Day 34 - Weds 3rd Dec - Mendoza city

The bus appeared to be two hours lated arrving in Mendoza which I couldn't quite comprehend as there didn't appear to have been any hold ups. As we were arriving I realised my next mistake, that I had foolishly not written down the address or directions for the hostel I was staying in (this is what happens when you are used to a tour guide showing you around for three weeks!).

Luckily I managed to find a tourist information desk in the bus station and explained where I was looking for. A very short taxi ride later and I arrived at the hostel. They said that I couldn't get in the room until midday but could use the bathroom to shower and change in the meantime. It was 10am at this point, and thankfully that was when I discovered that there was actually a time difference between Mendoza and Cordoba and it was actually 9am! That explains why I thought the bus was late. At least I realised on my first morning as one of the girls had been there for 3 days before she realised!

I had quite a leisurely day, just went for a stroll around the city and some lunch in one of the plazas. It is a very nice city, much nicer than Cordoba and much more chilled out and laid back than Buenos Aires. They also have a very definite siesta in Mendoza between 2pm and 5pm which is the first time I have really noticed it in South America.

The hostel is absolutely lovely, feels just like a home and is very laid back, rooms are nice, good communal areas, and a lovely garden with hammocks and a small pool. They also have two dogs, one of them (a german shepherd) is a bit of a gentle giant with a small screw lose who wants to play fetch with a stick 24 hours a day with anyone who will play with him - he doesn't stop! I learnt this very quickly on the first day when I laid down in one of the hammocks and started to doze off and suddently I had a paw on my leg and a stick in my lap.

They have abig bbq at the hostel on a Weds night and there were about 20 of us there. It was a great way to get to know everyone in the hostel and was really cheap for all you can eat and loads of wine, the food was fantastic. Another 4.30am finish, but it didn't start until 11pm!

Day 35 - Thurs 4th Dec - Mendoza City

Had quite a lazy morning after the late night and just hung around the hostel using the computer. It's very easy to stay in this hostel and not go out anywhere as its so comfortable, so I made sure I had plans for my days there to ensure I actually left the place! But it was nice to know that I was there for over a week so everything can be done at a slightly more relaxed pace than some of the other places and not have to worry about cramming everything into a couple of days.

In the afternoon I went for a walk to the park with a girl that I'd met in Buenos Aires who was also at the same hostel in Mendoza but was about to leave that evening. The park was about a 45 minute walk away (further than we thought!) and is absolutely huge so we only saw a tiny bit of it. What we did see was beautiful, opposite a rowing club in front of the lake, with lovely gardens and a fantastic view of the Andes in the background.

That evening we had a guy doing a wine tasting session in the hostel and about 10 of us did it. It wasn't hugely educational and was a bit overpriced as we just sat round, tried a few wines and cheese, but it was a fun night. (Any WAS'ers reading this, it reminded me a lot of a WAS night!).

Day 36 - Fri 5th Dec - Mendoza, Bikes & Wine tour

After two days of drinking wine, I was booked on a 'Bikes & Wine' tour for the day. As the name suggests, you hire a bike then cycle your way round the wine region stopping at wineries for tastings. (Only in Argentina!). I had asked the wine guy the night before for some recommendations of where to go, and a few other people had also said that the best wineries were at the end, so the best thing to do was cycle to the end of the route and work our way back.

I joined up with 5 other people and we cycled the apprx 12km to the end of the route. By then I was absolutely knackered and in need of a drink! On the way someone had tried to steal a camera from one of the guys with us, but he had such quick reflexes he grabbed it back and punched the thief....who very quickly ran off after that.

The first place we stopped at was a small vineyard run by a French couple called Carinae. We had a tour of the winery and then had a tasting of 3 wines, which were all very nice. After that we missed out a couple on the map in order to get to another one that had been recomended called Tempus Alba. It was a very nice and modern building with a very trendy terrace bar area. We sat there for quite a while and did another 3 tastings, the sizes were much larger than the previous place and all the wines were very nice.

The cycling seemed to get easier after that. Then we realised that we were actually running out of vineyards as we had missed some out, and that most of the ones that were left on the map were other things like an olive oil place, delicatessant, chocolaterie and a wine museum. But we stopped at the delicatessant next for a nice lunch (with wine of course).

We were running out of time after that as we needed to get the bikes back so we had to cycle straight back to the hire place after that. It was a really good day but I was a bit disappointed at not being able to fit any more wineries - the proportion of cycling to wine was definitely the wrong way round!

