Vagaries of travel

We´re in San Rafael, Mendoza province of Argentina. It´s high and dry country, reminds me hereabouts of New Mexico on the plains, where you can just about smell the pines from the mountains to the west, but the mountains here are the Andes. It´s a city of about 170,000 souls, most of them good natured. The pace is about half of the Buenos Aires gait. We had a bad experience in the bus station in Buenos Aires, had a carry-on bag stolen. Unfortunately, it contained a three-month supply of my meds, $300EU worth. The only thing that really worried me was the blood-pressure med. I went to a farmacia here and explained the problem to the nice lady behind the counter. She sold me a 20-day supply for $2 and something, less than three bucks. My co-pay on the same is $30 for a 30-day supply, plus whatever the insurance company has to lay out. There´s an eye-opener. First night here we went to a nice restaurant, had salad, home-made raviolis, steak -- filet -- and fried papas, a bottle of excellent local wine, and a bottle of water, per the local custom. It all cost about $17. Amazing. I love it ... I want to stay forever. The area is agricultural, with lots of orchards, vineyards, some tree farms for lumber, and stock raising. We watched a TV program last night on the virtues of the cows raiz Angus ... it rhymes exactly with mongoose. Have many fotos but lack the wherewithal to put them up from the public terminals.