Cuatro. Mendoza

Ending the week in Buenos Aires I was keen to get going and begin my real adventure. My end goal of the trip was to make it the South to Bariloche, Argentina's Lake District which brags unimaginably beautiful scenery.

I would make a few stops along the way to break up my journey. Firstly, Argentina's wine region, Mendoza, West of Buenos Aires. Fortunately Marlene, a German girl in the same residence as me was heading there too. 

Once settled in the hostel, we set off to explore Las Bodegas (wineries) straight away. We hopped on a bus and found ourselves a bike rental and a map, and joined up with a bigger group of Israeli's also leaving at the same time.

Our first stop, a distillery for spirits and not wine, was alcohol nonetheless. So we entered apprehensively into what was really quite an eery building, and out came the owner.

A middle aged man, who appeared to have got smashed on his own liquors that night, proceeding this with a couple of lines until his nose bled. Splendid.

There was no going back. He quickly lined us up 6 generous shots, each 40% alcohol. Flavours ranging from Dulce de Leche to well aged and various fruit based ones. Mandarin flavour was my favourite. I even took his card, having given the impression I was interested in ordering online.

With not quite the experience we were expecting, we then left and wobbled along onto the next place.

At lunch, we had yet again more wine, this however not being the highlight, but the food.

The basic chicken dish with a portion of veg I ordered was not your typical Argentinian food. It was seasoned. Really, in Argentina. 

The friendly, lone woman living out on a vineyard used local wines and spices as well as well as a gorgeous twist of lemon and coriander throughout her food. 

This was as one of my top 5 meals I had during my entire travels. Another was also in Mendoza, in a restaurant situated in the centre of town called el Mercadito. This was the type of place that makes you want to drop your normal life to go and open up your own restaurant in a foreign country to start a new life.

Unlike the Israeli stereotype, this group of ex military fellas we cycled with were really fairly friendly. 

Which brings me onto this link. Seventeen stereotypes you meet in a hostel:

http://blog.wehostels.com/people-at-every-hostel/

Also I thought I would just add two of my own to this list here.

1. Die hard Beatles fan.
Liverpool is their favourite city despite never having been there.

2. Disco lover American.

Stop calling it a disco. And you're 27! You've been travelling for 6 years?

There was of course much more to Mendoza than wine. A quaint and friendly town, not far from the Andes which divides the country from Chile also offers spectacular scenery. It sure was nice to get out of the city.

After reaching the border to Chile I decided to change my route to Bariloche. Instead of heading South through Argentina, I was advised that there was a lot more to see if I went down the Chilean side.

Next stop, Santiago, Chile.