Mendoza is the place where all the wine comes from in Argentina, and on arriving in the city the bus was mostly surrounded by vineyards. At the terminal a really nice hostel-tout (unheard of) told us where to buy onward tickets to Chile and where our hostel was situated. We walked the few blocks to hostel Mora, which is a really nice hostel although one of those places you can´t imagine guys staying at unless they were dragged there by their girlfriends. The room wasn´t ready but they gave us a free breakfast, which was more than just pastries!

Alex and I went for a walk around and found it to be a really lovely town with wide boulevards and lots of plazas, apparently due to the rebuilding after an earthquake that flattened the city - the wide streets provide space for rubble to fall into and plazas act as evacuation points. We bought some dulce de leche to give to Victor in Chile and sat on the street for a mid-morning coffee before returning to the hotel to put up our christmas decorations! We took a shower and headed out for lunch on the main pedestrianised street lined with restaurants. We ordered their nicest bottle of malbec (still only about 6 pounds) and had a nice long lunch doing what we believe Argentina is all about. When it came to the bill the waitress had managed to charge us for 2 bottles of wine and pudding that we´d never even been offered. Even after a bottle of wine we check the bill! So she removed one bottle and I told Alex to prepare herself for dessert.

We then went to buy a bottle of wine for Victor, and inadvertantly ended up in a shop for a family-run local bodega, where we got to try all their wines for free! A great find amongst a load of closed tiendas on a Sunday. After that we visited the 5th and final plaza in the centro - Plaza Italia (in addition to plazas España, Chile, San Martin and Indepencia) so that we could safely say that we´d nailed Mendoza.

Back at the hostel in the early evening I proved that I can no longer get through a day without a siesta, and at 8pm awoke ready to head back to the main street for ice cream. On the way an American man from Maryland heard us speaking english and then tested us with "what is the significance of either Prince William or Harry taking the throne?", to which the answer was apparently that they´d be the first King of England in 400 years... although we suspect that he left out the word "British King" which somewhat threw his credibility into doubt.

Apparently Argentina does the best gelato in the continent, and the ice cream place was busier than any restaurants we saw. We ordered a double scoop and sat on a wall in the centre, enjoying the calm and pretty city at night - even the street dogs are nice here!

Day 133 - A fairly terrible nights sleep as the temperature doesn´t seem to cool down in Mendoza at night much. We walked to the bus station and bought a packed lunch, and before leaving met 3 very infuriating people: First, one passenger who barged passed us in the luggage queue despite acknowledging our presence; second, the luggage porter who was demanding a tip before he´d even taken the bags out of our hands; and finally, the bus driver who blabbed at us in what we think was Chilean spanish and started huffing when we didn´t understand him... it turns out he just wanted us to fill out the immigration forms he was handing us, which were in english anyway!

Despite Chile being apparently only an hour away, we arrived at the border (and very spectacular amongst the Andes indeed) after midday... and then didn´t leave for another 2 hours! First we had to get off and get our passports stamped, which took ages while they played The Best of Simply Red. The Chilean immigration officer was really nice, and at one point I understood he waved to say goodbye, and as I started walking off it seemed he was actually gesturing for me to wait - he found it all really funny. We then got back on the bus as it drove 10 metres and then stopped again... we all got off and lined up with our hand luggage, ready for the most obsessive customs I´ve seen lately. The officials had spotted something suspicious in my big rucksack, and so they started taking everything out to identify that it was Victor´s dulce de leche and not, as they had feared, honey. They did the same to Alex to find that she too was carrying a half-opened pot of dulce de leche - who knew it would cause so much inconvenience?!

Eventually we were allowed to reboard our bus and drive across the country to the coast. The first part of the road was absurdly bendy as it descended the valley, and they´d even constructed part-tunnels so that landslides could just slide over the top. I fell asleep for a while, but the countryside and towns in Chile look really nice.