For the next three weeks in Argentina/Chile/Urugary my mate Buzzard will be contributing his comments to my blogs just to add a different slant and prove that I'm not biased and don't exaggerate (well at least not all the time). His input will be in italics.

After a few good days chilling out and enjoying the civilization in Santiago I said goodbye to most of the group I had traveled south with too Chile and headed over the border to neighboring Argentina with Buzzard, an old friend of mine who had joined me in Santiago.

We headed to Mendoza a town just across the Andes which is the heart of Argentina's wine region. On the first day in town we hooked up with some of the girls I had been traveling with and went around some of the wineries on bicycles which made for a very 'interesting' afternoon ride. {spud was clearly too traumatised to mention the last winery we visited which was owned by a guy who kissed and inappropriately touched every (and I mean every) visitor. Great wine though, so that was ok} The following day we decided to go to the local pool for a swim as the weather was great, what followed was definitely blog worthy..............

{So we turned up at the sports club for a swim and security bounced us for not being members. After going through entry protocols that put the border post to shame, and being relieved of any excess cash we were carrying, we were let into the complex. We then found out that to actually enter the pool we had to be certified by a doctor that we didn't have athlete's foot so we trooped back up to the surgery. There were four of us, Spud, I and two girls that Spud knew from his tour group. To save time we all went into the surgery together to have our toes inspected. It was only then that we found out that it was a full body skin disease check and we had to show between fingers, under armpits, behind ears, behind necks, between toes, and have a GROIN INSPECTION!! For a fri*gin' swim! We all couldn't keep a straight face when we were standing together with pants around knees. It was a great way for me to get to know everyone.}At this point just to save Rob being asked again and again if he passed (he's already been asked by several young ladies) he did.....Can you imagine that the doctor doing the inspections went to medical school for seven year to end up working at a swimming pool!

{back down to the pool where we found out we couldn't swim without a swim cap, so back up to the shop where we were relieved of more cash by a crazy lady who had no change for any of us, despite us all paying in small notes (go figure).

So back to the pool where we had to hand in our doctor's certificate to have a swim. Finally we were going to get to do some laps. Only then did we find out that there was a curious system of lap management that had people doing laps both up and across the pool at the same time. At this stage I gave up and went sunbaking.}

Despite the pool saga Mendoza is great, I'll remember it for wine (especially the Malbec's), the steak and the blue sky, I could have stayed here much, much longer. But Rob needs the time to visit Suriname to find out if its a commonwealth country or not (if you know the answer please pm him of facebook and let him know!!!).