Arrived in Santiago late on Sunday evening with Frank (Dr No) and all booked into the same apartment block and went out for dinner and the new found Pisco Sours. Next day Frank moved on and we set out to explore the city armed with the 50 Spanish words we had learnt.

Our very first Spanish phrase "Dos Cervesas Por Favor" was quickly put to the test and it worked, the waiter returned with two LITRE bottles of beer - We may have to modify our phrase to include a measure (or not). It turns out that 50 Spanish words is not a great vocabulary in Chile, especially when you cannot understand the responses so we caught an overnight sleeper bus to Argentina.

We chose Mendoza because about 70% of Argentinian wine is grown in the area and we needed to test the theory that translation becomes easier the drunker that one gets. Our arrival in Mendoza coincided with the annual South American Harley Davison convention and the sight of about 300+ bikers and their gleaming machines on the streets of a sleepy Argentinian town, is not easily forgotten.

We mounted our own two wheelers which were more Raleigh than HD and went in search of vineyards - Spending a long afternoon cycling in the Argentinian sun and sampling its best red wine en-route even taking time to eat a very fine lunch was an excellent way to explore the area, experience the culture and improve our Spanish (red wine should be used in language classes the world over).

Next day a mini bus trip took us to the old Border post, which turned out to be at an altitude of 4000 metres and located high in the Andes - The single lane dirt road climbing the side of the mountain was made more scary by the fact our driver thought it was OK to drive one-handed while speaking on her mobile and frequently turning round to make jokes with the guide - Heather's eyes remained tightly shut for the entire climb as she muttered that "maybe planes were not so bad after all".

Somehow we survived and the following day returned to Chile and Santiago over the most spectacular pass we have ever seen (we had taken the overnight sleeper on our outbound leg) …. The road fell away into what seemed a bottomless valley that included 27 switchbacks on the way down - Normally this would have been pretty hair-raising but the previous day's experience had desensitised us to the dangers. Arrived safetly back in Santiago ready for the next leg of our South American adventure.