Parador del Angel Chacras de Coria

... them do. Day after that we went white water rafting with a group of rastas next door who kept screaming 'forward!' when we were heading straight for the river bank. This made a bit more sense when half way down the river, they told usa that this was actually the first time they had taken a tour before and raised their oars in celebration!<br><br>After a few days relaxing in the mountains we caught a bus back to Mendoza and headed for Buenos Aires. <br><br><br>

... to the table accompanied by a bottomless glass of red wine. Sore heads the following day led to an abrupt end of wine tasting experience.<br> Our final day in Mendoza was spent wandering the streets of Mendoza. While not as beautiful as Buenos Aires, Mendoza still has its charm. Strolling through the city parks as well as the endless tree lined streets, it was a fine way to spend our final day in Mendoza.

Headed out from San Martin. Awoke twice to the bus breaking down. Had to switch buses twice in middle of night. Hope they take better care of planes here than they do the buses. <br><br>Delayed us a couple hours, but got into Mendoza this morning and got a cab to the hostel. <br><br>Took walk down to huge park on East end of city, designed by famous Argentinian architect in 1896. Can imagine how beautiful it would be in spring when everything is bloomin, thousands of very ...

... views to the plains amazing. I think Wayne enjoyed his first horse ride by the smiles and photos taken after the trek we had a siesta break and lunch and about 3pm we went to the river fed by the Andes where we would white water raft. The water was not raging so was a grade 2 to 3 only. Being warm weather helped as the water was chilly as we ended up in it mainly as a result of forced upending just to make the afternoon more fun. We had a great day all round ...

... like wine maker and create my own blend using Malbec grapes from different vineyards - I have expensive tastes evidently because my combo was the same proportions as their Gran Reserva (which sadly I didn't get to taste). I did try their Punto Final Classic and Reserva Malbecs (nice but not amazing). However the last wine I tried was their premium wine Enamore which is an Italian style wine made partially (20%) with sun dried grapes - really good. (I ...

... We have also been to a football match. Mendoza (Godoy Cruz) vs. Tucaman (San Martin), it was a big game as only the winners would remain in the first division. We were quite late arriving as it wasn´t as close as we thought and the directions we were got on the street weren´t very helpful. However, we made it and arrived with some of the away fans, who seemed very keen to take us in with them. There were loads of police which I was quite suprised ...

... write this, the rain has stopped and we have just booked ourselves into this hotel for the rest of the week, and we then have a 12 hour coach trip on Saturday to Cordoba to look forward to!! Some of you may know, but Mendoza is THE wine making region of Argentina - Argentina only exports about 10% of its wines, the rest it keeps for themselves, and having tried a few, you can understand why they want to keep them, they are amazing! Mendoza has over a 1000 vineyards ...

... C units are really drying my throat out as I sleep. Some salty ham, salami, cheese, biscuits, cereal, and a nice assortment of pastries rounded out the spread. For the pastries, I only managed to sample a very sweet, but decent coconut pastry, as we were in a bit of a hurry to leave for a winery tour. Our tour guide for the day (Carolina, I think), had a very nice accent, so that was a good start to the day! The first winery ...

... wine making, but as we wound our way down from the roof to the bowels of the building, following the path of the grape juice we discovered that the building is as much for show as it is for work. Grapes are trucked up curving ramps to the roof where they're crushed next to a state of the art laboratory and tasting room replete with dental chair suction devices to remove already-tasted wine. From there, gravity takes the juice into fermentation tanks made of ...

... us on steep and twisty streets to the top, then to satisfy Sophie who wanted to ride the rickety funicular, we risked using the Ascensor Penal down to the harbour below Cerro Concepcion. Some of these contraptions were constructed in the early part of the last century so we were curious about the experience of riding one. We hopped a local bus that drove along the ocean edge to Vina del Mar, the ritzy neighbor of Valparaiso. We ...