Due to unfortunate bus schedules we had a 5am start when leaving Cafayate. A 6 hour journey took us east over a beautiful mountain range to the sweltering city of Tucumán where we had the afternoon to kill before our night bus to Mendoza - Argentina's number 1 wine region. We hid from the heat in a great air conditioned restaurant and had more great steak with a salad bar on the side for healthiness. Tucumán was an ugly city so we spent a few hours in an internet cafe and I (Simon) applied for a job at Frazer Nash as a Gas Turbine Consultant - fingers crossed. We then headed back to the terminal and settled in for the night on our beds (lie almost flat seats) in our night bus with wine being served, which probably helped us get a good night sleep.

In the morning we decided to walk to our hostel but this turned out to be a mistake as it was much further than I thought and it was really hot. As we were too early to check into our room we headed out to pick up our money transfer from Azimo - another way to get the cheap Blue Dollar rate. On the way back we passed the Central Market so popped in to have a look. In other more northern South American countries we've had to watch what we eat from the markets but this one was filled with posh looking delicatessens. We felt like we were in the Harrods food court! We bought a good amount of salads, cold meats, brie and something that looked good and tasted good but later we found out it was tripe. On the way back we also passed a load of puppies and kittens that were for sale. Katy was asked if she wanted one so it was lucky that I held the money.

Mendoza is a beautiful city with wide streets (to help it cope with earthquakes), hundreds of trees down every street to provide shade from the baking sun, good shops and great cake shops. (We also enjoyed the ice cream on offer that afternoon.) The town has very long siestas where shops can close from 1 to 7pm. That evening we enjoyed free wine that our hostel offered every night and also a massive BBQ that we signed up for with our new friends from the hostel. It was so good that I ate too much and felt ill afterwards.

The next day we had a late start and spent the day walking around the city, its squares and large park. The central plaza is the size of 4 city blocks and then there are an additional 4 smaller plazas around that. Again it was very hot and we got slightly lost in the main park but as this led us to a sandwich place for lunch I didn't mind. On the way back we passed loads of mansions which showed us again that we were in a rich city. In the afternoon we did lots of planning as it's now high season in Argentina and Chile. During our time in Mendoza we booked 5 lots of accommodation and a car for a week for the Chilean Lake District - very exciting. We ate out that evening, with our new Argentinian friends from Buenos Aires who were also staying at the hostel, as the supermarket closed very early on Sunday. Everyone eats late here so we got home at 1am and we weren't even drinking after a second night of free wine before dinner in the hostel.

We overslept and woke up at 9:50, when checkout was at 10am. We were checking out as we had to move rooms due to booking the hostel late. So after a late checkout we headed out to explore some of the local wineries. We caught a bus to the wine area, Maipú, and hired bikes but it was far from the idyllic ride in the country we had hoped for as there was lots of traffic on the roads. The bikes also turned out to be poor so I managed to get mine swapped while sampling some wine at a winery. The further south we headed the less traffic we found and we found some countryside. The cycle lanes ran out but the drivers were mostly good and gave us plenty of space which was good because I'm never totally confident on a bike and especially not with a bit of alcohol. The first winery we visited was the most beautiful with a very posh feel and a beautiful view from the terrace where we had some lunch. At our second winery the guy was very friendly and then we visited an olive oil place just over the road. Here we tasted 5 different types of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sun dried tomatoes and 2 types of tapenade. The last winery we visited was the oldest in Argentina which was really neat with the cellar but I didn't like the wines as much as Katy did. On the way back we had a police escort from two kind cops on motorcycles when the cycle lane ran out. For dinner we ate leftovers and I had a beer to make a change from all the wine we had had. All the wine drinking had given us a very sociable place to stay but now it was time to head back to Chile to try the Chilean wines.

Simon