Apart Hotel Murano Mendoza

... 5am; backpacks; white skin and a lonelyplanet guide book - we might as well just hand over our wallets and phones to save ourselves the trouble of being mugged. With this realisation we headed straight back to the bus station to wait for sunrise on the floor of the open air terminal. I wrapped myself up in every warm item of clothing I had at my disposal and hugging my backpack drifted into a disturbed sleep... Suddenly Chile didn't seem so appealing.

... what I like to call... The MendoZONE Diet. The MendoZONE Diet: 1. wake up at 6am every morning.. and begin your day with an apple, 4 cups of coffee, and some sort of granola bar. 2. Proceed to work for 6 hours of physical labour. 3. Lunch: 1 or 2 Salami sandwiches with cheese on calabrese panini, some sort of salad pasta or bean. Followed by some sort of fruit or cookie covered in Dulce de Leche (like carmel but with ...

... being, "I want to ride my bicycle". <br>After a good sleep in, we ran into Pete in the square and headed in search of lunch. I was out voted on not repeating restaurants and we headed back to the pizza joint. At least I tried a new meal while the they ordered up another Tropical. Tulli and I headed to the bus station to choose our next adventure. We really wanted to head South to the lake region, but couldn't quite figure out how to fit a ...

... I don´t think either of us slept or that could have been the voices and loud music from the hostel until gone 2am. Obviously we are getting old! We decided that night we would check out the following morning and made a reservation where one of friends was staying. We couldn´t bring ourselves to tell the truth of why we were leaving and so lied and said we had mixed up our dates and had to return to Santiago that day so we wouldn´t miss our flight. The ...

... see if much damage had been done (will probably be on some Chilean version of Crimewatch and be wanted for ABH with large luggage!!). We did manage to make the coach, and despite it being a 8 hour trip, it was an incredible experience. We had used the same company to book all of our coach trips throughout Argentina, and the guy who booked the seats for us is yet another example of superior customer services you get with most of the companies in Argentina. As this ...

... rapids we went through kept the trip exciting and we even had a few rafters swimming. After a days rafting we'd built up quite and appetite so started the evening at a great little tapas bar (Tasca la Plaza) before having dinner at a lovely restaurant with a huge wine selection and a menu to match. The restaurant offered a wine tasting flight which included three different red wines form the area which gave us a perfect opportunity to try the wines with our meal. We were ...

... days left, I offered to help them out and complete one. Of course, after I agreed, everybody else was obliged to do the same! But there was a bit of false-advertising - they suggested that it was a very quick, simple survey, but there ended up being something like a hundred questions! Darcie felt bad for them because it seemed like a very tough job, to be down here but having to work. I disagreed - what easier way is ...

... on another 32 hour bus ride!) After I made this decision and bought my ticket, I had several hours to spare before my 10:30 pm bus. I spent the day walking around Mendoza. I found it to be more pleasant this time, I think it was because it was siesta and so it wasn't as crowded and the huge discount stores weren't as overwhelmingly present! I walked to a few more plazas in the city. I really like Plaza Espana which had beautiful mosaic tiles all over it. I ...

... Brazil for the last few weeks of our travels :( <br><br>Unfortunately it looks like we will have fun &amp; games with the hostels because most of them are booked up already, up to a month in advance! <br><br>I guess that shows how Argentina is now very popular with young tourists, who don't need ...

... literally raw ham. It's not exactly "raw", but somewhat like a rustic version of prosciutto. We stop and enjoy sandwiches and coffee sitting at the roadside. This is the rural version of a sidewalk café. We are soon back in Mendoza, and I stop off at the bus station to drop everyone prior to returning the car. We now find we have gained an awful lot of luggage, and it takes some time just to get it all organized so it can be stowed properly on the bus.