Mendoza

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Well after missing our bus by 12 hours in Iguazu we decided to book flights to Mendoza for the next day instead, a real bummer on the money front but there you go. What else could go wrong, well, when you fly in Argentina you have to fly via BA, so we boarded our 1st flight from Iguazu to BA, all good. Well not so good as they flew us to the international airport instead of the domestic one where we were to get our second flight. The 2 airports are 45 mins apart and we only had 30 mins to get the next flight, great. All 4 of us with bags legged it round the airport looking for the Lan desk, which was the furthest away and then explained to the lady what had happened. Luckily she rang the domestic airport and got them to hold the flight for us, whacked us all in a taxi and bombed it across town. We got there 10 mins after the plane was due to take off, to find it had been delayed anyway, not before all barging to the front of check in, with a priest translating for us, all very odd.....................Anyway we made it to Mendoza and had a great 2 days. We all went horseriding for the afternoon in the hills which was beautiful., I was a bit reticent about the horses after being chased out of field in Bakewell by one a few years ago, and wallking behind twitchy horses at the Villa, but these ones were nice. We all mounted with varying degres of embarrasment, I put so much effort I nearly leapfrogged the horse and the guide had to catch me from going over the top. It was really mellow riding around until the horses decided the felt like a bit of a run, and just legged it to the nearest grass to start eating, lots of screaming and laughing. Claire also took a shine to Gabriel, our guide, so that was nice. That evening headed to a lovely restaurant called Chez Anna, lovely french food.

Yesterday we headed off on an all day wine tasting tour, fantastic, 3 wineries tasting all their wine, buying none and then a massive 2 hour lunch of the best cooked meats, cheeses, olives, pasta and as much wine as you could drink, we took full advantage, i don´t remember a lot else and it was fair to say we had all had a drink!!! The countryside here though is stunning and lush, with all that water coming down from the Andes it comes to life. To counter the city getting flooded they have massive ditches next to the roads to channel the water away, some are about 4 foot deep and 3 foot wide and uncovered, yet to se anyone fall down one, but it can only be a matter of time................

Right, another 20 hour bus journey tonight, this time to Bariloche and the lake district................

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Photos

Horses
Whose going to ride your wild horses? Beck, Claire and James.

James and Horse
Doesnt he look relaxed?