We were sad to leave Bariloche and dreading the 19 hour bus journey ahead of us to Mendoza. The novelty of long bus journey's is definitely wearing off and the site of ham and cheese sandwiches is making us (Rachel in particular) feel ill! We arrived in Mendoza with little directions to our hostel, to save the money we decided not to get a taxi but instead walked around with our heavy bags for about 30 minutes. Eventually we found the hostel, you can get a sense for a place when you arrive and we knew that staying 2 days would be enough. After a little nap and shower we walked around the city. The city was very green with lots of trees lining the streets and nice open plazas to sit in and enjoy the sun. It was a lot hotter than Bariloche!

The nice weather continued in to the next day and we decided to do to the 'Mr Hugo' wine tour which is famous among backpackers, mainly because he gives you free wine. When we arrived to pick up our bikes we were given a glass of wine and given a map of where the vineyards were. We set off in the blazing heat, first choosing to go to an industrial size vineyard which had a museum attached to it. We then cycled a bit further to a couple of family run vineyards. The first was called 'Tempus Alba' a modern and classy winery with a self guided tour and a lovely balcony over looking the vineyards. We ordered 3 different wines to taste and were surprised that we could begin to start to taste the differences between them! The third vineyard was more rustic looking, we tried 3 different red wines and a sweet wine which had an aftertaste of nuts. We were then given a guided tour and shown how the wines where made and stored. Our lunch was ready for us after we had finished the tour, we had a fair amount of wine in quick succession, so definitely needed some food before getting back on the bikes! It was thirsty work cycling in the heat so on the way back we decided to stop off at the beer garden before going back to Mr Hugo's where we were given some more cheap wine, which wasn't the most pleasant wine we have had, we could certainly taste the difference to what we had tried throughout the day, and we are no connoisseurs!