Our first full day in Mendoza (Sunday) was spent at Parque General San Martin on the outskirts of the city. We assembled a picnic and headed for the park in the hope that the weather would stay good for a nice, relaxing day. When we reached the park we were impressed with the huge lake an amount of grassy areas where we could sit and lay out our picnic. We found a spot in the sun and lay down to spend the afternoon relaxing. We were surprised to find both of ourselves looking slightly beetroot by the time we we were ready to pack up.

Due to the late time we got back from the park, all of the supermarkets we tried were shut and we were facing the prospect of cheesy poofs and chocolate for tea. Luckily we were rescued by the guy at the hostel who told us about a Walmart down the road. Praise The Lord!!!!! Half an hour later we were in receipt of a rotisserie chicken and Beth had a Cadbury's Fruit & Nut. That was the most exciting part of the night.

On Monday, we headed to the bus station to sort out our next bus to Salta. This is an 18 hour journey which we have booked in Semi-Cama class which is the most basic class. However, it was so much cheaper to do this that even Beth agreed to it!! We then went to a museum on the outskirts of the city which took about half an hour to get to only to find that it was shut for the day.

Undeterred, I was looking forward to watching the Newcastle match later in the afternoon. However, after the guy at the hostel said the match would definitely be on the tv in the hostel, it got to 4 and it was still not on. Fuming, we marched into town to find a pub with the game on. Luckily, we missed all of the first half which from the look of the 'highlights' was absolute drivel!! Anyway we caught the second half and at least we saw a couple of goals. Tea was a lovely chicken, onion, rice and barbecue sauce concoction by the chef. It was very good!!

Next stop is the High Andes tour on Tuesday and a self tour of the wineries on Wednesday.