Hola again,

So it was great to get out of the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires after two weeks and arrive into Mendoza, a town famous for its fantastic Vino Tinto that it produces.

We arrived and decided to sort out most of our tours starting the next day...we were looking for some R&R but instead we booked a full day trek the following day leaving at 8.30 a.m....a time which seemed ridiculous after Buenos Aires standard getting up around 11 - 12.

Anyway, the trek was a climb of around 1300m from base camp of 2300m to peak of 3600m and our group had mostly come from Cusco, hence done the Machu Picchu trek, so were acclimatised and all pretty fit. Frank and I, on the other hand, had not done any trekking so far and were used to sea-level BA. Needless to say, we found the climb bloody difficult and at some points, circa 3200m, we weren´t sure if we were going to survive. We did though and the trek was the best I have done so far...through stunning scenery of the surrounding Andes mountain range, while also seeing loads of vicuña´s, the cousin of the Llama, and large Condors preying. We reached the peak in under 3 hours, even though the programme said 5-6, so climbed pretty quickly.

When we got back we were pretty exhausted and though we might get an early night and catch up on a week of little sleep...but noooo our hostel through a bbq for 21 of us with bottomless wine...of course we obliged and had a great night. Often some of the best nights we have had out have been within the hostel, one of the highlights of the trip have been meeting people from ALL over the world: Canada, US, Australia (of course), all over Europe, Japan, Korea etc etc.

Unfortunately, due to overdrinking and a stomach bug, I was really ill the next couple of days and was not able to do much.

But on the last day managed to partake in the infamous ´wines and bikes´ tour around Mendoza´s lush wine vinyards. I still wasn´t well but was a lot of fun cycling, pretty busy and narrow roads, while happily pissed on excellent Malbec Vino Tinto. We also visited an olive oil manufacturer, also interesting, and had delicious samplings.

A hostel I highly recommend is Hostel Lao, really chilled out and puts on some fun events.

Next stop Salta.