Day 95

We arrived late at night in Bariloche, met our French cell mates….sorry room mates and went out for dinner at a local bar

Day 96

We were up early to have breakfast and on a bus to Cerro Cathedral ski resort. I had been snow boarding once, and Kelly had not been skiing before and I was looking forward to seeing her in action. We organised for her to have a ski lesson, and I practiced further up the slope. We had a great day skiing, one of the highlights was Kellys first time on the ski lift. As the lift reached the top of the slope and it was time to jump off, Kelly couldn't get her skis parallel, slid off the lift and landed face first into a large blue crash mat, like something out of a cartoon….it was hilarious. After a long days skiing/boarding we returned home and made ourselves some backpackers pasta and chicken. That night we met our third room mate, an old, large Argentinian man who looked like hannible from the A-team. He seemed quite pleasant, but he was too show an annoying side. I woke that night hearing what could have been an earthquake or a large yak mating….hannible was snoring. The volume was unbelievable, and I had to continue shaking his bunk to stop him. I had an average night's sleep that night.

Day 97

We walked around Bariloche town centre, and visited multiple chocolate shops. We had a massive portion of ice cream and bought a load of chocolates, which we ate most of that evening. I had spent most of the day laughing with the French lad we were sharing with about the tremendous cacophony coming from the mouth of hannible, and often we were reduced to tears of laughter. That evening, while lying in bed, our fourth cell mate entered (making 6 in the dorm) the room. We had met him earlier in the day, when we returned from shopping. He was stood in the room in just a small pair of white pants, and looked a little embarrassed. He was a tall dutch fella called Michael and after putting on some clothes, he said "now im nyot schtanding here in jusht my pantshhh I can introdusshhe mysshelf", I had to stop myself laughing. He was an odd looking bloke, tall, yellow skin and deep set dark eyes. He looked like an extra from the thriller video or the munsters. Anyway that evening, I decided to tell him, that the bloke he was sleeping above snored louder than a pneumatic drill. It was at this point, that things were to get worse. He told me that he talked in his sleep, often very loudly. I of course laughed, thinking he was joking. At this point he looked me straight in the eye and said "no really…loudly….sometimes I scream" It was quite chilling, as the idea of a large clog wearing zombie screaming thoughout the night was terrifying, but also seemed appropriate for our room, that we had not only a monster snoring, but a dutch nutter screaming at random points in the night….I had no choice but to burst out laughing and then tell the frog on the other bunk, what I had just heard. We laughed for about 10minutes. At around 3am that night, I woke to the rumble and bunk shaking snoring, in symphony with dutch sleeping jibberish and random screams…it was actually quite scary.

Day 98

We went kayaking on a huge lake surrounded by snow capped mountains, and it was one of the most beautiful places I have been. After 3 hours of kayaking we returned to the hostel and I cooked up a Tom Money Pizza special. We were in bed by 11, and once again were woken during the night by the screaming dutch giant and hannible doing his best impression of an earthquake.

Day 99

A long bus drive to Mendoza, a renowned wine region. The bus took 20 hours.

Day 100

We arrived at Mendoza, a city slap bang in the middle of the desert, and explored the city. The city is more relaxed than Buenos Aires and has some lovelly parks and plazas.

Day 101

We were picked up and driven to a bicycle rental shop in one of Mendoza's wine regions. We had been told by many people that Mendoza was a pretty wine region and that we had to take part in some wine tasting. Kelly and I have been on a few wine tasting tours in Sydney and were looking forward to the views and experience. However we were in for a shock. The area is heavily industrialised and they are building a large highway through the middle of it. We were given our bikes and we began the cycle ride up to the first few wineries. It was cold and very windy and the beginning of the journey was uphill, needless to say it was not particularly enjoyable. The experience was made worse, by the awful dusty construction sites we continuously cycled through. All the fields were full of fruitless dead looking bushes and the wind and dust was unbearable. The wine tasting within the wineries was good fun and the wine was great but the cycling and journey was a nightmare. Annoyingly, we were informed that the area gets sun 320 days a year, and we had come on a bad day…..great. We got back and made dinner. As we sat down having dinner, a couple of german women sat nearby began singing quietly and to each other. The songs were folk like and were quite spooky and haunting. It was very quiet and you had to strain to hear it, but it was a weird situation. We finished up quickly and went to bed before the Geris started to crack out the instruments.

Day 102

During breakfast, I was enjoying the cd playing in the background. The CD was of accordion music and after our breakfast we went upstairs to get ready. On the way out, we walked through the living room, and realised that it wasn't a CD at all, but a weird little French bloke playing the accordion (he may have been argie, but he looked French to me). It was odd to hear at breakfast, but quite a nice experience.

We spent the day walking around a huge park in the city, which was well designed and pretty. Unfortunately I had eaten something dodgy the night before and we had to cut the sightseeing short.

Day 103

We checked out at 10am and while we were waiting in the common room, the 2 weird german women began playing guitars and singing pretty yet haunting songs again!!. I sat there reading the news on our kindle, when Frenchy with the accordion joined in, before you knew it we had a little folk jam session going on. It was a nice morning show and was a nice way to leave Mendoza. We jumped into a taxi and were on our way to the bus station.

Day 104

We caught a Bus to Salta in the North of Argentina and arrived there very early in the morning. We walked around the main plaza and tried some of the famous empanyanas (an Argentinian meat pastry dish that it is a cross between a samosa and a Cornish pasty) Kelly hadn't eaten beef in years, but she was knocking back the beef empanyanas.

Day 105

We continued to explore the city, but I still had a dodgy stomach, and was suffering from cramps. That evening we tried to have a Barbeque, but they only had wet wood, and so we had to make do with frying our food.

Day 106

We continued to explore the city and look at some of the colonial architecture. Alas I still had stomach cramps and wasn't feeling great. Kelly had empanyanas again and I stuck to plain soup. The hostel had a outdoor tent with a tv and dvd player in it and so we watched a movie and spent the evening chatting to our room mates. They were a nice couple from England.

Day 107

After breakfast, we went to a museum about archaeology of the Inca people. They had a display of a mummified child called the maiden. A few years ago, archaeologists had excavated a tomb on top of a mountain, and discovered the bodies of 3 small children. These children were perfectly preserved and had been sacrificed by the Inca people for the gods. Due to the cold and lack of oxygen they were immaculate. The museum rotates the display of the 3 bodies, with only one on show at a time. After the museum we walked up a large hill, which had fantastic views of the town. It was quite a hot day (32degrees), and so we decided to get the cable car down. Back to the hostel and relaxed for the evening.

Day 108

Kelly and I went horse riding at a small gaucho (cowboy) ranch, 30 mins outside of Salta. We were given our horses and set off on a 3 hour ride. The guide was very young and did not speak any English, and so once again, my "fantastic" Spanish was called upon. Kelly is a very experienced rider and was at the front of the column of riders. I was at the back on a slowish and older horse….which suited me fine. 45mins into the ride, just as my nerves had settled and I was enjoying the ride, our guide fell of horse, when it stepped on some barbed wire. It landed on his ankle, and luckily he wasn't too badly hurt and limped back onto the horse. Once I had arrived home safely, and not fallen off my horse, thank god, we were sat down with a glass of red wine. The red wine flowed all afternoon, and we were then served dinner. It was an amazing dinner, the quality of meat was phenomenal, and the red wine continued to flow. I dont think ive ever eaten so much beef. The owner was a real character, and kept us laughing with his macho argie stories.

Day 109

We had to catch a bus at 12am, and so we spent the day relaxing and didn't stray too far from the hostel. That evening we caught the bus to the Bolivian border.