The next morning we had a reasonable start at around 8ish. I said farewell to my room mate for most of the last three weeks, Di. It was sad to see her go, as we'd been getting on so well recently.
Anki drove the truck to the other hotel, with me navigating, however that went a bit Pete Tong when we realized that we'd turned the wrong way on the first street.
After a slight mishap with someone's laundry, we were delayed again and finally got away at 9.30ish.
We had a reasonably windy trip ahead of us as we climbed back up over the Andes through the Chilean border into Argentina. The pass we drove over on the way through was amazing, it went up to about 4000m and the road wound like a snake up the mountain.
Just before the Argie border, we stopped for a spot of lunch and so Anki could show the new kids how to set up all the cooking equipment. Considering we were at altitude and water is supposed to boil at a lower point than normal, the pasta took an exceptionally long time to cook.
Next it was quality time with the border people. The only unusual thing about this was that although we were going into Argentina, and not Chile, we had to get rid of all our fruit. I was a bit miffed because I hadn't even eaten any of my plums and they'd looked so good. Apparently because we were going into wine country, they were quite particular about that sort of thing.
The closer we got to Mendoza, more vineyards kept popping up and the excitement was at it's pinnacle when we passed the Septima winery.
Due to a time zone change, we arrived around 8pm, to late to go and see a dentist.
We were staying at the Monkey Hostel. The people were fantastic, which is something that couldn't be said for the rooms. We had 11 people in three conjoined rooms, with only two showers, which was in an anteroom off of our room. Three people had to walk through our room to get out and we also had to walk through the last room to exit. Not the best of placements particularly since the old Dutchman was a constant w@nker and it wasn't something that I would like to have walked in on.
It was wine tasting day, hoorah!!! Up earlish but it turns out that our transport was delayed and although we were supposed to leave at 10ish, we didn't head out until about 11:30ish.
The first stop was a little boutique family run bodeaga. Randomly, I recognized a couple of people that were there. They were friends of Ingrid's from Paris. The world is a small, small place. The wines were quite refreshing and although I would have been happy to buy a bottle or two, I thought I'd hold out until we got to Septima.
Next on the list was a much larger industrial winery. The spectacular thing about this winery is that they had a smelling room, where there was all the different smells (good and bad) associated with the different wines. Each smell was contained in a plastic vessel and you waggled the top to emit the smell. Some of them were a little strange, but others were as if you were smelling the real thing.
The final destination was the one I'd been waiting for - Septima. This was a Spanish winery that had branched out to Argentina and they produced a lovely Malbec (the choice of the day for Argentinian wines). After a wander around the winery it was time for some tasting and although they didn't bring out the Malbec, the other wines were quite tasty.
It seemed that quite a few people on the tour were getting quite tipsy, but we hadn't had that much to drink. Maybe I've just had too much wine in the past and my tolerance levels were better.
On the return from the wine tour, the hostel had laid out a bit of a spread for us to apologise for the morning's mix up.
Unfortunately for me, I had to go visit the dentist. Although I had to wait a bit and pay 90 pesos, it was a fairly quick and painless experience, but I had to go back the next morning. Being the blonde that I am, I thought that the very bright white filling he had put in was going to be my permanent one and that I just needed to go back and get it polished up a bit the next day.
To my shock, when I was cleaning my teeth, part of the new filling came out and I was a bit concerned. I was all apologetic when I arrived at the dentist's, just to find out that he was going to put in a complete replacement. Another 75 pesos later and after several 89's power ballads, I had a sparkling new filling.
The rest of the day was non-eventful with most of the group out and about. I had my first experience of the Argentinean Postal Service when I had to send my passport home to be renewed.
Back on the truck again and it was off to the estancia for some horseriding.