It was time to move onto Mendoza and we knew it was about 20hrs $100USD bus trip so hitching again was on our cards. We had 850KMS to go. We caught the local bus to what we thought was the Ruta 40 but after an hour I was a bit concerned as we hadn't seen many trucks so we went to the bus station to check and we were not really on the right track. So knowing we had wasted so much time we just thought let’s get a bus a few hours north for today and try again tomorrow. We caught a 5 hour bus to Neuquén which is a main transport town. Nice town but really not much to see. There were no hostels there so we had to pay for a really rubbish hotel in the middle of town.

The next morning we had our earliest morning . Firstly we tried to ask at our hotel which road to get dropped off at so we would have the best chance to pick up a truck. Once again our limited Spanish didn’t help and we spent $70 Pesos ($18 USD) to get to what we thought was the main highway. Wrong again. We had our sign out for a while and then a local guy came up to us and said the trucks don’t use this route so you have to catch a bus or hitch 10KMS to another road. So off we went to another corner to hitch to the other place. We were there for about 40 minutes trying to get a bloody lift it got pretty frustrating but then finally a guy pulled over and away we went. Finally we were at the right spot so it was time to pull the sign out for Mendoza which we knew was about 10 hours. Within about 10 minutes a massive truck pulled over and he said he was going to Mendoza so we were stoked. His name was Bienvinedos (Welcome in Spanish).We shared a mate (argentine type of tea). He kept going on this phone to either his wife or his boss so we had to be quiet which was fine for us because there is only so much Spanish we know so we could spread out our limited conversation .

This leg was boring it was a dead straight road in the middle of the desert. Even worse than driving down to Albany in West Aus. We stopped for lunch and then had about 2 more hours till we got to a truck stop at a cross road and he says "Ok you have to get out here and get another truck. I’m going right and you need to go left." We said “But aren’t you going to Mendoza?” then he said “Yeah, we’re in the state of Mendoza now but you need to go to the capital of Mendoza.” Ahh we thought and he had probably told us that before but we just didn’t understand. Lack of Spanish strikes again.

So out we get and it’s hot, really hot. Middle of the desert no wind and no shade, awesome. As we’re applying sunscreen and making a new sign an old guy on his way to the market pulls over and says “What are you guys doing? Its bloody hot here! Hope you haven’t been waiting long.” and although he’s going the other way and can’t give us a ride gives us 4 fresh peaches picked from his farm and offers us some cold water . The locals in Argentina always seem to be happy to help and very friendly. Back out with the sign. A guy bikes past on a push bike and offers us a ride then bikes off laughing, classic. About 20 minutes later and maybe a sun burnt neck a guy stops and takes us to the next town San Rafael about 80kms away. He was some kind of travelling salesman and had done Buenos Aires to San Rafael in one day (about 12 hours) then back to Buenos Aires the next morning. From there we still had about 250kms to go. So back out with the sign and a young guy stopped and was going about 180kms further down the road which was sweet. He was a nice guys. Spoke a little English and was a school teacher with a young family. He kept going on about how good rotary was and that he was a member. He got Junior to make up another mate and we had that with him. After he dropped us off we tried for a while but then it was getting late and our chances of getting a ride were slimming down. So we had to catch the local bus for the last 70 odd kms . It was pretty cheap about $3 dollars.

Mendoza is the wine region of Argentina.

Arriving in Mendoza at about 11pm we picked a hostel from the lonely planet and caught a taxi. When we arrived we realized that we were in the busiest part of town and on a long weekend. No accommodation to be seen. We walked the main bar and restaurant road with our huge backpacks dodging the tables full of people and the people lining the streets heading out for the night looking for a hostel. We went to one hostel and the guy said it was full but if we booked for the next night we could sleep on the couches in the common area for free and check in at 1pm the next day. Not ideal after travelling for about 14 hours. We decided to decline and try and find another hostel. He was good though and let us buy a beer and use his wifi to find somewhere else to stay. We called about 6 hostels to try and find a bed then finally we were booked in and ready to get another taxi to that place .

