mountains would take us to the border with Chile. 

So we enjoyed the peace and serenity of the area.

We stopped in a little village on the way back. The owner wanted to take a picture of us to put on his Instagram page. I am not sure if these lost Grey Nomad Canadians would be a drawing card, but we obliged and wished him well with his social media efforts. 

At the end of everyday we enjoyed beautiful sunsets.