Well it´s certainly been a week of highlights and lowlights (and I´m not talking hair cuts although I think one will be needed soonish). Well hi everyone, I´ve got lots to tell so be warned this could be a long posting.

We finally left Mendoza city last Friday and made our way with a stinking hangover (Jon) and a very bad tummy (me) on a dodgy old hot bus to a town about 400ks south called San Rafael which is another big wine area in the Mendoza region. Once there we decided to hire a car for the next few days and had a great time exploring El Nihul (a big lake) and driving through the 100ks length of Canon del Atuel via a dirt-track road to reach Valle Grande (another big lake). It was actually so nice to see all this stuff in our own time rather than be hoarded on and off a tour bus like sheep so a real highlight for me.

On Sunday we then drove down to Malargu which is a big skiing resort (though too early for snow at present) about 200ks further south of San Rafael and visited a trout farm for a great lunch - my tummy was better by now but then the bloody head cold appeared (so lowlights). However I was not quite dying so we booked on a day tour to La Payunia - this national park is only reachable by 4-wheel drive so we had to go with a tour group - a whole day in a clapped out 4-wheel drive mini bus with soaring temperatures for about 10 hours, no toilet facilities (including bushes to hide behind) and a great pre-arranged veggie lunch which consisted of ham empandas (lowlights) but that said the park itself was totally astounding - it´s a volcano park and completely different landscape to anything I´ve seen before - lots of black and reds and yellows (photos are up but really do not do it justice) oh and lots and lots of dust too which brings me on to another lowlight - my poxy camera broke - the lens is stuck with dust... it´s useless so I will have to purchase another one (but at least it broke after I had taken the photos so not all bad).

Well we left Malargu and our lovely little log cabin (a highlight) that we had for our time there, and gave back the car (which was a definite highlight for a few days) and took another bus North via Mendoza city to San Juan which is where we are now. Stayed in a really dodgy hotel our first night as per normal we´d not bothered to pre-book accommodation and it was there that I lost my 4-month old Ipod (so another really bad lowlight) but hey at least I still have my sony MP3 player with me so not music-less.

So here I am in San Juan - we came here to go to a national park (Valle de Luna or Valley of the Moon) but as soon as we discovered that we can only go by tour which takes 12 hours (with only 3 hours in the park) in soaring tempretures with no toilets we´ve decideded to just hang around the town and enjoy the plazas!!! Oh and we do have a much nicer hotel now.

So what´s San Juan like? To be honest I can´t really describe this place half as well as the tourist information centre´s brochure does and I quote..."San Juan, where the vines provide their marvellous fruit, the mountains their varied colours, the river it´s discreet sing among the stones and the splendor of the autumn its exclusive golden. Here, where people offer the usual hospitality of a culture rich in traditions... a beautiful zone highly suitable for the industrial and economic development..."

That said I´ll say bye for now to go off and enjoy this beautiful singing golden area that´s suitable for industry. Next stop Buenos Aires, we´re getting the overnight bus there tomorrow so we can shop (have a list already including camera, ipod, immodium and lemsips) and party the weekend away xxx