Sheraton Mendoza Hotel

... this place that Charles Darwin camped at many byears ago, a bit of a legend here in Argentina. Also saw an old railway line that would have been one of the worlds best when it was open, was built by th English over 100 years ago but closed since the 1980´s. Saw some weird rock art as well, while learning some Spanish swear words as they described the people that had recently graffiti´d the area.<br>Finally though, after lunch we got to jump on the bikes. They were ...

... as a &#8220;terremoto&#8221;-precaution). We stayed up late watching films and had a nice long sleep with a lie in in the morning. <br> <br> On Sunday we got up and decided to head to the park on the West side of town, and had a nice walk around the lake there and saw our first Argentinian birds. We also visited another open-air museum, this time it was a road lined with boxes containing models of typical Mendoza scenes, like &#8220;the ...

... in El Calafate, Patagonia. The journey into town was breathtakingly beautfiul; the sun setting shone an orangey glow over the canyon-esque mountains on my left handside...in contrast to the blues, pinks and purples of the sky over the lake-side mountains on my right. It was a truly incredible welcome to El Calafate! I arrived at a gorgeous wooden lodge hostel situated up on the mountain, overlooking the lake. Upon entering I was welcomed with ...

... a pop, you would want to hope it tasted damn fine! This was the winery in which we did the `proper` taste testing.. with the glass swirling, and the small sipping using different parts of your mouth.. though we were allowed to actually drink it and not spit it out! Our third and final destination was an olive oil factory, learning about the process of making extra virgin olive oil (in which this factory even use the skin and the seed as fuel), and of course doing some ...

... that royal cama reclines and cama...who know?) Yikes! Ask me when it's over.... The day starts out fairly cool and semicloudy, but gets warmer when the sun is out and clouds blow away. Now I am out by the pool, out of the sun and still slightly damp and quite comfortable. The pool is like bath water. Some older Argentine ladies came out and I told them the water was fine, they put their hands in and went "brrr". Tomorrow we have on tap a full day at thermal pools that ...

... the different scents to expect when smelling wine. Paul learnt all wine taste exactly the same and beer tastes a lot better (peasant). The next day we spent an easy day walking around the beautiful, spaciously tree lined town centre and walked around the local park. Mendoza was one of the prettiest bigger towns we have seen in Argentina. The next day and we went on the Alto Montana (High Mountain) tour up to the Andes ...

... I opted for the Pork Tenderloin, with pear &amp; mushroom in filo pastry). Each course on the menu had a suggested wine to drink with it, but again there is no pressure to follow their advice. We shared a pudding of molten chocolate cake, with orange &amp; olive oil ice cream . . . we could have had 2 or 3 servings of that, and we followed their advice and had a fortified malbec with it, which whilst similar to port, is a really nice chilled dessert wine. We ...

... he eventually saw what I was pointing out he said he would try and find us another room somewhere else when insisted we would not spend another night in the room! He went on about how they did the best they could to clean the room and I had no right to be rude to him. When I asked how I was rude to him he picked up the sheets which were lying on the floor and threw a little tantrum and screaming said I should not have flipped the bed and that we should leave immediately ...

... s local football team) match, the mental fans being the main attraction! Autumn has arrived in Mendoza and it is really beautiful here with the changing of the trees and feeling the cold for the first time in 6 months is a nice novelty. We have just over a week left before we start traveling again. It's bittersweet to be moving on, we've made some good friends and have had a great time in Mendoza but it feels right to be leaving and we have so much to look forward to.