Well hello! This is our third day in Mendoza since leaving Buenos Aires. We arrived on Saturday after another long bus ride ride (15 hours this time). Once again we feared for our lives as the bus driver drove at breakneck speeds in order to arrive on time, despite the pouring rain - it only seems to rain when we're on the bus which is good! I've had a cold for the last few days and some tummy issues on our last day in Buenos Aires so we've been taking it slowly. The hostel in Mendoza was a bit of a shock from the awesomeness of Milhouse. It was absolutely dead but we did arrive quite early. We had a nap and then went exploring through the town to find that it was similarly scarce, despite it being 1pm on a Saturday. This was strange because Mendoza is the fifth biggest city in the country! We managed to have a good nose around and go to the parks and spot some good places to eat. On the way back to the hostel we had a massive CAAAKE which our waitress described as a "Black Jungle", which made us laugh. We tried to get an early night (11pm) but our plans were dashed by us unluckily being put in the noisiest room in the world, ever. It was right next to a disco which is connected to the hostel. We couldn't sleep for 4 hours! Jo went to ask at 3am whether it would be stopping soon and they said yes, but it continued until 6am. Ouch. We did get some sleep eventually though. The hostel organises trips so we decided to go to a Thermal Spa in a hotel yesterday for some more relaxing. All the pools are filled with thermal spring water and the sauna was natural - dug into rocks. We also had a massage and a massive buffet. The food is still brilliant - even the buffets are good. Today the city has suddenly come to life and there are people and cars everywhere. It must just be quiet at the weekend. We're going to visit the huge park on the west side of the city where there are walks and activities to do, plus a football stadium (though we're not quite sure who plays there). There's also a wine tour we can do in the city so we're going to check out that. Tomorrow we might do a bike ride which visits 5 or 6 vineyards with tasting at every one. Riding may get interesting towards the end. Not sure what the plan is for Wednesday but we'll be heading to Santiago either Wednesday or Thursday by bus over the Andes. That's all for now love mikey & jo xxx PS apologies to people we've met on the trip looking for photos... I'm having a nightmare finding decent internet cafes with USB ports and I keep forgetting to bring the damn camera lead with me too. They'll be up soon!