Argentina so far

We´ve been here in Argentina for 4 days now and, once again, its an awesome place....! Its a big difference from New Zealand where we were on the road . Kinda feels like we´re doing the raw travelling thing again as we´re in the hostels meeting people and in a new culture. Although I did kinda lamented the days of the campervan when we first arrived.

Mendoza is a desert city just over the border, the other side of the Andes so the bus ride itself from Santiago was a great trip. It was crazy getting out the bus and going through passport control at over 1000m! Life is so different here with siesta from 1 - 4pm and restaurants don´t really open till 9pm but are dead until about 11pm when people start eating - when do they sleep?! Although we´ve found ourselves up late most nights so far. The culture here is so rich. There´s guitar music and street performances everywhere, and local craft markets on the streets on weekends. Last night I was having a late siesta when a band started playing and singing on the street outside with traditional dancers doing the stamp, clap stuff. It was well wicked.

Its worked out well as 7 of us all came over on the bus a few days back and Devan coincidentally was on the same flight over from New Zealand, so we´ve been hanging out.We did a wine tour yesterday on bicyles...! You rent the bike and they give you a map so you can do it at your own pace. I was somewhat concerned about the concept and my inability to manage even the smallest quantities of alcohol, but fortunately (for me!) there was quite a distance between each winery so you´d sober up between them and we all came back relatively sober but absolutely exhausted!

Chris and I, and Devan went paragliding today. We caught a very clear day and so all got in long flights - it worked out us three kind of stuck together and so got good pics of each other. Thats me in the white canopy and Chris in the blue. Stunning views of the Andes and the desert surrounding Mendoza. We´re off on a full day horse trek tomorrow including a BBQ lunch which we´re well looking forward to. The food here is really good - especially the meat!