Mendoza 08/01/2009 to 12/01/2009

We got the over night bus which was a good one, got some sleep etc. Played a bit of bus bingo as well, lucky I can do numbers, Nic was struggling a bit..

Mendoza is right in the middle of Argy's wine region, the Malbecs were lush and you didn't need to pay much for them if you were drinking in, unfortunately it was quite expensive going out.

We stayed at the Winca apartments which were a little bit old, in fact very old and and a bit shabby but who cares, we had a TV for a little while and also our own kitchen, it in a pretty good place to get in and out of the city. Had a chance to do a bit of cooking with good stuff from the super market, there was a Carre four just round the corner. We got planty of wines in for the evenings as well, all good... had the old favourite recipe spag bol one nightwith a nice bottle of Norten Roble..

Overall Mendoza was a nice place to go,plenty of things to have a look at and a massive park to wander if its not too hot. There was an Irish bar, can't remember the name but thought we'd try and watch a bit of football but no joy, the damn place was never open, or never was when we went past.

Ave Villanueva had loads of bar and stuff, we never made it down there in the evenings, a bit of a hike from Winca but it was alright during the day, randomly we had lunch at an Arabic place, don't know why.

went on a brilliant wine tour for a day, we visited 3 winery's for tastings and then were taken to a traditional restaurant that you would never have found and would have hjad to drive to any way, they layed on the most amazing Picada banquet you could call it, when we sat at the table it was completely covered in little bowls of stuff, the wine just kept coming in jugs, don't know what variety or strength but it worked. They waiter came over at some point and said with a smile that after this lot there were 3 hot dishes to come, my god, I'd already been stuffing a bit so I hadn't missed out on anything, so out comes a couple of individual bowls of pasta stuff each and the some more meat and more wine... I popped out for a fag after that, found one our group out there asleep already. when I went back in the waiter was coming round with desert... god. our guide aparently does this whole thing 3 times a week, greedy bugger.. all in all we actually ate for 3 hours, lush...

we booked in for some spanish lesssons, we'd been struggling a little without it. we only had time for 4 hours 1 morning but we had a 1 on 1 with this brilliant guy who just taught us what we needed just to get by so we could book stuff over the phone if we dared try

we went on a trip up to Aconcagua, well not actually up to the top cos you have to climb it and it takes more than a day, but as far as we could by bus.. sat next to the strange couple who didn't speak all day, just sat there listening to there ipods and then ate there back packer tuna pasta in the lunch place, we kinda thouight that we should start and do stuff like that really but, hey ho
We met Kylie on this trip who we planned to meet up with again in Salta..

met a lady one day who told us the story of how she had not long returned after her husband had been trying to kill, she'd gone cos there was an assassin type after her, I couldn't help looking round after that, met her son and stuff... also she had a go at the waiter for us, we would sometimes wait ages for service so she asked him why, basically he said f*ck em their tourists, that explained alot... watch out for that all over argy and don't tip the f*ckers



cooked some nice stuff

wine tour

spanish lessons