Day 275, 276, 277, 278 - Mendoza - Tuesday 17th, Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th, Friday 20th July 2012

We arrived in at 9.30am very cranky, cold and tired after our rubbish bus journey but once got to our lovely hostel, Lao, and had a cup of coffee and hot shower all seemed well with the world again! We headed straight out for some lunch; we were starving after not having eaten anything but chocolate and crisps for the previous twenty four hours! We made our way to a little place well known for their menu del dia and settled down for a dinner of chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, rice, fried potatoes and salad - our carb fix had arrived. After lunch we wandered around town for a few hours, it was a beautiful sunny day and warm enough to wear a long sleeve t shirt which was a relief from the several layers we'd been used to wearing in the previous weeks. Come early evening we arrived back to our hostel and to three bits of good news! The first was Ad had received an email from Mercedes to say they wanted to interview him for a General Manager position - the downside being that the interview was in two days time and given that we are not back in the UK for six weeks it wasn't going to happen - but it was a positive step and made Ad feel good about getting back into the job market. The second was that the lovely HMRC had very nicely sent me through a very large tax rebate cheque - woohooo Buenos Aires shopping here we come! And finally, the August / September edition of the UK's "Wedding" magazine had been sent through to my mum's house and featured our wedding as a double page spread (page 103!! So all in all we had a perfect day and settled down for a chilled evening feeling very pleased with ourselves!

Today was the day that both Sophie and myself had been waiting for, and one of our main draws to Mendoza - WINE!! We had spoken to the staff at hostel Lao and explained that we had heard about a place called Mr Hugo's. Basically he loans you a bike for the day and armed with a map and some knowledge of the area and vineyards, you head off. She advised us that this is OK but recommended a small, cheaper and more local firm, so we agreed and were not disappointed! We caught the number one bus from near the main street and headed forty minutes out of town. I, in my bestest Spanglish asked if he could tell us when we arrived, to his credit he remembered and pointed us in the right direction. We arrived at the bike hire place and after a chat and laugh with the really nice couple who owned it, we were off. My bike was stream-line, super quick, macho and cool whereas Soph picked the pretty one with the basket!! When we signed to take the bikes away we noticed that the two people who had signed before were 1) English, 2) Staying at our hotel and 3) Were on the same route as us - weird! . We were given a map and on it were four vineyards and one chocolate and liqueur shop. Anyway after getting lost (as usual I was navigating as Soph, of course, would never get lost!) we finally arrived at Lagarde vineyard and ten minutes late for the tour which consisted of us and Matt and Faye - the couple from our hostel. We had a really good tour and five tastings and lots of drunken chats with Matt and Faye later were back on the bikes and off to Pulmary vineyard for yet more tasting and lunch! The wine tour here was good but nowhere near the standard of the first tour, but the wine was excellent and Matt and Faye were really good company and we had such a laugh. Our lunch on the other hand was expensive and not brilliant which was a shame. After buying a bottle, M & F bought two, we made our way, albeit gingerly, to the Chocolate and Liqueur shop. Here we sampled chutneys, jams and chocolates all washed down with two shots of any spirit we chose; the girls had chocolate and dulce flavoured ones and Matt and myself had one strange one each and a shot of Absinth!! By this point we were all quite drunk! We all ended up catching the bus back to the hostel where they had just started a free wine night… more red wine… yes please. We finally made it to bed at 12am ish and fell straight to sleep!

Today we just chilled day all day and nursed our slightly sore heads, then at about lunctime we headed out for lunch at Ana's with Matt and Faye. The food was good and pretty well priced and I also noticed that we all had water with our food, not a glass of red in sight!! We spent a free hours eating and chatting in the garden of the restaurant and had a really lovely afternoon. In the evening we caught up with some friends and family on skype and waved goodbye to Matt and Faye who were catching the night bus to BA.

Our last day in Mendoza was really nice and the sun was out too!! We had a nice lazy morning and then took the long walk to the huge park in town. The park is so big that it has two local football stadiums in it which hold maybe 20,000 each and both are hard to find!! That should give you an idea how big it was! On our walk down Soph noticed a vegetarian take away shop which is a pretty rare sight in Mendoza or Argentina for that matter! So we bought two huge platters and some drinks and took them with us to the park. We found a really nice spot on the lake and in the sun. We watched all the locals playing football in the park, and I do mean all the locals. No wonder the Argentinians are so good at football, they all play it all the time, and if they are not playing it they are talking about it, and if they are not playing it or talking about it then they are thinking about it… it's like heaven for me!! After a really health and tasty lunch we headed back to pack and then we said goodbye to the people at the hostel and boarded our bus to BA.