Nov 2005

I sat next to a young South American so got the chance to practise my Spanish on the way down South and he recommended a hostel in the centre of town. Obviously we ignored him and went with the first person touting at the bus station who offered us a free taxi ride.

Mendoza is another very western looking city. The first thing we did after getting clean was go into the supermarket nearby, a massive carefour(?) where I finally managed to buy a wash bag after 2 months of looking. On our first walk round town what did we find though was a MacDonalds, yes Rach´s eagle eyes spotted Ronald peaking out from the trees so a quick diversion was in order and the famine was broken with a couple of cheeky hamburgers (we didn´t want to ruin our appetite for dinner!)

Although a beautiful place there was little out of the ordinary again, although it was lovely to wander round the shopping centres. That night we ate in Macdonalds again before wandering off to bed.

Next day we went on a wine tasting tour where I got to see how the bodegas worked and got to taste a few glasses of the local wine (they were very very stingy). We also had a tour of the local chocolate factory. I didn´t know that red wine would be white unless they let it ferment with the skins in the mixture and also that most new wine as they call it never sees the inside of an oak barrel. Very eye opening for wine lovers like us

For dinner that evening the restaurant didn´t have a wine list. Instead you had to go into their wine cellar and choose straight from the racks! However they seem to insist on keeping red wine cold here to preserve the flavour, but to us it doesn´t taste as good unless it is warm.

Mendoza has a real cafe culture so the following day we hung around the cafes drinking reading and practising Spanish

Turned up in a pretty Western looking city. Argentina is so different to Peru and Bolivia - the first thing we noticed is that they actually finish building their houses and put plaster on the walls! There were also modern cars on the road!

Nothing much out of the ordinary here. As in San Pedro all the things to do are much of a muchness of what we did in Bolivia though not as impressive or adventurous and much more expensive. So all we did was go and have our first Argentinian Steak - wow wow wow. Easily the best bit of meat I have had. The restaurant greeted us with a complimentary glass of champagne (I was wearing a vest so felt well out of place) and we had an Argie bottle of wine (Deago Maradona has his own wine here in Argentina!)

Just before buying our tickets to Buenos Aires, we clocked a newspaper headline accompanied by pictures of rioting and decided to check it out. It was happening in Buenos Aires because Bush is in town for the Free Trade Americas meeting. To make things worse, we discovered that they`d petrol bombed what seems to be the only McDonalds in South America. We were so close to ending our 8 week Mc`Donals famine that we could almost taste it! God damn it. So we made a late change to our plans and opted to head for Mendoza(Argentina´s wine capital) instead. Easily the best bus we have been on, much better than the UK, the seats are massive and recline all the way - even at the back where we were since booking our tickets late.

As soon as we hit the roads in Chile we realised that at last we had made it to a 1st world country (road markings and signs and everything! including tarmac!) Got stopped at the border and had our bags searched for food and our shoes decontaminated for foot and mouth!

Turned up at this tourist town in the desert. Tried to book a bus out the next day to head straight to Argentina only to be told we couldn´t go for another 4 days. Oh well we spent 4 days eating the best food we have had for 6 weeks. Although the place is so much more expensive than Bolivia the food turned up on beautiful white plates ´drizzled´ with various sauces complimented with napkins and proper cutlery, such a change from the usual restaurant standard. The other noticable thing about changing countries from Bolivia to Chile is that the toilets come with toilet paper and flush!! In the evenings the restaurants have massive fires to heat the places so all our clothes now smell of smoke. It was lovely though.

Whilst we were there in the desert we hired bikes and with sandboards attached to our backs road into the Death Valley to go sandboarding. We were a tad disappointed though as the sand is so damn rough, you have to wax the board at the start of each run and as soon as the wax rubs off (which was approximately 5m down the slope!) the board grinds to a halt and you fall over! The only way to do it is point straight down the slope, don´t turn and go as far as you can till the wax has gone, then hope you go a bit further with the momentum you have built up. Also obviously there are no lifts so you have to walk up the massive sand hills each time - knackering. Wicked scenery but all in all I`d rather be snowboarding.

We went swimming and sunbathing in the local 'oasis'. This was an hours walk away in the desert sun to the local camping ground where they had a swimming pool. In usual South American stylee it was built in the 60s and we lay on cobbled stones round a pool that was chipped and cracked. Rach got burnt and I got a funny tummy from the water (I did however drink beer round a pool so for a moment it felt like a bit of a european holiday)

Went back, ate and drank then ate and drank some more till friday´s bus - we don`t really have many responsibilities here!