Mendoza and Salta - 2nd - 10th March 2010

Tuesday: We arrived in Mendoza late afternoon and settled into the 4-bed dorm room which was to be our home for the next few nights. After a short stroll round the immediate area we went in search of some food for dinner. We discovered a market stall near the supermarket with a great array of vegetables and, most excitingly of all, hot chillies (these are hard to come by in most of Argentina!). After our dinner of pasta in hot tomato sauce we went back out onto the streets to explore Mendoza by nightfall and to check up on the Jeffreys. Mum and Dad were slumming it somewhat in the Hyatt Regency off Plaza Independencia so we ambled our way there and immediately located them in the restaurant! We joined them for a evening digestif before making our way back to our dorm to meet our room mates.

Wednesday: We decided to get the bus to Maipu to do the bikes/wineries tour with the legendary Mr Hugo. We arrived in Maipu around midday after a 45 minute bus ride from the city and were greeted by Mr Hugo himself brandishing a bottle of vino tinto, we didn't take much persuasion to indulge in our first drink of the day. After one glass (how restrained!) we were off to the Museum of Wine, our first stop. We had a whistlestop tour of the Museum then hopped back on the bikes in search of booze! The next stop was the Familia Di Tomaso where we did both the tasting and tour option for a bargain 15 pesos. The vineyard is a small, family owned one which uses traditional methods and only produces limited quantities of premier quality wine (or so we were told). For our money we were allowed to taste 4 wines and enjoyed two younger wines, one 12 month aged Malbec Roble and a Torrontes desert wine. All went down well, although Lynne enjoyed the desert wine in particular, while David favoured the Malbec. Next stop was Carinae vineyard, owned by some Frenchies who bought the place, renovated it and brought in some experts to monitor the quality of the wine, again this winery prides itself on quality over quality and here we tasted 3 wines, one rose and two reds, all were good, although we prefered the Tomaso vineyard. We then moved on to the Laurs olive oil factory across the road, where we were ushered in with a tour group and shown the factory and given some delicious tasters of breads, sundried tomatoes and olive oil. After the tour we attempted to pay the guides but they, assuming we were with the larger group, refused our money, so we hot footed it out of the factory and sped along to our final winery, the lovely Tempus Alba. This is a beautiful vineyard with a lovely rooftop terrace, a perfect place to end the day enjoying some wines with a view across the estate. We ordered a cheeseboard and David opted for the wine tasting menu, while Lynne went for a glass of rose. The food and drinks arrived and they were fantastic value for money, the cheeseboard was huge and delicious, the tasting wines were plentiful and the rose was lovely and fresh. It took us a while to work through the cheese and wine and we finally, reluctantly made our way back to our bikes to cycle back to Mr Hugo's, where we were once again met by the him and a bottle of red wine! We caught the bus back around 6pm and went back to our hostel for a shower and quick change before we went to meet mum and dad for dinner.

We arrived slightly late (blame Mr Hugo!) and enjoyed a quick drink with my parents before we went in search of a restaurant. We had a fantastic steak in a restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, then headed back in search of some sleep.

Thursday: We arranged to meet mum and dad after lunch, so we spent the morning pottering around the hostel and then got a cheap lunch at a cute local restaurant. It was a gorgeous day with the sun high in the sky, so when mum and dad suggested an afternoon by the pool at their hotel we jumped at the chance! For the next few hours we lounged around the pool, reading and dozing in the baking hot sun. We went back to the hostel around 6pm, expecting to cook dinner and get an early night but when we arrived back at the hostel we found out there was a bbq on and we decided to join in. The food was fantastic, loads of salads and veggies, huge slabs of meat from the barbie and as much red wine as we desired (which proved to be quite a lot!). It was a lovely evening a great chance to get to know some more guests from the hostel.

Friday: We woke late (see above) and headed out to meet mum and dad for lunch at a cafe near their hotel. After a delicious lunch (lomitos all round!) we went back to the hotel for another afternoon by the pool. It was here that we met Jennie & Joe, two other travellers who had sneaked into the hotel to use the pool! It was mum and dad's last day in Mendoza and we were sad to say goodbye to them around 6pm when we left them to get their taxi to the airport.

We had a quiet evening back at the hostel cooking up some chilli pasta before we went off to watch the parade for the festival of wine! The festival is a really big deal here, the region prides itself on its wine industry and all the local shops get involved by displaying bottles of wine in their window displays. The parade consisted of about twenty floats carrying the various beauty queens from the towns in the region...the whole city turns out with plaques and banners supporting their region's queen. All the shops have posters of the queens in the windows so people can see the candidates before the show select their winner. The whole show lasts for a few hours and is enjoyed by lots of families and tourists enjoying some local vino and yummy jamon crudo sandwiches in the streets.