The hostel was ok. Not very well set up though. Our room was the first in a line of three and to get to the other two and the bathroom you had to go through our room. As it was a Saturday night there were people coming and going all night. In the morning we went for a walk to the main square to check out the town. Cam and Nate were getting the bus and we knew that they were arriving early morning and the first thing we see in the park are the boys.

We walked around town all day checking out all the cool plazas and the big park which we were told had a lake you could swim in, which turned out to be false information as it was more of a pond with a rowing club on it and people rowing in the murky water. We found another hostel, Break Point, on the main bar road with a pool (one of the few in town) and booked it for the following night. We wondered round for a while longer looking for somewhere to have lunch and came across a little English bar called The Liverpool bar much to Juniors disappointment and approval of Cam . We had a few beers and lunch there. That night we went and checked out to the main bar area.

We had planned to meet the guys in the plaza at 10am and take the bus to the wine area and hire bikes and enjoy some wine tasting. We woke up at 10.10am hung over. Junior refused to get out of bed thinking the boys were in the same condition so I quickly got ready and went to the park to meet them not holding much hope but just in case. Junior was right. They weren’t there so I tried to find their hostel by memory and ended up just walking around for a bit. I went back to the hostel to get Junior out of bed and move to our new hostel. We finally arrived at the new hostel after having to walk with all our packs in the heat and listen to Junior moan we should have got a cab. We lay on our new beds to get a bit of rest under the fans, five minutes later the guys walk in. They had got a taxi to our new place. So up again and we had to head to the bus stop to get out to Maipu .

We arrived after about a 45 minutes on a bus all of not really feeling up to it especially me. We picked up our bikes and started the cruise. Firstly we visited an olive, chocolate, liquors and preserves shop where we got to taste all. It was nice even thought the liquors didn’t go that well with me. At the 3^rd vineyard that we visited we bought a bottle of red and just chilled playing with the dogs and enjoying the day.

After that we had a long ride to get to the next lot of wineries. We went to Tripache but it was a really big commercial winery and we had seen the wine a lot in restaurants and in the supermarkets so we ended up skipping that one. Junior got rid of some 'bad wine’ there and we carried on up the road. The boys had a race to the next one and there was a bit of confusion about which one we were going to. Nate, Junior and I ended up at one but Cam didn’t make it so Nate went looking for him . We could hear him yelling Caaaammmm Caaaammmm and after about 45 minutes they both turn up. Apparently Cam went to another one and waited for us but after we didn’t show went to find us and saw people on bikes way down the road and raced off after them. It was a couple of Kms before Nate could catch up and bring him back to the right one. We all couldn’t stop laughing and I’m still laughing writing this. We had another bottle of red at this winery which was nice and again a very small boutique winery.

Finally we had one last stop at this really flash winery. The tastings were a bit more expensive but well worth it. We chilled on the decking out the back had 5 wine tastings (finally a white and a rose) and ordered a steak sandwich which was interesting as there was just a crouton and a massive piece of steak, but then again we were in Argentina.

After Cam had proposed to the waitress and got turned down we rode back to the bike shop which was miles away . About 2 kms to go Nate had a back tyre blow out. He tried about 3 times to get a ride on our bikes but it wasn’t happening as the bikes we had weren’t that good so he had to run the rest of the way. He was not feeling to best once he stopped.

We had as few beers back at the bike shop before getting a taxi back to the hostel as we were not in the mood for another hot long bus ride back to town.

We had a shower and a bit of a lie down then met up with the boys for a meal. We all weren’t after a big feed so we found this shop selling these great little pockets of goodness. They were these pizza base things with chicken, mince or ham and cheese in them. We ended up having a massive night in the main pub area again.

The next day we spent chilling by the pool which was relaxing.

We met this cool guy Michael who is from Holland and is riding from Alaska to Ushuaia (which is the very bottom of Chile) then they are catching the ship over the Antarctica. He’s doing it to raise awareness and money for people with no water. He has already been riding for one and a half years and has 3 months to go. Check out their web site www.cycleforwater.com. He’s also got the funniest T-shirt tan we’ve ever seen. His arms are tanned dark brown from riding everyday in the sun but his chest is bright white as you’d imagine a guy from Holland would look like. Too funny.