We headed to Mendoza on a 1pm bus and it was a long journey (21 hours) and they only gave us a snack bag so we picked up some snacks on the way. That morning I met Frank over breakfast and he had only arrived in Bariloche the night before but he decided to head to Mendoza with us. He then met Ste and realised they had met in Buenos Aires so he joined the party. The bus journey was the same same and luckily it was quiet so we had 2 seats each. On the way we did break down (first time in SA so impressive) the tyre was b*****ed so we waited a few hours for it to be repaired but we managed to still get in for 9am. We said our goodbyes for now to the Irish crew and Frank, they were staying at a different hostel to us. We got to hostel Lagares and it was a quiet and nice hostel with a vast DVD collection. We headed to the supermarket and got some lunch and bits for dinner. We were going to attempt a chilli. I have to say the supermarkets are rubbish in Argentina. No offence to the Argies but all the supermarkets have barely anything, no decent sauces and no CURRY sauces :( the fruit and veg is never appealing and lacks variety I have to say so makes cooking pretty hard. Sorry little rant over, I miss my UK supermarkets..Later on we headed to the Mendoza inn to meet our friends. We stayed in their lively hostel for the evening and had some drinks there. We just hung out and had a good laugh. We decided not to have a big night as we had a long day the next day.

The next day we set off on our bike tour of the wineries of Mendoza. We had to catch a bus to the wineries and get a bike. It only cost 35 pesos for a bike but boy they were rubbish. It was all flat and only 24 km return trip but after 5 mins I was sweating as the gear was to high and I could not change it, so ANNOYING! We headed to the Tomaso familia winery first as we were keen to have some lunch there. We did a tour of the winery first for 16 pesos and they explained about the building. It was a listed building so they could not change the structure of it. Its a good thing as it was a gorgeous building. It looked a bit like a barn but more gorgeous. There were these old bricks round formations where they used to ferment the wine but now they used a different site which was some time away. They now used them to store the different wines and only one boy who was tall enough and skinny enough could go in and clean it and put the wine in there. The conditions were perfect as it was dry and dark. After getting some explanations about the winery and the family (who originated from Italy) we then sampled 4 different wines. 2 were Malbec one was 2007 and the 2008 (one stored in Oak and I can't remember where the second one was stored) The third was a Chavignon Blanc and the last one was a dessert wine. The second one the 2007 was my favourite. After a delicious lunch we headed back on our bikes and headed for another venue. This one specialised in liquors and jams and chocolates so we paid 10 to try a sample of each and I went with mint chocolate which is always my favourite. After this it was almost 5.30 and the wineries closed at 6pm so we decided to head back and have a drink in the bike shop. They gave us a complimentary wine so we chilled with it in the fading sunshine. We headed back on the bus to get ready to go to the BBQ at the guys hostel. We quickly got ready and we were there for 8.30. The bbq was at another hostel so we got a minbus there. We remet back with up Gerard from the bike riding in Bariloche so it was cool to see him. The bbq was only small but we had a laugh. They put on free tequila for half an hour but you had to drink it straight into your mouth at the bar. At first we were a little apprehensive but then after 1 came another and another. I ended up doing 6 tequilas and I flipping hate tequila!! We were also drinking beer so after drinking wine in the day we were really mixing up the drinks and really on our way to getting wrecked. It was a great night and we danced the night away. My ankle certainly was feeling it the next day and not forgetting our heads :) Although the guys were so sleazy on the way out. We left about 4.45am and it was in full swing but some guys were grabbing us on the way out and one was trying to kiss me. NO THANKS SLEAZY!! The next day was a right off and we chilled out watching film in the hostel before our bus to Cordoba. Mendoza was great fun and it was just a shame we did not see any more of the wineries although its probably a blessing in disguise :)