First port of call when we arrived in Mendoza was to organise another rafting trip; we had such a good time in Bariloche and suspect Argentina is more affordable for this kind of stuff than Chile (next stop) will be so decided to just go for it. Glad we did, it was a totally different experience. Firstly, the river looked like chocolate milk, not quite as attractive as the clear blue, drinkable (!) water of Bariloche. It was also longer (3hrs vs 1.5) and, while the Bariloche rapids were intermittent with patches of calm between the white water, this time we had continuous rapids which meant there was a lot more paddling involved and the trip felt much more extreme. Also worth noting, the water was freeeeezing! Apparently there's only 12 hours between the glacier and the melt water hitting the river so not a lot of time to warm up, plus the river took us through a valley between 4,000m mountains so there was a constant strong wind chilling us to the bone - even Gerard was shivering by the end and that does not happen often. A lot of fun though and I did feel more of a sense of achievement at the end, especially because there were only 4 of us in the raft (usually 8) and we managed not to flip!

It still astounds me how dead the towns and cities here become on a Sunday - you can take the girl out of London... After a LOT of research into possible sources of entertainment, we managed to find one winery that was open and decided to make it our business to get there, whatever it took. It took about 3 hours as it turned out. The first hurdle was finding a shop that sold tickets for the tram and buses - there are many but of course none of them were open. We eventually found one (with the help of a friendly local) and jumped on the tram towards Maipu. Upon arrival our suspicions that Maipu was unlikely to be more lively than Mendoza were confirmed, but still we persevered. Cue more friendly locals who helped us establish which bus we needed to take, largely through trial and error by flagging down every bus that passed and showing them our map. We eventually found a bus driver who was either going that way or was just prepared to make a detour for us and made it to the Carinae vineyard for a very enjoyable tour and a well-deserved tasting.

Since wine is the main pull of Mendoza, we were not quite satisfied with a solitary tasting session so on Monday we hired some bikes with a couple of people we'd met in our hostel and set off on a cycling tour of Maipu. At the bike shop we were greeted incredibly enthusiastically by Mr Hugo (the owner), given a map that gave the impression that the wineries were steps away from each other and told that everything would shut at 6pm. The map turned out to be incredibly misleading and we were not helped when we missed a turn early on and ended up with a police escort back to the main road (apparently we'd accidentally strayed into into a bit of an unsavoury area - quite literally the other side of some train tracks). This all meant that at 4.30pm, we'd only managed 2 stops (one of which was olive oil so didn't really count) and, realising we needed to ramp things up a bit, we decided to start skipping the tours and going straight for the tastings. It was very effective and we managed to get another two (with particularly generous portions) in by 6pm, which we thought was pretty respectable.

Selfless and generous soul that I am (ahem), our next destination was a small town 4 hours north of Mendoza called Rodeo. Claim to fame: windsurfing. We hired a car, memorized the Spanish for "I want to pay in the office" (apparently useful for deflecting policemen looking for bribes) and set off into the desert. The Lonely Planet tells us that the lake in Rodeo gets perfect windsurfing winds 300 days a year and 100% of the time between October and April. However, some of you may recall from earlier posts that the wind hates us (and, I'm starting to think, Gerard in particular). We arrived, no wind. We woke up the next day, no wind. Gerard made the most of it and spent 2 days on the water anyway, and thankfully towards the end of day 2 the breeze started to pick up - but what are the odds?! Zero if Lonely Planet is to be believed! I'd like to say that Rodeo had other charms but sadly it did not. The scenery was amazing but there was really very little of interest there beyond the lake - at first we put the complete absence of any signs of life down to a town-wide power cut on the first evening but upon exploring the next day we discovered that that's just Rodeo. Add to this the discovery of some beetles and one small scorpion in our room (the latter Gerard wisely didn't mention until after we left) and perhaps it won't come as too much of a surprise that I won't be rushing back there any time soon.

So that was it for Argentina! Such an amazing country, definitely somewhere I'd like to come back to one day. We're going to miss it a lot so to soften the blow I've decided to focus on the few things I won't be so sad to leave behind us:

1) Cheese and ham sandwiches.
Despite the abundance of awesome beef and lamb, for some reason there is only one choice when it comes to sandwich fillings. If I never see another cheese and ham sandwich for as long as I live, it'll be too soon.
2) Having to pay in cash.
Argentina has an unofficial exchange rate for USD which currently equates to about 1.5x the official rate. Prices are set somewhere in between which means that if you're not getting the unofficial rate, Argentina is actually pretty expensive. Unfortunately, paying on card or withdrawing cash at an ATM will only get you the official rate so it's necessary to be a bit more creative and we've spent a good few hours here purely focused on cash management. Our weapon of choice has been a company called Azimo which allows you to transfer money to yourself at the unofficial rate - a total lifesaver since it's spared us having to source and carry around a big pile of dollars, they have proper offices so you don't have to change your cash in a dodgy pawn shop, and we haven't received a single fake bill from them which is a risk when exchanging with the cambio guys on the street. Nonetheless, while it's fun to feel like you're getting a good deal and Azimo has made the process of getting cash relatively pain-free (only requiring a bit of forward planning as the transfer takes up to 24 hours to come through), a part of me is looking forward to being able to rely on plastic and book stuff online again.
3) Rodeo.
As above.