Once again I was on an avernight bus and in Mendoza around 6am.

Despite the hostel not being far I decided to get a cab as it was arrived pitch black and was only a couple of quid.

I was not able to check in to my room until after 2 as there were people in there, so I had some breakfast and went for a wander.

There is a nice square and four smaller squares off each corner and just above the houses you can see the Andes mountain range to give an impressive back drop.

The weather was nice again, clear blue skies and not a single cloud.

Once check in time arrived I wanted to get showered so headed back to the hostel only to find that the two blokes who were in the room so I could not check in in the morning were still fast asleep at 3 in the afternoon. So it would not have made a scrap of difference what time I had gone in the room.

The room was a bit grotty and stank but I just wanted a shower. It was a bit weird as you had to walk past reception, through the lounge, through the dining area and then through the back of the kitchen.

Hmmm, don't think I will be walking back with just my towel on.

The place was owned by a very extrovert and charming New Zealand lady in her fifties who I think took a bit of a shine to me. She had bust her ankle the same as me so we had got chatting. She loved her wine and there was free wine every night for an hour for all guests. So we all tucked in and then I was in the mood so bought a bottle of Malbec afterwards.

She stayed up chatting with me and drinking my wine and we both got each other's life stories.

Next morning she said I could move upstairs in to one of the better rooms if I wanted,,,,,,,,,,,,,I think she really meant her room haha.

Mendoza has many vineyards that produce the world famous Malbec.

One of the popular tours is a wine tour where you rent a bike in the middle of the wine region and then cycle to various vineyards and do wine tastings Which you pay for until you are so drunk you can cycle no more.

I was about to book a tour when I found out Jessica was in town and she suggested we just make our own tour, it would be alot cheaper.

She managed to get a couple of guys from her hostel so we agreed we would give it a go on our own.

We found the bus stop and headed for downtown winetown.

We got off at the first vineyard which was ever so posh.

As we walked in across the nice wooden floor in our shorts and t shirts a very nice young lady apologised to us.

I am very sorry she said, but I am only able to offer you a free wine tasting as the last tour has just left.

We all looked at each other and smiled.

Only FREE WINE.... gosh we are so disappointed as she started to pour the first glass.

The wine was absolutely superb.

We jumped back onthe local bus to go to the bike rental place and then managed to get completely lost.

Could we find a taxi?

Somehow in the end we finally found the road where we needed to be, but it was late so decided to have some lunch.

I had the best pork ribs in the world ever, it was delicious.

Fed and watered, well, fed and vinoed we looked for a bike rental place.

They are probably all the same we thought as we came across the first place.

A small courtyard With blaring reggae music.

We popped our head inside and a stoned hippie appeared.

There were only a few bikes in the yard that looked the worst for wear.

Yea guys, this is all, we have left but they are great bikes man.

He proceeded to pull one out with huge cow horn handle bars...this is a great bike man....

It had a flat front tyre.

Yes it looks amazing.

We checked a couple of the other bikes that either had flat tyres too or really buckled wheels.

We are just going to have a drink and then come back we told him as we ran off around the corner.

Yea man terrific, he said as he gave us the thumbs up and took a suck on whatever it was he was smoking.

We quickly walked to the next place that was recommended in all the guide books.

The owner came out, said hello, shook our hands and gave us a drink as we looked around and saw loads of really good condition bikes for the same price.

Yes we think we will hire the bikes here.

We were running late to say the least, as we headed up the road, there were already people cycling back clearly drunk.

We picked our first wineyard and went wild and selected four glasses each to try thinking they would be only small tasters.

Nope, four really big glassed were poured.

We were worried about the time so power drunk them down and headed across the road to our next stop.

It was like something from a James Bond movie, a really modern building surounded by the vineyard.

You went upstairs to a spectacular view of the Andes mountains.

This time they were only small samples, so they soon went down.

This repeated a few times until we arrived late in the afternoon at the final vineyard well and truly hammered.

As we wobbled out the worst for wear I noticed that two policemen on motor bikes were waiting for us.

We had seen them on the way up. Believe it or not their only job is to look after you, knowing full well you are hammered.

They will follow behind you to make sure you are ok as it is a very busy road in some places.

Can you believe they are actually encouraging you to drink and drive....seems strange.

Even knowing this though it was still really odd being followed by them.

We made it back safe and sound and hopped back on the bus. The buses use a pre paid card system, but we had over spent due to getting lost so were slightly short on one fare.

Being drunk and brave we got four tickets and pretended to get five and then giggled off down the back of the bus.

We thought we had got away with it until the driver stopped and shouted back at us.....we had been busted!

How embarrasing. We had tried to fiddle our way out of 20 pence.

I went up with one of the lads and we acted all dumb, but we had no idea how to put credit on the card. Eventually a local came to the rescue and let us use her card and we gave her the money.

I had seen that you could do a motorbike tour in to the Andes mountains which looked amazing so had booked it for the next day. It was expensive but after using my black market money it was not so bad. Plus I thought you only live once.

Jessica wanted to come too and could ride pillion with her camera, so it meant we could get some brilliant photos all the way. The whole trip was breathtaking from start to finish, and luckily I managed not to crash despite some really bad surfaces.

It was a full day and we had sore arses at the end, but well worth it.

In the normal shops I noticed they did some really big bottles of wine and when I looked at the prices i could not believe it.

You could get almost five litres of fabulous malbec for about two quid. I decided that maybe moving to Argentina with prices like this and amazing barbeques could shorten my lifespan by about 25 years. I would be constantly pissed!

So that was it, my time in Argentina had come to an end........it was time to head to Chile........