After 2 1/2 month of traveling we were happy to take a break. We found Mendi Hill Estate in San Rafael / Mendoza on www.workaway.info – a website for exchange of work for housing and food.

Johnny, a mechanical engineer, and Claudia, an architect, created the finca 5 years ago and specialized on sun dried tomatoes. With no background in farming or tomatoes they were able to have a successful harvest from the first year on and to establish distribution of their delicious sun dried tomatoes. Every machine on the farm is either re-assembled from junkyard purchases, modified to personal specifications or build from scratch by Johnny. He also designed his own drip irrigation system.

Nadine and my job was to wrap the hail netting which covered 2 hectare of tomato plants so the coming snow will not destroy it. Nadine got to drive the tractor while I had to do the heavy lifting tying the net. We had fun, though!

Besides the work we enjoyed the company of Johnny and Claudia, 5 llamas, 7 cats, 5 dogs, a donkey and a horse, visited the neighboring bodega, cooked and baked bread and observed spectacular sunsets and night skies with a glass of wine and good food.