Hello again,

After relaxing on the coast at Valparaiso we headed back into Argentina to Mendoza, which we`d heard was a must see city. We stayed at a grand old hostel with a huge roof terrace called Winca`s hostel right in the city centre for four nights.

Mendoza is another very European city with a large bar and cafe culture but still runs a lot of adventure tours out of the city. The only tour we had our sights on though was the bike tour round the local bodegas or winerys, where you can sample the wines and various other locally produced products. After a couple of days of more relaxation and stocking up on various things we needed, as its so cheap there, we hired our bikes and set off with a group of similar minded people down a dirt track into what we were later informed was the `real Mendoza.` The first stop was a full wine tour around a vineyard and an explanation of the industry through the ages in a museum. We then slaked our thirst with a glass of white and a glass of red at 11:30 in the morning of a burning hot day. We then rode on to the next stop which was a shorter tour of a chocolate and liqueur makers where we got a large shot of flavoured liqueur. After another long ride in the sunshine most of our group stopped to have lunch, but being the bright sparks we are we had brought our own and carried on. After lunch the inevitable happened from riding on a stony track, I got a puncture that was deemed unrepairable and so we limped back to the bike shop. It was still an awesome day though and all for about five quid each.

On the 11th December we got another bus back across the border to Santiago where we will spend the rest of our time in South America before flying to New Zealand on the 18th.

Buenas dias chicos

Tom and Alex