After begrudgingly departing Bariloche we headed North up to Cordoba which is smack bang in the middle of Argentina. 21hours on the coach was no problem at all. We arrived on Easter Sunday and the place was like a ghost town, nothing was open and people did not appear to exist in Argentina`s "second" city. The hostel was pretty cool had a great roof terrace and was pretty lively. Decided we wanted to do horseback riding since we didn´t do it in Bariloche and booked it for the next day. Whilst sitting on your backside for 21hrs shouldn´t really take too much out of you, especially as you sleep for most of it, but it does. We decided to go out for dinner and have an early night, went to Las Tinajas which is the biggest buffet in Argentina which was pretty good (standard buffet quality) but it was absolutely huge!!

Monday was the day of horse-riding we were picked up and driven 2hrs to a ranch in the hills and it was just the two of us and the guide, Max. Had a great time Chloe was petrified at the beginning due to her being so far off the ground and the fact that the saddle on her horse was a tad loose so she felt she was falling off. Chloe was also initially given the hyperactive horse so whilst I was giving my horse sore ribs trying to get it to move Chloe was doing little and kept over taking me!! We swapped horses half way round which is when I confirmed that the saddle was infact loose and she wasn´t being a drama queen. After that it was great I was galloping whenever possible and whilst it was fun it is best described as "uncomfortable" for male riders also due to a petruding screw on the saddle I ended up with a nasty blister smack bang in the middle of my hand!! By the end me and Chloe were basically pro´s galloping back to the ranch for the BBQ that was included. More meat was consumed and after we played an Argentine drinking game called "Chancho" which is basically the equivalent to "spoons." I was usless and consumed alot of sangria due to my ridiculously slow reactions. When we arrived back at the hostel we carried on drinking up on the roof terrace chatting to three girls who had just arrived at the hostel. We were both quite drunk talking a lot of drivel and by the end of the night we ended up talking to a former Isreali soldier about the war (we were so out of our depth on that topic!!) but alcohol gave us the false pretence that we knew what we were talking about. I showed the guy my blister in the centre of my hand and proclaimed that I was like JC and it was stigmata.... luckily he wasn´t religious but definately time for bed!!

The cheap wine in the sangria left us both a bit hungover so we spent the next day skyping, shopping, watching Liverpool unfairly crash out of the Champs league after bossing most of the game, and sleeping. The girls who we were chatting to the night before did the horse riding that day and came back to the hostel with the same guide and his brother and friend ready for a night out. Not feeling completely up for it we agreed and by the time we left the hostel for a bar we had assembled a pretty decent squad! Everyone was pretty drunk but the bar was quite good they were selling a bottle of cheap wine and a can of red bull for 5 quid myself and Max (the guide) bought one each and filled up a bucket my night went downhill at an incredibly fast pace after this point and was escorted home by Chloe at about 3.30!

The next day I had suggested we go to Villa Carlos Paz having been sold by the Lonely Planets guide which descibes the place as "A little slice of Vegas in the Sierras" we got there still nursing pretty bad hangovers and found a little slice of nothing!! Other than a shed load of hotels there was nothing going on! There was one Casino but this was more Gala Bingo hall than MGM Grand! We booked into a hostel and were the only guests!! Went out for a Mexican and ending up seeing our guide from horse-riding at the same restuarant which was weird!! Went back to the hostel and watched Bad Boys 2 so it wasn´t a completely wasted trip.

So today is Thursday and we have arrived back in Cordoba and are waiting for our bus to Mendoza which leaves at midnight a short 10hr trip then 4 days in the wine region. Before we go though we have enough time for an all you can eat BBQ (tenedor libre Parrilla!!) can´t wait. Love to all.

Rory and Chloe