I went back to the hostel and watched a DVD (the Dark Knight) to let my legs recover a bit from more than 25kms of cycling! Then after that I headed out to a tapas bar for a meal with one of the girls from the hostel.

Day 37 - Sat 6th Dec - Mendoza

I'd decided to have a deliberately relaxing day today with not much walking so let my legs recover a bit from the cycling as I had decided to do a trek in the Andes the next day (I know! more on that tomorrow). So I spent most of the day in the hostel, tried to go to the internet cafe but it was shut (siesta time).

They were having another big BBQ in the hostel that night but I had decided to avoid it in preparation for the next day, especially as they start so late. So I jsut took a walk to the supermarket, cooked a meal in the hostel and had an early night.

Day 38 - Sun 7th Dec - The Andes!

I was picked up from the hostel about 9.30am and driven into the mountains. It took about an hour and half to get there and the views were great. The area around Mendoza is completely flat which makes the Andes look even more magnificant and dominant in the background. It was at this time that I discovered the battery on my camera was about to die! Typical!!! I was about to spend two days in the Andes and had no camera! Not a happy bunny.

The Argentinian andes are made up of three mountain ranges, a small medium and large one basically that increase in size the further away from Mendoza and the closer to Chile you get. The large range is home to Aconcagua (largest mountain outside Asia), and we were going to be trekking in the middle one.

Quick geography lesson for you.......Aconcagua is the higest mountain in the Andes, the Americas and the world outside of Asia. It is 6900m above sea level. Everest which is the highest in the world (and therefore Asia) is 8800m. Ben Nevis is 1300m. The mountain I was trekking was called Arenales and has a summit of 3500m, and we were going to start our trek from 2500m.

We drove up the moutain lodge based at 2500m (my ears popping on the drive on the way up!), where we would start our ascent and where I would spend the night afterwards.

We had an increase in altitude to walk of 1000m (2500 to 3500) but the distance was only about 4 miles each way. It took us three and half hours to walk up (4 miles!?) as we were going so slowly due to the steepness and the altitude. There were 7 of us and one guide (oh and a dog called Mork) and I was definitely the most unfit out of everyone and I was really struggling with the altitude. At one point I had to shout at the guide to stop as I was so out of breath and felt like I was about pass out. Aparantly thats normal due to lack of oxygen up there!

That was at about the end of the first third of the walk. The middle third I felt absolutley fine, but towards the end I started to feel dizzy again (but not out of breath any more) and by the time we got to the top I just felt like I was going to be sick.

I'd always known that I would find it difficult on the way up but thought I would get a great sense of achievement at the top, and that the views would make it all worth while. We stopped at the top for a while to have our packed lunch, but unfortunately I felt so sick I couldn't eat any of it, and was struggling to appreciate the views too. And it was absolutely freezing!! Again aparantly sickness and dizziness are very common symptoms of altitude and some of the others felt dizzy too.

I had managed to save just enough juice in the camera to get two pictures from the top - so take a look and appreciate the pain and effort that went into taking them!

It only took about half and hour to get down and I felt better an beteer with each step. Although I actually think the way down is harder on your body (knees, ankles etc) even though the altitude is better and you have to concentrate more on where you are walking as its so steep. I must have been getting a bit complacent atbout how much easier it was on the way down, as with half an hour to go I managed to fall over twice in 5 minutes! Nothing serious, just a bruised arse and covered in mud!!

Got back to the mountain lodge about 6pm, and there were 6 of us staying there for the evening, two of them were there to do three days of trekking (that was just the warm up day!), two of them were in training for climbing Aconcagua the following week (which takes two and a half weeks to get up), and the other was an Argentininan guy from Buenos Aires in his late 50s who was away for a long weekend of trekking, mountain biking and white water rafting!

Dinner was meant to be 8.30 /9.00pm but we asked if we could have it at 7.30 as we were all so shattered. People started going to bed very early and I was the last to go at 10pm. Probably the earliest I have been to bed yet! We were all sharing one dorm room, and one of the girls who was training for Aconcagua is in the Canadian army and got up at 5am to go for a run, before then loading up with all her kit to go for a practice hike for the day!!

I have very swiftly come to the conclusion that hiking is not for me, but I was pleased that I achieved it and at least I can now say I've been to the Andes!

Day 39 - Mon 8th Dec - The Andes

Whilst all the others went off on their various hikes and activities for the day, I spent all day in the lodge in front of the fire catching up with writing my diary.

Got back to the hostel in Mendoza bout 7pm and just stayed in for the night, still exhausted!

