Hey Everyone

We wanted to put in an entry for Mendoza. If you really like wine- come here. If not stay the hell away. As far as places go its not that bad- it has a zoo and a mountain that you can climb for a good view of the city. It also has a pretty good shopping mall where you can buy cameras and pepper spray.

How do we know this? well we had our camera stolen. We were in Mendoza for three days. Day 1: Climb hill in morning for view, go back to hostel to make lunch, go for a walk, get camera stolen by and "armed" robber, spend the rest of the day talking to blue eyed blondes in the cop shop with varying stories of theft. They were all worse off than us and some had lost their tickets home and passport as well as cameras, and they had to be in Santiago a few days later for their flights. Only prob with that is you can't cross a border without a pass port, and everybodies embassy is in BA on the other side of the continent. Throw in a public holiday and it may not have even been possible for those guys to catch their flights. One guy had nothing but shoes, jeans and a shirt, not one cent, oh and he had a pen.

Day 2: Go to shops and buy a new camera. And found some pepper spray too. Also saw an extendable baton that was very tempting. Go back to hostel for lunch, organise tour for tomorrow.

Daay 3: Bikes and Wines tour in Maipu outside Mendoza. The town is trying its best but its still grubby and has bad roads. But the wineries are incredible, and cheap as well. We took some photos which we'll put on when we get a chance. Also have three bottles we hve to get rid of. Then we caught or bus to Salta.

The robbery: It was siesta time, and we were walking along a road with a park on one side. A grubby bloke crossed the road and walked in front of us. Then he started acting weird and we were about to getoff the path when he turnedaround and pretended he had a gun. At the time we thought he could have a gun, so we let him take our camera- with the photos. Then when he had bth handsout, there was obviously no gun, so Dave chased him- through the park, and then 3 or 4 blocks more. But it apears the guy may have run before, and he got away. The police were pretty quick to arrive, and we got a ride in a cop car, but theres no chance we'll get the camera back.

We've beefed up our securty even more now, and I can't wait to try out the spray.

Love BJ and Dave