Hotel San Martin Mendoza

... took care of a couple of errands before heading back for another Hostel party night, this time an all you can eat Argentina style barbecue.
The barbie was amazing, consisted simply of fat chunks of steak and chorizo sausage. It was so good I had jaw ache this morning from all the beef chewing. I have now officially converted Ang from a ravenosemi vegetarian (chicken and bacon only), to a ravenous carnivore, well not quite but she was getting stuck into the steak ...

... off the ground and go back into the busy city, but we managed eventually.

Its quite funny, in the wine areas they have special 'tourist police' that drive around for the sole purpose of making sure that the tourists on bikes are not a hazard on the road! They pop in at random at all the wine farms to make sure you are still capable of steering your bike home!

Mission accomplished in Mendoza, we have a day to relax and shop a bit before we hot ...

Well we are finally back in Mendoza after a terrifying bus ride from Cafayate to Tucuman and then a gruelling 15 hours bus ride from Tucuman to Mendoza. Tucuman is only 230km from Cafayate but the bus ride took nearly six hours on account of the most ridiculous switchbacks Ive ever seen coming out of the mountains. If it had been day light Im positive I would have spewed all over the snoring guy in front of ...

... we spent the day exploring glacial lakes and this famous mountain range - 'torres' meaning towers as the 3 towering peaks are so steeps they're more towers than mountains. We were so lucky with the weather - perfect blue skys and no wind meant the lakes were still enough to reflect the mountains...apparently these conditions only happen once every few months and it was truly incredible. Another 5 hours on the bus took us back to El Calafate ...

... of oil and one olive tree produces 100kg of olives per year. The sorting machine that takes out all of the stems and leaves and such takes three people to operate and sifts through 1,000kg of olives per day. The olives are then decanted for three months before the oil is actually produced. 80% of the oil produced at this place is exported. Our next stop was the El Cerno winery, which is a popular one as there are signs everywhere and ...

... After that we went to a chocolate, liquor and preserve factory and sampled some of each and got a tour for only 10 pesos (I had Irish vanilla liquor which was really tasty). Lastly we went to the oldest winery in the region dating back to 1869, and had a tour and something to eat there. Then back to the bike shop where Mr Hugo, the owner, gave everybody there free red wine. Pretty cheap stuff but still nice, but what can you expect when its free! We liked it so much we got another one.

... mineral deposits in the surrounding stone. A great trip but the high light were the Andes themselves - huge awe inspiring mountains and surprisingly colourful - sand stone, sits next to white and black rock with huge stripes of metal ore adding further dashes of colour. A nice couple of days but again time to move on, this time following the edge of the Andes northwards up to Salta - our last stop in Argentina before Bolivia.

We eventually get to Mendoza..unfortunately having just got off a 17 hour bus journey, Heidi puts her bag down for just a second..and its gone. With passport, so we head off to the police station to make a report..pretty good at this now. I have reported to the police in Peru, Neil had to in Sucre and now Heidi in Argentina...muy peligroso (very dangerous) in south america. But no harm to us physically so could be a lot worse. H is able to apply by post and wait ...

... days we walked until our feet felt like falling off (around 50km over two days) and were blown away by the views of the glaciers and the famous torres (towers) of rock. The place was one of the most beautiful we had seen with glaciers, huge valleys and even tadpoles for Charlotte. And best of all was the weather which was supreme, without a cloud in the sky- something we would later come to appreciate even more. We crossed down into Chile for our planned 4 day ...

... les hostals remplis de gringos (originelement 'Green Go' en reference aux americains) et autres europeens. PS: Ah oui j'avais oublie, la ville aussi est sympa, provinciale, a taille humaine, dynamique et assez bourgeoise... On s'y sent bien, les rues sont larges et pleines d'arbres, ses places sont joliement decorees, son parc (Parque San Marint du nom du liberateur de l'argentine sous l'opression espagnole) est immense.... C'est la ville que j'aurais le plus apprecie dans ce pays.