It's happened, 4 months and 2 weeks into the adventure I have fallen head over heels in love. I am besotted with Argentina, having absolutely loved Mendoza, I could happily live in Buenos Aires in a heartbeat.

I spent 5 days in Mendoza enjoying the city and its surroundings. After our day in the park on the 6th October we hired bikes the following day in a own called Maipu, about an hour out of the city, and home to about 20 wineries. You cycle from vineyard to vineyard, sample their wares, and head onto the next. As we set out on our bikes I felt about 10 years old again as our gang of 8 pedalled along, although the destination of our first winery was somewhat different to my 10 years old playground of Worsley Woods! Our first stop was a small boutique winery, boutique meaning that they only produce 100,000 bottles of each line per year. The winery was restored 10 years ago by a French couple who bought the dilapidated 100 year old winery and still use the original grape macerating tanks. It was fascinating to learn a little about the production of one of my favourite pastimes and even better, we then got to taste some of their produce. A strong start to the day leaving me with the feeling that I think I would rather like to live and work in a winery in the Argentinean countryside. We then stopped for lunch at another winery and shared a bottle of Torrontes, a white grape that I wasn't familiar with before, but will certainly be looking for in Europe, it was delicious. And so the day went on really, we visited about 5 wineries in total, finishing with a chocolate and liqueur tasting before getting a police escort back to the bike hire place, not due to our inability to ride in a straight line, but I am told that it is standard practice if they see a large group!

I then got up at 4.30am to watch the rugby world cup quarter final England v France game with Sylvain, the French contingent in the group. Enough said on that!

On the Saturday night we were recommended by one of the guys who worked in our hostel a dance party that was going on out of town with some guest DJs from Buenos Aires. We thought we'd give it a try out and after a couple of drinks at the hostel we headed out there pretty late, it was probably about 2am by the time we arrived. When we went in, the place was only about a third full and we were cursing the hostel guy for sending us to some dodgy night in the middle of nowhere. However within about half an hour, the place was packed and, even if we weren't used to the Argentinean timetable yet, we headed home at sunrise after an absolutely brilliant night. Apart from having had a great night, the other thing that struck me was the number of ridiculously attractive Argentinean men about, even in a nightclub the scenery was spectacular! Sylvain treated us to his finest salsa moves, not that there was anything remotely like salsa music playing, but it was obvious that his previous salsa classes hadn't gone to waste. He was supposed to leave us the following day to take a different route to Buenos Aires, but as we stayed out until later that he'd intended to catch the bus, it looked like he was staying another day and the group of 8 remained.

I also ticked off another of my own 'must do in Argentina' list whilst in Mendoza, and we went horse riding in the foothills of the Andes for half a day. Having not ridden a horse for what I estimated to be over 20 years, I wasn't sure if I'd remember what to do again, but hopping on and taking the reins felt like, well not quite like riding a bike, I was on a horse, but metaphorically speaking at least, like riding a bike. We had a lovely afternoon in the sunshine and I felt that if I don't move to a winery, I could live on a ranch riding horses all day, it would be great for a toned bum!

Monday was a bank holiday in Mendoza and we headed out of town again to the thermal springs, perhaps not the greatest of ideas when half of Mendoza seemed to be doing the same. It seemed like even less of a good idea when the 40mins bus journey home took 2 hours due to Bank Holiday traffic combined with a police check and Sylvain once again missed his bus out of Mendoza. It looked like someone was conspiring to keep the 8 of us together!

Having shared a charcuterie at the winery for lunch, we were inspired to make our own. So I headed to the market with Janina, which was great fun in itself, and we spent another day making a picnic, choosing a few wines, and taking the lot to the park for an afternoon of reading, cards, frisbee and munching our way through the picnic. We were a little put to shame by the large numbers of locals spending their lunch hours running laps of the park, playing tennis or rowing in the lake whilst we were busy feeding our faces. If I don't move to a winery or a ranch, I could imagine living in Mendoza and running round the park or playing tennis at lunchtime.

And that was Mendoza, time to get on the bus for the 16 hour journey to Buenos Aires. I had originally intended to go via Cordoba, but as I couldn't tear myself away from Mendoza, and was really enjoying travelling with the group, all 8 of us headed straight to BA.

It was going to be Janina's birthday whilst we were in Buenos Aires and she was meeting up with a friend of hers from home who was just starting his travelling so we headed to the hostel he was already staying at. I had my reservations: I had heard that it was a big party hostel and whilst I like to party from time to time (well OK, quite a lot of the time), I also like to sleep when I want to sleep. However bus lagged from the journey, and not in the mood to look around, I agreed to go and have a look at it and then make my mind up. In actual fact, the hostel was great, we had our own large 8 person dorm, so no inconsiderate loud roommates to worry about, it was clean, great powerful hot showers and apart from the old cleaning man who kept coming into our room early in the morning, the staff were fab. So that became our Buenos Aires base. The first day there Stefan and I snook off to 'go to a museum' ie go and source Janina's birthday presents before heading to the Recoleta Cemetry, and enormous place filled with ornate mausoleums. I have to say, it felt like something of a bizarre visitor attraction to me, with people photographing the mausoleums of the rich & famous such as Eva Peron.