Day 40 - Tues 9th Dec - Mendoza

Another day in the internet cafe! I was there for 6 hours and managed to upload about 30 photos. Night in the hostel drinking wine with some guys from Ireland (for a change!) and the guy that runs the hostel.

Day 41 - Weds 10th Dec - Mendoza

Last full day in Mendoza , and what better way to spend it than with a wine tour of course. But this time, more sensibly, with a bus not a bike!

We were picked up by a minibus from the hostel and drove about 45 mins to the first winery. This was quite a big commercial winery producing millions of bottles a year (winery not vineyard as they buy the grapes in and make it there). They gave us a tour and explained how the make it and the building was really impressive. Afterwards we did a tasting of three wines, one white, one red from their cheapest range, and a grape juice! What a con. They obviously didnt think we would be interested in buying anything so wouldn't let us try anything decent. And I didn't like the wine they did give us.

Next up was a winery that was only 10 years old and medium sized. It also was a winery but they did have their own vineyard about 20kms away. Had another tour there of how they made it all which was interesting to compare styles and techniques with the previous place. Then we had a tasting of three wines there (bigger portions and they actually all were wines this time!), and they were all really nice. An average ranged wine there was about three pound and I tried to see if they would ship a case back to the UK but they said the postage would be too expensive.

Next up was a very old and quite small family run winery (again, the vineyard was somewhere else), where they make everything in a very traditional way, a lot by hand (such as bottle turning and labelling) and often very slowly. Something that they take 6 months to do took 20 days at the previous place). It was a really nice winery and the tasting room was beautifully laid out.

By this point I was regretting not purchasing any wine from the previous place as it was really nice and quite cheap. So I decided that I would definitely buy some from this place. However they also said they wouldn't ship any to the UK, and the postage was so expensive that it would no longer make the wine good value. It was a little bit more expensive than the previous place so I ended up just buying two half sized bottles so that it would be easier to carry in my back pack, and they would head to New Zealand for Christmas.

After that it was time to head to the next place for a late lunch. The food was incredible, basically a cold spread of cheeses, meats breads etc, but then they kept bringing out hot dishes too such as empanadas. And obviously there was free all you can drink wine! We got back to the hostel about 5pm, just in time to have a siesta before the evenings festivities.

As it was my last night I had booked myself into a private ensuite room which also had a TV. So I enjoyed a couple of hours of luxury, lying on the bed and watching TV, and having a shower without having to worry about whether I was holding anyone else up!

They were having another asado (bbq) at the hostel that night, so it was another fun packed evening of great food and lots of wine. Some of the others in the hostel had been on the cycling wine tour during the day and ended up bringing back the guy that we had met from Tempus Alba (my favourite vineyard that day), who turned out to be the son of the owner! He, obviously, brought wine with him and stayed all evening for the bbq too.

I ended up being the last to bed (I think I was trying to stop my time from ending there!), and in the end there was just me, German (who runs the hostel), an Irish guy (obviously), and Germans friend who had been the chef for the evening. Finally gave up about 5am after a fantastic day.

Having Argentininan bbq'd steak and Mendozan red wine was the perfect end to my time in Argentina.

Day 42 - Thurs 11th Dec - Mendoza

Unfortunately I had to check out of the room by 11am so I didnt get much sleep, and I didn't have to leave the hostel until 5pm for my flight. I spent most of the day asleep on the sofa, watching films, eating pizza and saying goodbye to everyone.

I was very sad to leave and its hard to identify exactly what is so good about Mendoza, but I think it probably had a lot to do with the hostel and the people that were there. Mendoza is a really nice city, quite picturesque, very chilled out and laid back compared to BA or Cordoba, the vineyards are obviously a plus and having the Andes to stare at just makes the scenery spectacular. I loved everywhere I went in South America (well maybe not Uruguay!), but Mendoza is the only place I felt I could live in.

But now it's time to swap Malbec for Sauvingnon Blanc and steak for lamb!

Mendoza airport is not that big so unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to buy the touristy tat that I had been hoping to get. The flight to Santiago was jsut a short hop over the Andes and took less than an hour. Unfortunately it was very cloudy so I didn't get many photo opportunities over the Andes, but I did get some as we were coming closer to landing.

Santiago is quite a large airport and not bad for things to do to entertain yourself for a few hours. It was quite late at night by this point though so the shops were starting to shut. Eventually, slightly late we boarded the flight to LA. The flight was with LAN Chile and I wasn't sure what to expect from a long haul flight with a South American airline. But it was actually the nicest plane I'd been on and had a great entertainment system so wanst too bad.....just long!