Mendoza-Nkalakatha!

So the first feat is to get ourselves over the Andes ( to the other side of the mt, the other side of the mt hummm hmmm hmmm) ok so we took the bus again, which weaved it's way along a very windy road of hairpin bends, which made Sani Pass look like a straight line. Lucky us got to sit in the 2 very front seats and watch as the ground would disappear from in front of the bus before making a remarkably sharp turn around for a bus up the hill. Each bend higher and higher left me with a few butterflies in my stomach and tingles in my toes as we hung off the edge of the cliff. All in all it wasn't a terribly long trip (6 hours driving time) however this was also the boarder post passing through time, so not too much sightseeing of Mendoza that evening.

We caught a metro bus to Maipu the next morning (thanks to a helpful Argentinian who eventually made it clear that we needed a swipe card for the bus, which needed to be loaded and THEN we could climb on. This left Tim scrabbling down the street looking for a place to purchase this card while I kept watch for the bus! Fair delegation I thought.) So Maipu was recommended as a great place for tasting Argentinian wines (Melbec is world famous, and I mean truly world famous Tanya, not N American world famous) The one and only street of the village was dotted with vineyards offering tours and tasting. The farms were not very big, mostly family owned and in total was approx about a 30km round trip...which we did on a bicycle! Yup! And to top it off we bought 3 bottles which we had to peddle with my little basket, all I needed was a bell! Now Tim carries them around- I have to keep reminding him how worth it will be back in SA.

The next day we decided to really exert ourselves and make our way to the hot springs which are open and covered pools of varying temperatures set up against the mountain side. These pools are even open in winter when the surrounding mountains are covered in snow! Beautiful! anyway we picked the hottest day of the year but it was still fun and relaxing.(actually it only rains 12 days of the year in Mendoza! So most wine farms are irrigated from a nearby lake).