Day Two Hundred Ninety-Four: Museo del Area Fundacional

Jeff's school had an outing to a local museum scheduled this afternoon, and I decided to join Jeff there after his classes, even though the kids weren't interested in going. Therefore, my first First of the day was wandering around the city by myself on this cold, wet day looking for a cab. There were plenty around, but either they weren't available or they were on the other side of the street and super hard to hail. I had no luck, so I was just generally heading in the direction of the museum when Jeff called to say that his driver and our guide for the afternoon would pick me up if I would just stay where I was. I was directly across the street from a Shell station, which seemed like a good place for them to meet me. I didn't count on having to play a live version of Frogger to get over there, but that just added to the adventure. When Jeff and Maggie picked me up, I found out that it is "impossible" to get a cab at that time of day (12:30) because it's rush hour. Interesting.

The museum commemorates the birth of the city and actually sits atop the original governor's palace, which was buried by an earthquake at some point. The museum itself seems to be a working excavation site for the palace and the original plaza, which was pretty cool. I somehow managed to follow most of the Spanish tour until the very end when it became like drinking from a fire hose. I was glad to hear later that it felt the same to Jeff. My favorite exhibit was the "Water Room," which explained how Mendoza would be nothing but dry desert if it weren't for the irrigation systems that were developed to divert water from the Mendoza River, which is one of several that flows down from the Andes. This city seems lush, with gorgeous tree-lined streets and so many large parks, but all that is basically fake. Everything has been planted and absolutely nothing grows here naturally. I loved the photo of the installation of the first fountain which showed a background that looks very similar to our family's ranch in west Texas. We have been to the park that houses that fountain, and I can assure you you would never guess it was originally a desert.

The most hilarious part of the tour was near the end of the fire hose speech when our guide (and ride) suddenly said she was leaving and wished us luck with finding a taxi to get back home. Jeff and I kind of looked at each other to see if we were understanding correctly, and the next thing we knew, we were receiving our customary cheek kisses and a wave. Thankfully, the rain had let up, but it was still pretty cold, and of course, we had to walk quite a distance before finding a cab. We got a good laugh out of the situation, and I told Jeff I was kind of glad for it since it meant I actually got to walk the entire route to/from the museum.

Museo del Area Fundacional

A mural of the original plaza faces the new plaza,
which has been built over the original.

The entrance to the museum reveals
 the ongoing excavation.

A fountain in the desert

The same park now