Sipping wine on the final journey through South America

---

After a few days relaxing in the pretty Salta, we headed down to Mendoza, a city we had been looking forward to for some time as the reports we had heard of its wine and steaks set the bar very high. We arrived in the city to find it a very modern city with a distinct European feel (big wide roads, lots of people drinking on the streets/plazas) and a very nice atmosphere.

On our first evening we found a suitable restaurant and ordered a big steak and red wine, and it was absolutely amazing, and you need to believe the hype about Argentinian steaks - they are sublime!

After a day relaxing in the city, enjoying the quiet park and nice shopping areas, we met up with some friends we had met in Brazil and planned to hit the vineyards the next day, and specifically to do the "bikes and wines" tour. However we had problems getting on the right bus (blame my spanish) and ended driving round in the wrong area for roughly two hours, before finding the right place and deciding we didnt have enough time to visit all the places we wanted to. Instead we visited a large industrial wine retailer, who showed us inside the factory and the large bottling plantation (with free tastings of course....) and also to the wine museum.

The next day we managed to catch the right bus and took off on "mr hugo's bikes and wines tour", where by we cycled aruond the mendoza vineyards, stopping off to taste wine! On route we also visited an oliveoil factory and a chocolate and liquer specialist.

We had a great day enjoying the Mendoza sunshine and amazing wine, and took the night bus over the Chilean border to Santiago, our last stop before NZ.

Santiago is a very big city where the modern sits side by side with the new. In our brief stay we wandered round the city, including a visit to the statue of Mary overlooking the city, and managed to get a feel of the place and the chilean people.

That evening we left SA for good and took our flight to Auckland. We absolutely loved South America and it exceeded any expectations we had of the place before we visited, and we are already planning to return in the future!

---

Photos

Perfect Steak
To put it into perspective look at the size of the knife!

Santiago
Old literally next to the new