After reluctantly leaving our perfect little temporary home in beautiful Buenos Aires we were faced with a 17 hour bus ride to Mendoza. Yey. We eventually pulled in to the pleasantly leafy desert town of Mendoza, famous for good wine and extreme sports (both at the same time perhaps?). Our stay here revolved around our one last big blow-out for our entire trip: a winery tour up in the Andes capped off by a fancy 5 course dinner. Not cheap, but when in Rome... So our guide took us to 3 very different wineries that produce delicious 'high-altitude' wines which we tasted both straight out of epic wine vats in the storage sheds and from the bottle while enjoying the view of the snow-capped mountains and munching on THE best cheese & fruit plater either of us has ever tasted. Then there was the 5 course meal.. Oh My God, so gooood. It was a world class day and I even had a wine-affected nap on the mini bus on the way back to the hostel.

Back on another bus to cross the Chilean border, but this will be our last. There was almost a touch of nostalgia: "Can you believe this will be our last bus ride in South America?" but that soon got drowned out by the guy behind us playing bad music out of his iPhone (heard of headphones idiot?!?), one girls constant text message alerts and a couple chatting way to loudly. Can you tell we're a bit over buses? The border crossing was tediously slow and a 6 hour trip took 8. But we returned back to Santiago wanting to get to know this city a bit better than last time. We just had to get through a night in a huge hostel in a dorm with 9 beds. Which wasn't pleasant, but once again our trusty ear plugs came to the rescue. Best invention for a backpacker ever!! Anyway, the next day we changed to another hostel which was a breath of fresh air. Such a nice place: comfy, small, friendly and homely. We did another exhausting walking tour, climbed to the very top of Cerro Santa Lucia Castle and battled a couple of nasty hangovers lying by the pool in the sun. All that remains is a taxi trip to the airport and this magic year will be all but over. And while we won't miss all the time crammed in buses and planes or the grimy, overcrowded hostels, it's hard to imagine returning to 'normal' life. There's defiantly lots to look forward to about getting home finally, but what's not to love about a life of Saturdays and Sundays? It's all good though, there's still plenty more world to see... and I did read a quote somewhere that seems relevant: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

Daz