We had high hopes for Mendoza, being the Argentinean Vino Tinto Wine Region and all, but it didn't really live up to expectations and although we enjoyed our stay here it has been one of our least favourite places.... Although the Hostel was fantastic!

Mendoza was described as this beautiful place with tree strewn wide streets, all flat and perfect after a volcanic eruption years ago but it felt like a wannabe city to us and was kind of scruffy and dirty! We met and heard stories of quite a few people who were robbed or pick-pocketed too which probably overshadowed our views a little!

After the mountainous cycle ride in Bariloche we were not feeling the suggestion to jump on another bike but the best way to visit those vineyards were to once again mount our two wheeled friends. We perused the bikes carefully and spotted a large fully padded seat, I quickly hopped on this one rejoicing that, for once, I wouldn't get bum ache from the saddle. Sven of course picked a sporty little number! And away we were again to our first stop a wine museum. Once the all the history and heritage of the region was absorbed we headed straight for the tasting. As instructed we headed to the end of the course first and worked our way back. 12Km later we arrived at our first stop exhausted… the ´easy´ almost flat ride there was hindered by the fact that seemingly my bike's comfy saddle was the only thing going for it, it neglected its duties to operate as an actual bike and every push of the peddle felt like an up hill struggle (again!). After a swap of the bikes, Sven boarding the feminine slave bike and realised I hadn't turned into the worlds most unfit women but that the bike was just utterly rubbish. But we made our destination and after hurrying through the tour we hit the wine… and it was worth the wait! We then made our way to an oil factory, had a tour in Spanish which of course was very insightful seeing as though we can speak Spanish fluently!! We then scoffed bread dipped in the homemade oil to soak up the wine before our next stop. Tired and hungry we heeded the vineyard girls' advice and headed to this wonderful country manor house for lunch. Ate the biggest poshest pizza you have ever seen and relaxed in the sun over some more local wine with Monty the dog at our feet.We somehow summoned the energy to visit one more vineyard and the chocolate and liquor factory, which was incredible! It was the tiniest, most insignificant looking thing but they produce all these jams, chocolates and liquors… all by hand! The best we sampled was the chocolate, coconut and white chocolate drops liquor and the white chocolate bar with dulce de leche... yum!

We did love the wine tour but it's not quite as picturesque as they all make out. You cycle along the main road, cars/trucks spluttering fumes at you and it's only towards the end that you see the Andes backdrop. I think also it didn't help that we were out of season so the vineyards were bear! We've seen so much more beautiful vineyards in Germany near Sven's aunt's house, but the wine and chocolate related substances more than made up for the views!

That's all we really did in Mendoza, mainly due to our last free day being spent chasing an online bus ticket that hadn't come through… thanks to Spanish speaking Amber we got it sorted, and no thanks to the lovely Argentinean customer services!! Plus we had a great hostel and so chilled out there most of the time. Hostel Lao had a cosy common area, free tea and cakes at 5pm, then free wine in the evening, it also had 2 friendly pet dogs to boot! It made going out very hard; in fact we spent both evenings in the hostel with the other inmates drinking the free vino! Nikki also got a little homesick as the illnesses still weren't properly shaken, but by the second night many people have arrived from Salta our next destination and the excitement kicked in all over again!