I arrived in Mendoza early on saturday morning. We checked into the hostel international and then went to Parque General San Martin which is a massive park in the city. It was a beautiful sunny day so we brought some food from the supermarket and had a picnic. It may sound strange but after 3 months of travelling going to the supermarket and choosing my own food is actually quite exciting!

There were loads of people jogging and walking their dogs which was really nice. We then went up to Monumento al Ejercito Libertador. which like every other Argentine city is a viewpoint. We got there just as the sun was setting and the view cross the andes to Chile was amazing!

The next day I went on a tour of the Andes. We left at 7am and it was a full day of driving but the views were amazing! We stopped at several different points to take photos and the highest point we reached was about 3500m so pretty high! We also got views of Cerro Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the himilayas. We stopped at the ski resort too where some people did sledging (mainly the boys), however, I decided to keep warm and had a nice long lunch with the girls on my trip instead!

On Monday I booked onto a day of trekking, followed by abseiling and thermal pools! We again left early and drove to the andes foothills where we walked for about 1.5 hours. We then did three abseils down the cliff face (7m, 10m and 40m). It was freezing cold waiting for our turn as we were in a large group. It was good fun though and the 40m drop was very scary! After that we were all very ready for lunch and the thermal pools! The wate in the pools is naturally heated and pumped into a series of small pools. They were all different temperatues so when we had discovered which was the hottest we sat and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon! It was lovely being nice and warm looking out across the mountains!

Monday night was a hotdog party at a nearby hostel which we went along too. It ws pretty self explanatory but was good fun!

On Tuesday was the long awaited wine tasting! We decided to do it ourselves rather than book a tour through the hostel. So on Matt´s recommendation we got a bus to an area of Mendoza called Maipu and rented bikes from Mr Hugo. He gave us maps and explained the 9 different winearies we could visit and the distances between them. We set off for the first one and had a tour around and then sampled a red wine. We then decided to buy a couple of bottles and enjoy them in the park before moving on. We got a few strange looks from passers by but im sure they are pretty used to tourists drinking wine here!

We then went to another vineyard for lunch. It was lovely and warm in the sun so we made the most of the views across the vineyards. We then went to the next bodega (vineyard) and sampled 4 different wines. This bodega had a great atmosphere and so we spent the rest of the afternoon there and im sorry to say we didnt have time to go to another vineyard! However we did make it to the chocolate factory on the way back where i tried chocolate and almond liquer which was lovely! We then returned the bikes to Mr Hugos where we given yet more wine!

It was a very fun day and much better to do it on bikes where you can go at your own pace!

The next day was wednesday and it had snowed over night! Paul (who I had been travelling with from Cordoba) was going onto Santiago, Chile but the pass through the Andes was shut due to the snow and so he ended up flying instead! Luckily my bus to Salta was still ok and I left at 8pm that night for my last stop in Argentina!