Quinta & Suites Apart Hotel Mendoza

... the rest of us and loving every minute. Sat down with some guys from Chile for a little while and spent most of it in silence as my Spanish self learning stalled about 6 weeks ago. Did a lot of pointing and gesturing though, will be champion at charades by the time I have finished here I think.
Had a sore head this morning after consuming red wine and beer again, will I never learn? Probably go to the pictures as we have a few hours to kill before another bus journey tonight.

... it outta here.

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After being in Argentina for the month of July (except the time on the boat when we were technically in Chile), we found it to be a really great place. It was cheaper than Brazil (except for some of our tours) and the people were super-friendly. We can't say enough about the quality of the red meat and wine - chicken is more expensive than steak and the water is sometimes more expensive than wine!

The ...

... Although if it were day light the drive would probably have been effin gorgeous). The Aussies joined us and we went straight from Tucuman to Mendoza. The bus was supposed to be 12 hours and serve us breakfast and lunch... Instead it was 15 hours with NO FOOD whatsoever. Fortunately it was comfortable and about 14 hours into it some man came on the bus with coolers of sandwiches for 5 pesos. We all gave ...

... evening friends from another hostel invited us over for dinner followed by some more argentinian wine and my spanish was tested as the Argentinians taught us some new drinking games...in Espanol! My last day in El Calafate, I attempted a hike to the mountains behind the town. All began well until 2 hrs later I reached a river. Having got this far, I decided to stepping-stone my way across the river. Two-thirds of the way, my iPod slipped off my ...

... is listed in Lonely Planet. However, the place wasn't packed and instead of a tasting at this place, where the grapes are hand picked and the 100,000 bottles of wine per year are made in cement vats (not large steel containers), we bought a bottle, sat outside in the bean bag chairs they gave us and had lunch with our wine in front of the grape vines. It was quite romantic and we were doing quite right after downing that bottle. Our last ...

So we´re finally in Mendoza. We´re waiting to finally meet our boss and for him to take us to the winery to start our first day of work. It has been quite the adventure getting here. We arrived in Santiago, Chile on Wednesay morning. My lovely friend Andres picked us up at the airport and took us for lunch and a quick tour of Santiago. We then took the bus for an amazing ...

... her passport here..so we´re chilling and drinking some vino. Its really, really hot here..highs are 350C..and that´s from about 10am to 8pm so not very productive days. Plus am still getting used to my red hair, may take some time. We find out that H got a distinction in her Clinical Pharmacy certificate, clever bunny, so I take her out for dinner to celebrate...we head to Azphran which has beautiful food, some of best I´ve tasted here in south America and they ...

... of the famous Torres del Payne, called the W trek. Border control for Chile was quite extreme (reminding us of Australia) everyones bags were searched- we heard tales of someone being caught with an apple being fined 200 USD on the spot. We hired camping gear in Porto Natales but the weather started to look ominous... forget the fact it is summer- this part of the world has a climate of its own- and from El Chalten's sun here was dark clouds, non stop rain and ...

From Patagonia we had been diligently trying to arrange our onward travel plans attempting to find a route and schedule that would allow us to meet up with friends Ben and Natalia, whom we met in Brazil. The best plan turned out to be an overnight bus ride to rendezvous in Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina. A nine hour semi-comfortable semi-cama (the full on beds were booked) bus brought us to this tidy city-town ...

After a very relaxing and very decadent time in Santiago with Gonzalo, we headed for Mendoza, well known, of course, for its wine. Shortly after landing, we spent a bit of time working out the best way to do a tour of some wineries. We then had to sample some ice cream to help in a family dispute (we have yet to sample the other one so the jury is still out), and have just come back from a ...