SCHÖNE”S LITTER---UPDATED

            The long-anticipated day arrived Monday, 10/21.  The puppies were 8-weeks old and ready to begin relocation to their new homes.  Two of the pups left us---Gil to go to his new home in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains about an hour northeast of us, and Molly to her new home in Silicon Valley, about 2 hours southwest of us.   Gil will be living with two adults and several horses being trained and competing in endurance events.   Eventually, we’ll find out for sure whether an adult GSP can trot along for 20-30 miles without having to breathe hard, but I think all of us who own this breed of dogs already knows the answer to that.  They are incredibly gifted athletes with huge chests and equally huge hearts that translate to great stamina and endurance in the field.   Molly in Silicon Valley will be joining a family with a teenaged son and his younger sister, an ideal situation for a puppy that loves cuddling and people.   She also may have a show career ahead for her based on puppy grades, and will surely have a hunting career based on what the new owners are looking for from their dog.

QUIRKY EXPERIENCES IN SOUTH AMERICA, II: DON’T WHINE ABOUT THE WINE UNLESS YOU’VE TASTED IT

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A few years ago, I visited Mendoza, the wine production capital of Argentina, accompanied by a colleague from my University's Viticulture and Enology Department who is a V.I.P. in wine tasting circles.  We were invited to taste the better wines from several of the local wineries, two or three tours per day, which was where I first fell in love with Malbec wine as a varietal.  There are a few quirky things I remember from this experience.

QUIRKY EXPERIENCES IN SOUTH AMERICA, I: FLYING IN ARGENTINA

I thought I'd start a new series of posts about off the wall topics as they come up.  I'll be flying to Montevideo in July, so thought of a few memorable moments in Argentine airports for my first entry in this series.

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I don’t know what the current situation is like since I haven’t flown any of the regional airlines in Argentina in a few years, but going back a bit things were, shall we say, different than California where I live.  Between 1999 and 2010, however, when I was flying between some of the major cities in Argentina, things could be very quirky.  Let me share a few notable examples.

TOURISM IN SOUTH AMERICA

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OK, you're ready to visit some of the places I've described in my South American mystery stories.  What should you do next?  Most of South America, especially in the poorer and less developed countries, has a much more complicated system and infrastructure to support tourism than we are accustomed to in the United States and Western Europe.  Banking systems are less reliable, currency values are less stable, and credit cards have not yet replaced cash in many transactions as they have in North America, especially for international visitors.  So, if you want to go from where you are to a different major tourist attraction it takes some planning.   You don’t go on-line and make plane and hotel reservations, nor do you hop on a flight with stand-by tickets and find a hotel when you arrive at your destination.   

LA PAZ AND EL ALTO

We flew from Santa Cruz de Bolivia to La Paz on the usual pre-dawn flight that seemed to be the norm for flying in South America.  With a 5 AM pick-up Elaine and I were in the air early en route to a remarkable landing experience.  We were told that only a few pilots were qualified to make this landing, and that they spent entire careers flying in and out of the airport in El Alto.  As we approached the landing we could look up to see snow capped peaks.  Yes, we entered through a valley and flew under the highest peaks.  We were close enough to the mountains themselves to see the textures and impressions in the snow.  The El Alto airport runway is at 14,000+ feet, and I can personally certify that the air is pretty thin at that altitude.  It takes a long time for the plane to slow down and stop after it lands and the runway is just long enough to make the landing work.  A certain amount of faith in the pilot is required at white-knuckle time; several of the passengers were noticeably crossing themselves and praying as we landed.  El Alto, once part of La Paz, is now a city in its own right.  It spills over the top of the ridgeline that defines the end of the La Paz Valley and sprawls out onto the high plain above the city.  La Paz itself is built vertically into the side of the mountain.