Mendoza, first stop in Argentina

New outfit - David with his legs out!
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A very scenic bus ride over the Andes and across the border took us to Argentina´s fourth largest city, Mendoza.  In contrast to Santiago we had received many good reports about the place therefore it had a lot to live up to.  I suppose it was a good sign that for the first time accomadation was hard to find due to an exodus of Chileans crossing the border for their bank holiday weekend.

To look at, Mendoza is pleasant enough but certainly nothing spectacular although it does have some very pleasant green plazas and a huge and well maintained park.  But as we wandered around we began to appreciate appeal of the place.  Its the lifestyle that the locals enjoy, the long lunches, weekends in the park, shopping trips interspersed with Ice Cream refreshments and the pleasant climate.  We did our best to join in and greatly enjoyed our first Argentine steak (huge) and a `Tenedor Libres´ aka all-you-can-eat buffet (but don´t get the wrong idea the quality of the food was superb and Michelle fell in love with the apple tart tartin/pancake). We also cycled around the park and did a little shopping (notice we are not wearing the same outfits in all the pictures for a change!) and enjoyed more than our fair share of ice creams.

Biking around Mendoza
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On our last day we hired bikes to do a tour of the local vineyards.  We learn´t that the Mendoza region is renown for its Malbec.  We were also disappointed to learn that these wineries are not in the business of giving free wine tastings to backpackers on bikes despite our best efforts.  However all was not lost we did enjoy some free liquers and chocolates at a little family run establishment where we then felt obliged to buy a box of our favourites.