Mendoza.

I arrived in Mendoza on a bus from Buenos Aries. I had no contacts here and I had no idea where i was going to stay.It is quite a fresh feeling. All turned out well and I managed to find a hostel very easily. Even though nobody really speaks any english.

Mendoza is a Little city (100 000 people) at the foot hill of the great Andes Mountain range. It is the capital of its province and namesake Mendoza Provice. Home to the peak of the great Aconcagua,the highest peak in South America. Unfortunately I am unable to attempt a summit because the trail is closed for the winter.

I have been here for 3 nights so far , i'm staying in a hostel about a 10 minutes walk from the city centre or plaza de indepencia. Its a nice hostel called Ruca Potu with free wine and a free laundry service.

I arrived in the Morning and spent the day walking around the town. I had no map and got really really lost, but i saw some cool things and met some nice locals. (locals are very friendly to foreigners here).

The second day I went for a tour of all the wineries around the maipu region on a bike. Again I had no idea how to get there ,all I knew was that i had to take bus number 10 for about 40 minutes ,get off ,and the "bike n' wine " company would be somewhere there. This turned out well and I got there alright.Mr. Hugo was the owner and he greeted me with a smile and a big cup of really awful cheap wine. Downing it seemed to make it taste better.You rent a bike for the day and they give you a map and you are free to explore the area and stop off at all the different wineries along the way. I was about to head off when three guys asked me to join them. 2 from france and one from denmark. so i did and off we went.

Our first stop was a chocolate factory. That happend to make some absenth on the side. The absenth was heavy and felt like i was drinking fire. We washed it down with some nice hazelnut liquire and off we went. The next stop turned out to be another chocolate factory that also happend to make some absnth on the side. they also had many different types of liquir to try. we had green pepper, tabaco, grapefruit and cherry liquers. all followed by another shot of absenth.

We were now ready to find some wine. Cycling and drinking is quite dangerous but the locals are very carefull of tourists on bicycles in this area. We cycled around from winery to winery tasting the best wine argentina has to offer. All of it tasted really good. Malbec is the most common variety. Its good. Not too heavy.the argentinian Malbec from the Mendoza area is actually the best in the world.

After the wineries we stopped of at a brewery. the beer wasnt the best but it tasted good. At this stage everything tasted good.

Definatly one of the best tours i've been on. And i got to meet some cool people.