Saturday: We headed towards Parque San Martin today, it took us a few hours to get there as many of the roads were closed for the continuing festival of wine parade and celebrations. The parque is huge and really popular with families chilling out at the weekend. We found a spot near the lake to relax and read our books in the shade. When we returned to the hostel we were pleasantly surprised to see that Jen & Joe had checked into the hotel, so we had a lovely evening of chatting with them and other guests over dinner.

Sunday: We were on the night bus at 7pm to Salta, so we had most of the day to enjoy some more of the sun. On heading out the hostel we realised that Sundays are truly a day of rest here, the town was dead so we took a taxi to the bottom of Cerro de la Gloria in Parque San Martin and climbed the path to the top where there is a huge monument to the soldiers of the various battles in the surrounding Andes. We had our sarnies at the peak then descended back down the hill to the bus stop to take the bus back to town, before making our way to the bus station. We were booked into Cama class for our 18 hr bus ride and quickly settled into the large, comfy seats to watch some of the films on offer.

Monday: We arrived into Salta just after midday and quickly found our hostel, Hostel in Salta. The hostel is really nice with a big barbecue area, courtyard and common area with table tennis and table football!We got a really nice double room with bathroom and quickly dropped off our bags before venturing out to explore the town. Salta is a lovely town, with a much more 'South American' feel than the rest of Argentina. We really enjoyed checking out the local shops and the huge market where we had a wander and bought our veggies for dinner. We passed an hour or so just people watching at a cafe in the square where we had some drinks and empanaditas (baby empanadas) before walking back to prepare dinner. We met a friendly American guy while in the kitchen and ate together that night swapping travelling stories, he told us all about a shaman in Peru who he had spent some time with and gave us her details...not too sure we'll be contacting her though!!

Tuesday: That morning we wandered around the city a bit more, checking out all the areas, we then headed back into the centre in search of some lunch, we ended up with some street food which we ate in the Plaza 9 de Julio. In the afternoon we took the cable car from the city up to Cerro San Bernardo, where you have a great 360 degree view of Salta. It was a really lovely day and we enjoyed a bit of time up there to walk around and chill. Then it was back to the hostel where we again met up with Jennie & Joe and decided to go for some dinner and drinks together.

We were 'reliably' informed by the Lonely Planet that Calle Balcares was the place to go for dinner, however it took us a while to find any restaurants on this street that were actually open, or that we wanted to eat in! We eventually found a Parilla to have our 'last steak of Argentina' and what a meal it was! The steaks were delicious, really tender and we had a great meal. Not wanting the evening to end so early we went in search of an open bar, the only one we could find in the area was a 'dinner and show' venue, as they weren't particularly busy they were happy to let us in to have a drink and watch the entertainment. It turned out to be a good laugh with the main singer, a large beared man, getting quite emotional over his songs. The only low point was where they asked us our nationality, when they heard we were British they didn't seem to be to happy...the Malvinas/Falklands are still a sore point perhaps? We finally made it back to the hostel in the early hours after a really fun night out.

Wednesday: After our late night we weren't in too much of a hurry to get up and stayed in bed until midday (ridiculously lazy and something we never do at home!). Waking up hungry we found a litte restaurant full of locals eating huge plates of roast chicken and pasta, we found a table and got stuck right in. We then met up with Jennie & Joe in the late afternoon to watch some Champions League football (clearly not Lynne's choice!). Joe had identified a bar where we could watch it, so we piled in and found that we had the place to ourselves, the waiters were really friendly switching on the massive wide screen TV for us, pulling up tables in front of it and reappearing with plates of crisps and beers every half hour! Disappointingly for David, Man Utd won!

As we had an early morning bus arranged we decided it best to get an early (ish) night so went back to the hostel to cook. The hostel was having a bbq and show for guests and although we opted not to join the bbq (unlimited wine not the best idea when you have to be up at 6am) we managed to watch the show and enjoyed seeing all the local costumes and dances. We also decided as this was our last night in Argentina we'd splash out one of the more expensive bottles of wine...at ARS 30 (GBP 5), we weren't disappointed – the wine was delicious and a fitting end to our Argentinian travels.

So tomorrow morning we leave Salta on a 7am bus bound for the Argentina – Bolivia border. We're slightly nervous at this point to be leaving the civilised, steak and wine country of Argentina to enter Bolivia, which from what we have heard so far seems to be the home of barbecued guinea pig, petty crime and altitude sickness...yikes!