Pukarainca Uspallata

... Chilean border and the Chilean police. We had also heard that the Chilean border guards have been on strike and that there is a big backup on the border. We heard that the strike was just effecting trucks and commercial traffic and we would have no problem.

So we continued further up in altitude towards the border. It got colder and colder and we stopped to put on extra layers of clothes ...

... last fews nights in BA in a different hostel in Palermo. It has some amazing old mansions and is quite the snobby end of town. We did some massive walking - checking out the famous sights of the recoleta a cemetry like no other! - made more famous because its the resting place of Evita (whose tomb took us an hour to find and eventually we had to tag on the end of a guided tour to see it....heehee sneaky aussies ...

... crossing ever at 4am between Chile and Argentina (do I really look like Iīm smuggling fruit and veg across the border?) we headed to the nearest hostel we could find and grabbed some more sleep. Upon waking we strolled around Mendoza people watching (Mer didnīt like my comments about the beautiful ladies...) and working out the best option for visiting the Wineries in Maipu. [Mer: No need to comment on the women with your ...

... well known brands are Tronto and Tapiche. In general Argentina is known for it's Malbec variatal, which actually means bad beak in french, as the grape grows very well in the region. There is a lot of European influence in the wine and culture. Many wineries began with immigrants from Italy and France circa 1860. Then in 2001 another influx of French, Italian, and America wine makers flocked to Mendoza to purchase ...

... the mountain that I didn't climb in 1996. On that trip only got to 5200 mts, we camped there for 3 days, but the weather was bad so the whole party, returned to base camp. We stopped for lunch at 16:00 and found out that 2 of our travelling companions were English teachers from 100km the city of BsAs. So we got the low down on the state of play and pay for Argentinian teachers. He told us that teachers get only 70% of ...

... tour of four local vineyards with two Aussie friends we had made to give it our stamp of approval. We sampled a few decent and not so decent reds (and a rubbish white) plus we got a feast of a lunch. In the evening we hit the town and felt pretty ropey by the early hours! Bit of info on Mendoza - it's an oasis town reliant solely on the water draining from the ice and snow on the Andes. To kept the town green, the locals have built a clever irrigation ...

... stopping at the small town of Uspallata, where we found some cheap accommodation (80 Argentinean Pesos, or about GBP13 for a hotel room). Uspallata is a busy ski resort in the winter, but now was fairly quite. We locked the bikes in a compound around the back of the hotel before heading out to an alpine-style restaurant for pizza and dark beer. I was fairly tired after the long day and fell asleep watching the National Geographic Channel, in Spanish.

... walking towards "Las Bovedas". These are old silver melting buildings constructed by Jesuits. Actually all the work was done by indians "inspired and directed" by Jesuits... As with most things in Argentina the museum was closed on a Sunday, even though the tourist office stated the contrary, but it was worth the walk. Especially entertaining was crossing a small river and getting soaked in the attempt (see Video of ...

... guides explained the basics to the 12 people in the group (row forward, back, duck, what to do if you fell in the water, etc) and gave us all our gear. The photographs show all the start of the rafting, but given it was going to be quite wet and active we couldnt take our camera along. We are hoping to get a couple of pictures from Ed and Jenny as their guide was taking pictures going down the river (we will add those on later). The rafting ...

... did a big show of waving her arms, sporadic crying and saying that the hostel should do something. There were lockers in all rooms and she didnt put it in, but it looks like it was a bit of a show as even her friend was not getting involved and staying away from her. There was also an american guy trying to get money back as he had made a change in the reservation and did not want to pay the cancellation fee. The best part was the receptionist who was ...