(Firstly, sorry again about the irrelevant photo - not, in fact, Mendoza at all).

Mendoza, Mendoza, how lovely you have have been to us, what a place for us to spend a good few days - but ah Mendoza, Mendoza, our livers surrender to you.

It´s the heart of wine country. It wasn´t that all we did was drink wine...it´s just that we spent rather more time doing that than anything else. Caro and I had a day to ourselves when we arrived, and to our credit we actually got out into Mendoza´s surroundings, which are stunning rocky peaks, rolling rivers and a variety of vegtation. Caro spent the day rafting, whilst I mixed it up with a bit of rafting, a bit of abseiling (SERIOUSLY cool) and a bit of trekking, where I learnt all about the various plants and their uses. Not that I could tell you much about them now, sorry.

The problem was, once we´d got back, we discovered the Irish and the Scot had arrived. That night, the 3 Danish boys (I´ll say it now: Danes are crazy when drunk) and Aussie girl who had been rafting with me offered to cook for all of us. We were in charge of the wine. Or rather, the boys were. And that´s where it all started. A fantastic wine shop nearby gave far too good an excuse to buy plenty of excellent wine, which was drunk and replenished and drunk and replenished, and accompanied by the steaks that were cooked up, made for a rather perfect Argentinian meal. Once the wine was depleted, we took off to Mendoza´s inevitable Irish bar, a rather odd combination or nationalities all on exactly the same level. Chaos ensued. Hilarity ensued. Wolfman´s uncanny impressions of Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen ensued. And suddenly it was 6am and Caro, Scott, Dermo and I were walking home with not a clue where the others had got to or how it had suddenly got light. Caro and Scott even managed to blag a minibar and breakfast at the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, but I´ll leave that story for another day.

That sort of set the standard for the rest of the week. The following day, after a traumatic morning during which we tried and failed to get up to go on a biking wine trip and my camera was stolen, Irish Tony arrived with Newcastle Chris (a Cordoba friend), and along with our new friends Susy and Doc (another Australian and Irishman to add to the collection) the only thing we could do about this hectic start was...go out for a bloody good lunch. And spend the afternoon wandering Mendoza, which is ever so pretty with avenues sheltered by trees and 4 little green plazas that are arranged in a square around the Plaza de la Independencia. It´s lovely.

We did get out on the wine tours eventually. First up was our Bikes and Wines trip, which saw us staggering around the Maipu winery area on very big bikes with very hard saddles, so that wine tasting and a fab deli lunch seemed like a just reward. I say wine tasting - 4 hours into the tour we´d actually only managed to get to a wonderful distillery that produced the most incredible flavoured spirits along with chocolates, sauces and preserves (bury me there) and through lunch. Accompanied, of course, by excellent wine. We managed one actual wine tasting at Mendoza´s oldest winery, and then decided to "taste" more by placing ourselves firmly on the terrace of Tempus Alba, possibly the most beautiful winery, and ordering a few bottles between us. Amazingly sober, we got home and Caro and I cooked for our boys (angels that we are).

The following day we actually got up horrendously early and managed to be on an organised wine tour (since we were clearly hopeless at the organising bit) by 9. We went to 3 wineries, learnt a good bit about tasting reds (for barrelled merlot or cab sauv, for example, it was all about the SECOND sip) and visited another distillery that made the most liquid gold perfection honey vodka I´ve ever had, or indeed dreamed about. After that, another perfect lunch and (you´ve guessed it) more red wine ended another lovely day.

Mendoza was a good deal about wine and wine tasting, but it was also a lot about having a fantastic time with our boys. We´re leaving later to head to Salta and onwards into Bolivia, and it feels very much like the end of a chapter. Although I´ll see Wolfie and Dermo (and no doubt Tony) in Santiago, Susy and Doc en route, and Scotty in Melbourne, it is definitely sad to leave them. Thanks guys, we´ve had so much fun and love you lots. Now it´s back to the girls travelling alone, there are more friends to be made. Bolivia, adventure central, here we come...