Today our group took a trip out to Spain´s wine country. It took about 2.5 hours to get there by bus from Zaragoza. Most people tend to sleep on those sorts of trips, but I spend the time reading.
Currently I have two books on my plate. One of them is for class; it is a history of the Mediterreanian. That book is not all that fun, but I you cant choose everythig you read. My other book is a lotmore fun. It is called ´Who´s Your City?´ It is a study of how regions and cities really organize themselves and we as people can choose which city is best for us to live in. Its really interesting. I don´t think I´ll be moving any time soon, since Vicky and I are planning on continueing our educations at Northeastern for a few more years.
Well, back to wine country. Wine is important to teh mediterreanian because it originated there and has been one of the stable foodstuffs for centuries. Other staples of the region are olives, chickpeas, cereals, nuts, fish, pork, and lamb. Prior to irrigation, hardly anything else could grow here.
Because of wines importance to the region and in order to learn about another aspect of water(as agricultural input), we went to a vinyard and were shown around. We watched movies abuot the process by which they cultivate the land and process the grapes. Then we saw the storage tanks, barrels and bottles, where the wines sits for months and years brewing to perfection. We also took tours of art exhibis that hadbeen set up to show off the company´s artwork used for labels.
I was thinking two things the whole time I was there. First was how everything we were being shown was completely manufactred for tourism and I found itodd that so many people must come through thatwine factory. I kept wondering waht it is about wine that make people so passionate. Noone would ever go visit a peach farm because they love peaches or an apple orchard because their just that interested in ciders. But here was this place where dozens of people come every day just to get a better understanding of the wines they drink. It was strange how well rehearsed our guide was. I assume she has given many of these tours. Especially since they had built seperate passageways for the worker and the tourists(so they won´t run into each other).
The second thing I pondered was how high tech food production has become in the developed world and how the processes here compared with a plce like Ghana. The farm I saw in Ghana could never even hope to compete with a Spanish firm. They just can´t afford the technology and wouldn´t be able to find an invester who could help them do so. The wine producer showed us the computers that automatically keep track of everything and run unaided by human hands keeping the wines within 1 degree of the target temperatures. it was crazy how efficietly everything ran on its own. If a problem ever would arise though... the computer would sound an alarm so that someone could walk over and fix it. Once every minute at continuously louder intervals.
After the winery, we stopped into a cathedral which was important during the middle ages to defend agaist French attacks and to push the Moors out of Spain. There was a priest there who was surprisingly knowledgeble about the building and its history.
We then ate at a magnificent restaurant. I had a tuna-stuffed-pasta and a pork steak, followed by a sort of cream stuffed pastry. Everything was great.
On the way home we were given a sort of guided tur of what used to be Europe´s only desert. Now adays it is a semi-arid terrain filled with farmland. We saw some pictures of what t used to be like before rrigation was introduced during this past century... and the difference is drastic.
That was all.
oh and i tried to upload pictures, but, i guess eveyone will have to wait because this internet cafe doesn´t have any way for me to do so.
peace and love