That evening we all took part in the hostel's tango class, I had the good fortune to be paired up with Sylvain, who as well as previous salsa classes, had also partaken in tango classes and therefore knew what he was doing. Where I had failed in all my efforts to get salsa, the tango was definitely more up my street, although I didn't quite feel in place in jeans and trainers, but a frock slit up to the hip and heels for the occasion seemed a little excessive to carry around with me for 5 months. Great fun had by all even if we weren't really dressed for the part, nor had the sizzling chemistry for that perfect tango.

We had our first taste of BA nightlife which was pretty busy for a Thursday night, although the music was mainly more of the same old guff that I've had to endure round most of Latin America, I hope that I never again have to hear that bloody Jenifer Lopez song.

On Friday the birthday girl opted to go for a lazy lunch near the port, and then we wandered around the nature reserve that has been created on the coast. It's a massive area of grasslands and ponds, right on the edge of the city...once again I was imagining living here, a warehouse flat by the docks, running & cycling round the park. Friday night was birthday night out and an Argentinean friend that Stefan had met in Bangkok had organised the itinerary for the evening. Always good to go out with locals, had we not been in such a big group I think BA would have been a good place to try couch surfing again and meet more locals.

The following day our lie in was disturbed by a procession on the main road, about 50m from the hostel, where the indigenous people were celebrating their culture with a procession of music and dance, very similar to the one we saw in Cusco, Peru, but not what you really want to hear from your bed whilst trying to recover from a late night out. Gill, Janina and I decided to head to the weekend markets and pottered around for a couple of hours and ate what I hold up to be the best ice cream of the trip. There is a strong Italian influence in Argentina and ice cream eating does seem to be as much of a national pastime as tango.

Another Argentinean passion is football, and we were lucky enough to time our visit with a home game at Boca Juniors, and through Stefan's local connection, also managed to get tickets. We spent the day wandering the markets and the streets of Boca, the colourful neighbourhood where the stadium is, and got into the ground 45mins before kick off. We were rather confused when the stand was full and there was a game going on - had we missed the kick off? No, in actual fact the reserves play the same fixture before the first team heads out to get the crowd warmed up. I'm not sure that the crowd really needed warming up, the noise just before the teams came out was immense and the 'Stretford End' of the Bombanero was bouncing. For all the hype, the game was a pretty drab 0-0 encounter, but what the Argentineans lack in quality in comparison to European matches, they certainly make up for in atmosphere. We also stood for the match, I do wish we still had terraces in the UK.

On our final day in Buenos Aires, there were 2 things to do. Decide how to get out of BA up to Iguazu, and wander round the graffiti sights of Palermo. The graffiti for the most part is more like street art and was a good way to see the leafy, affluent area of Palermo. I've now moved on from the notions of living on a winery or a ranch or in Mendoza, Palermo would be the place for me.

Much as I liked to deny that I had to leave BA, the time had to come to make the call about how to leave, there were 2 real options, train or bus. The bus took 21 hours(ish), the train was well, a little more inconsistent. When researching it there was one blog that described it as having a timetable that was to be ignored, the author's journey had taken 30 hours and knew people who had taken 36 hours. 'A great journey, but only for the more adventurous traveller'!!!! The group of 8 was splitting up at this point, with 4 going down south to Patagonia, and 4 of us heading north to Iguazu. Janina was adamant, she was not getting the train, but something about it appealed to both Stefan and I, much of the attraction for me was the ability to do things on a train like write blogs, read, play cards etc that often make me feel sick on a bus, so whilst it could take twice as long, it would be more productive time. So we decided to take the plunge and give it a go - I am currently writing this from the train which I will upload when I get to a WiFi point. Whilst we took the first class tickets, the carriage we have is definitely NOT what any European would describe as first class.

On my last night in BA I managed to meet up with Celina, the sister of Juli, an Argentinian friend of mine who lives in Granada. I was invited to dinner by Celi and we went round to the house of their cousins who cooked for us. They were all so lovely I had a fab evening, great to speak Spanish all night and to meet Juli's family, I now feel like I have friends to visit when I come back to this amazing city.

It is a shame that Buenos Aires is so far from my family and friends. When I left Manchester last November I had every intention of going back there, I was incredibly fortunate to enjoy a great, fun packed life in the place I considered, and felt to be home. I surprised myself when I got to Chamonix, and very quickly felt so at home there that I could have stayed in Cham and not travelled over the summer. Now, in Buenos Aires, I am truly enamored with the place, the city, the food & wine, the people (OK, so many beautiful men does help!) the climate and I haven't even touched the museums & galleries yet, I could seriously live here.

And the countdown has started, less than a week until I come home and I am an emotional wreck. I'm still having a ball and I feel like I've rushed a little more than I'd have liked to have done. Another month or so would have been great. On the other hand, I am so excited about seeing my family and friends, I never forget how fortunate I am to have all the people in my life that I care about back home.

So I shall make the most of my last few days and reflect on everything that the last 5 months, in fact the last 11 months has taught me and embrace all that is to come, whatever that may be....