Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina and houses many vineyards which are open to the public, about 30 minutes from the city. So we spent a couple of days doing the wine tours and sampling of course!. As you can see from the photos, the bottles come in big sizes over here. Argentina is more well known for its reds rather than whites so around here they make lots of Malbec, Cabernet's and Pinots. The vineyards are located close to the base of the highest peak of the Andes (and the Americas), Mount Aconcagua which stands at just under 23,000 ft (6,959 m). It certainly made for a spectacular backdrop. After a busy morning at the vineyards, nearby we found a great little restaurant for lunch which served oven-baked beef or chicken and a served a great bottle of house wine. We really enjoyed the feel of the city here in Mendoza. Although it is quite a big place, home to around a million peple, we found it had a very relaxed atmosphere. Maybe it was the wide, tree lined boulevards all around the city, the numerous beautiful plazas with fountains and landscaped gardens or perhaps it was just the wine. An afternoon wandering the huge and very nice San Martin park in town provided a place to rest a weary head on the grass for a hour or so. We weren't the only ones to do so though as the whole city closes down from 1pm to 5pm for a siesta. We're still coming to terms with modern amenities and so we decided to catch up on all the movies we had been missing and overdosed at the multiplex cinema, going to see three films in a week. Still, at a pound a ticket, who cares. Like everything else here, prices are still cheap, primarily because of the recent devaluation of the Peso so we are still managing to live very well. Well we head off now to Buenos Aires to probably our last piece of luxury before we carry on down south to the Antarctic and much more rugged country. Although we are covering great distances by road, it is no hardship as the long-distance buses here are quite spectacular. They certainly leave National Express standing. Many of the buses are as good as a business class flight - only three seats across so they are much wider. They come with movies, hot dinner and breakfast, champagne and seats which recline almost horizontally. We're about to hop on one now to Buenos Aires so more updates from there.