Mendoza is an attractive enough Argentinian city on its own, but most make a stop there because of its proximity to the mountain crossing to Chile or to visit wineries in the nearby valleys. But on my budget, I felt trapped there, since most excursions required going on expensive guided tours, even the most basic of which cost 90 USD a day. This would feel inevitable in countries like the US and Australia, but it's difficult to pay that much somewhere where it is $10 for a dorm bed, $5 for an acceptable bottle of wine, and $3 for all the groceries I need for dinner. So instead I booked four nights at my hostel and got a free bike rental in Maipú (pronounced My-poo, making for endless puns, considering how ugly it was), which is
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