Haven´t updated for a few days, so...

Sunday - Had a bit of a chilled out day, as I was so worn out after the long 12 hour day in the mountains on Saturday. I woke up at 10ish, which is normal time for a brit, but was the only one awake for about 3 hours! So I just watched TV...which is all regional in Argentina. All about the game between Argentine and Peru, crucial for Argentina entering the world cup, if they lost or drew they were out. Fortunately, obviously I also now support Argentina!, they scored, putting them 2-1 up in the absolute last minute. It was played on Saturday night, and I promise you the streets were empty. Its VERY important here football. Anyway, Sunday afternoon I went hiking up a mountain, close to town, with my rep Lucila...it was amazing..2 hours trekking up, in the sunshine, and the views.."Qué lindas" the argentines would say, were INCREDIBLE! Typical image of the andes...rugged, vast, covered with green trees and shrub...amazing...and the views over the town were also incredible. I was knackered, but it was worth it. Sunday night we rented a film...Muerte en un funeral, which is actually an British film starring Chris Marshall. It´s not at all known over but the argentines loved it! It was a funny film too, in English, with Spanish subtitles...The first time I´ve actually actively used English apart from when on the computer.

Monday - Monday was a feriado, which means a bank holiday, for this reason, everyone again wakes up late (like 2pm, they don´t go to bed until like 5am on weekends!) and the town centre and shops are a ghost town (most things close on Sunday). I had to get up early to do an excursion. I went on a half day bus tour to the bodegas en el campo, which is the vineyards surrounding Mendoza. Mendoza is set in a dessert, with a very warm climate...when the Europeans came, mainly French and Italians (for some reason, therefore, they speak Spanish!?!) they bought with them all their grapes and vines and set up, literally, hundreds of vineyards...Argentina is a major producer of wine, and 80% of the countries output comes from this area. I was picked up from my house, and taken through the vineyards. The scenary was amazing!! It was warm, all the streets were like how you imagine it is in france...pretty scarcely populated, with the ocasional house/villa, all treelined. The loclas, looked french, wore countryside clothes and cycled everywhere and it was very peaceful and quiet...loads of fields, loads of vineayards, and the Andes in the background. All the bodegas (like the company and factories wh¡ch produce the wine) had tastings!!! I don´t really like wine, but it´s free booze, in very generous tasting sizes...so got a bit tipsy at 11am! I can´t really comment on the wine except for the fact it was in good supply, and red... They also produce lots of olive oil, so olive oil and olive tastings...and the best of all...one bodega did liqueurs, baileys, peach wine, absinthe, and the best of liqeur dulce de leche, which is Argentine speciality, a very sweet-tofee like sort of milk. And they did choccies and sweets...niiice! I love the ARgentine food, I have to say...what did I have for dinner last night as well? MEAT! Suprema de pollo, which is a fried chicken breat...big size, cost a quid! Worn out, spent the evening watching tv, and the latter part of the day in the park, the big park of mendoza. It was PACKED with people, the roads too. Because it´s a bank holiday everyone was out in the park.

I´ll update on what I did today, tomorrow.