So Mendoza...the famous Wine Capital of Argentina, and one of the world!

We organised our first experince of Couchsearching in Mendoza. Carrying on the nice break from hostels we'd been having! Sergio,our host, was very accomodating. It's actually a crazy concept. Trusting total strangers and giving them a key to your apartment when you are out most of the day at work...it's a great thing but I am not sure how confident I would be inviting "surfers" into my own home in the UK...but I guess the Couchsurfing community is based around trust and sharing life experiences wtih people across the world, which is pretty cool! Its nice so stay with locals to experience life whereas in hostels you typically end up hanging with other westerners. We were pretty exhausted again from the partying at Mysteryland and lack of sleep on the travels to Mendoza so we crashed out most of the day! In the evening we walked through the city and went for a couple of cocktals with Martiano, a guy we met at Mysteryland 2 days before, but he lived in Mendoza so promised to show us about when we arrived. I love this about travelling. So here we are in Mendoza, talking about life with a local who we met at a festival in a different country 2 days before!! The next day we went wine tasting. You can't go to central Argentina and not taste the wine! Though its mainly famous for its red wines and I never drink red, I was still up for trying them as they were meant to be so great, also the wineries had a small selection of white and rose to keep me happy. We hired bikes so we could cycle the wine route, it was pretty funny. We met an extrovert character at the first vineyard who hung out with us for the rest of the day which was amusing! He was in his 50s and from Canada and travelled the whole world, he had so many interesting stories he was very entertaining. We ended up only stopping at 2 vineyards for tours and the tastings, as we took our time and had some snacks. It was absolutely boiling and really hot on the bikes. In all honestly I was slightly disappointed in what Mendoza and the surrounding areas were like, landscape wise. My previous wine tasting experiences were in California and Western Australia where it was so green and each vineyard was set in beautiful grounds. Mendoza city was a lot bigger and busier than we expected. You had to get a bus out to the wineries, though it was still quite industrial looking with roadworks on the streets. It was still a great day and the wines were good. They didnt have many sweet ones like I love, but knowing how fussy I am, I wasn't expecting to have them. We quickly freshened up when we got back to Sergios, said our goodbyes and hopped in a taxi to the terminal to board yet another overnight bus!

Next stop was the trendy city of Cordoba...we had been invited to stay with a family of a guy, Gaspar, Hayley had met in London last summer...even thoug, h he was still in London, typical to the amazing hospitality we have experienced so far, it was a "must" that his family hosted us, and they wanted to know our exact transport details so they could be waiting for us at the terminal when we got in that morning. Rafael, (one of the brothers) was waiting for us and took us to his car! It was so sweet of them we were already overwhelmed that a family would be so keen to take us in for a few days...but we were in for a shock when we pulled up to the grounds of their house...it was like a Sandbanks house, pure luxury! Absolutely incredible...we were totally gobsmacked! They took us to our guest room, the bathrooms were like a 5* hotel, the furnishings and decor were just gorgeous...then we stepped to the garden, where there was a stunning private pool! Wow, it was truly like we had stepped into a private villa. Then even more than this they couldnt do enough for us, they were so happy to welcome their "first international guests" to their new home (they only moved in 4 months ago as it was built from scratch to their design) so we truly saw how the "other half live" and in Argentina! The whole family were amazing, the parents were lovely, they have 6 children, all aged 17 to 29, 4 of them lived at the house. Florencia and Rafael took the lead in looking after us. We couldnt thank Gaspar (in London) enough for arranging with his family to have us, once again we were being truly spoilt. We had an amazing few days with them and living the true Argentina lifestyle. We couldn't have dreamed of better treatment, they really wanted to ensure everything was perfect for us. Hayley and I joked that the south americans are all like feeders...as they just kept feeding us (amazing) food all day long. We have to get into bikinis soon, think a week fasting is needed after New Years!! It is a very sociable lifestyle, we all sat down for breakfast in the morning, then there was lunch (typically a hot meal and a dessert!!)...then there was tea...(more snacks, bread, dulche el leche, tea, coffee) and then dinner (about 10pm)...then more desserts. They are all slim too, not sure how they do it! Most of the time we just relaxed at their house and by the pool, which was exactly what we wanted. It was absolutely boiling, Hayley topped up her tan whilst I lazed in the pool. One of the evenings we went to Rafael and Flor's friends house for a "asada" famous, typical Argentinan BBQ. Another evening we went around the city as they gave us a whistle stop tour and then we looked through local markets and went for pizza and drinks in this really popular rooftop cafe. It's so great to hang with local people as we get to see and experience so much more! We enjoyed a final BBQ with the whole family and we gave them the bottle of wine we brought for them as a thank you and had a great last evening. We tried to speak Spanish as much as we could and they practised their (good) Eng;ish with us. It was a fantastic few days, we didnt want to leave!!!

Tonight we are booked on an overnight bus so we arrive in Buenos Aires in the morning, Christmas Eve to let the party season begin and celebrate in style (and the heat!!).