Our latest blog lets you know what we've got up to for the past five days in Mendoza and its surrounds:

Our bus from Salta to Mendoza left at 3:30 on Wednesday. It was a long and tedious 19 hour journey, with the boredom relieved when we played bingo as a whole bus! We didn't win unfortunately, I think we struggled a bit with them calling out the numbers in Spanish! Our dinner on board was disgusting, with some strange cured/pickled pork and egg thing. Both Jo and I couldn't stomach it. The best part of the journey was definitely trying to watch the film 'The Hangover' in Spanish.

We'd got our hostel in Mendoza sorted by 11 in the morning on Thursday. Our room is pretty tattered and mangey, but we've managed ok in there, considering it was cheap. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone though! On our first day we did a bit of exploration, visiting five of the city's plazas on a little loop tour, and then spent the rest of the afternoon at a cafe, sitting out in the sun on the pedestrianised Avenue Sarmiento. We got coffee and hot chocolate and played backgammon, the normal way to spend our afternoons in Argentina it seems. In fact we visited cafes in the city every day we were here. Jo's most successful choice was something called a 'submarino', where a bar of chocolate is dropped into warm milk. With her sweet tooth she really enjoyed that! We also sampled some tasty lemon pie, cheesecake and numerous coffees and hot chocolates.

I also managed to force Jo into watching quite a lot of World Cup games back at our hostel. In reality she spent most of her time using the internet whilst I watched the matches, but it was a compromise that worked pretty well! Unfortunately, however, Argentina got hammered by Germany 4-0 (at least it makes England look slightly better!) and we missed the usual celebrations on the streets, as everyone returned to normal business as if nothing had happened (except for the odd glum look).

On our first night we went out for a meal in the busy bar/restaurant district of the city. We ate at 'El Palenque', where our wine came in 'pinguinos', white ceramic penguin-shaped pitchers. I had a tasty flank steak (which you could tell had been cooked for ages as it literally fell apart as you ate it), whilst Jo stuck to her sirloin.

On Friday we visited the Parque General San Martin, to the west of the city. It was supposed to be one of the city's highlights but we were slightly disappointed on arrival, as roads ran right through the middle of it...Instead of being somewhere to relax, we had to listen to cars roaring past, often with awful techno-esque dance music on full blast from their stereos! Not what we imagined! The park's main entrance, though, was worth a stop, with beautiful wrought-iron gates made in England originally for a Turkish Sultan. Don't know how they ended up here!

Saturday took us out of the city into its environs for the first time, as we were picked up at 9 to go out on the Rio (River) Mendoza. As we were unable to go skiing, owing to a lack of snow (despite it being July, with the season supposed to start in June), we opted to go rafting instead. It was a lot cheaper than skiing, a bonus for our budget, but this may have something to do with the fact it was described as 'rafting' rather than 'white-water rafting'. We drove up towards the Andes, with views of Aconcagua (South America's largest mountain) and the surrounding mountains covered in snow, and then got kitted out with wetsuits, waterproof trousers and tops, helmets, life-jackets and paddles. We didn't realise we would be wearing our shoes in the raft, and our feet got drenched as water came over the top! It was a very peaceful, tranquil ride, however, with no major splashes and plenty of time to take in the scenery. It left both of us wanting to do a more extreme one, though. However, there was one incident where we bounced off a rock...Jo was sitting at the back at this time, as our guide had got first me and then Jo to sit up there and shout out instructions for paddling. The impact with the rock flung Jo out the boat, and she hit her back on a rock and got wet (it was shallow water). She can't believe she got thrown out on such a calm bit of water! Lulled into a false sense of security! Luckily her back isn't too bad (though she wants a bruise to highlight her pain), and she was more embarrassed than anything. I've tried not to give her too much stick about it so far, but can't really help myself!

On Sunday we travelled the 16 kilometres to Maipu for a self-guided tour of Mendoza's wineries. We met Mr Hugo, who's services had already been recommended to us by Ben and Darryl, amongst other people. He was a really friendly old chap, who sorted us out with bikes to rent and a promise of free wine when we got back. Our bikes, although fine to get around, weren't the greatest we'd ever pedalled, meaning it was hard work. We definitely earned our indulgence. The sun was out again, meaning perfect conditions, and the country scenery was great, with the roads lined with poplar and birch trees, large farmhouses, and vineyards. We stopped at 3 wineries, a winery museum and 2 chocolatiers/olive growers. So we got to sample plenty of wines, around 20 in all, as well as liqueurs, olives, jams, spreads and oils. One winery even had a lovely deck which we sat out on, surveying the surrounding countryside whilst trying wines. I think my favourite kind was tempranillo, whilst Jo enjoyed Mendoza's signature red, malbec. However, some of the liqueurs and a rose we tried were disgusting! On our final winery tour we got to go down into a listed wine cellar, where huge barrels were separated into two sections to filter and age the wine. Most of the tours were really interesting, despite being fairly succinct.

We've really enjoyed Mendoza's wide avenues, leafy streets and squares and big city feel. Tonight we are catching an overnight bus on to Cordoba, where we plan to spend the next two days. We'll give you another update soon.