We left Santiago by bus and headed East into the Cordillera (mountains that separate Chile and Argentina). High up in the mountains is the border and here we got or passport stamped goodbye from Chile and hello to Argentina. The scenery on the bus journey is stunning and, between the view out of the window and Oceans Eleven on the television, the seven hour journey flew past. As the bus approached Mendoza the view changed from barren and dry (I saw three cow carcasses next to empty rivers) to lush and green.
Mendoza is Latin America’s largest wine-producing region, and it is famous for it’s Malbec. The city of Mendoza was totally detroyed by an earthquake in 1861 and as a reult it was rebuilt with this threat in mind. A main square (Plaza Independencia) is surrounded at each of it's corners by four smaller squares (Chile, Espana, Italia and San Martin). The idea is that if an earthquake were to happen, you should run to your nearest square where you can stand in safety watching the city crumble around you! The city is built of low rise buildings, and all in all it is very pretty with plenty of greenery, pedestrian areas and fountains. We had arranged to meet up with our Canadian friends Vicky and Thibaut who were holidaying in Argentina. In fact they are French and English but had just become Canadian citizens after passing the test (I think they had to dress up as Mounty’s and catch a moose). We had not seen them for a couple of years and it was great to catch up over a bottle of red and our first Argentine steak.
On our second day in Mendoza we hired bicycles and cycled around Maipu, one of the wine regions in Mendoza. The brakes on my bike didn’t work and none of us were given helmets, but after sampling a few glasses of wine, these things hardly seemed important. We went from Bodega (vineyard) to Bodega, eating cherries, drinking wine and meeting dogs and horses
That evening Christian and I went to a local Asado for dinner. An Asado is a barbeque in Argentina and basically there is no piece of an animal that is exempt from being barbequed. The restaurant that we found ourselves in was an all you can eat buffet, so we were free to eat a whole cow if we wanted. However, we had to plan carefully since there was not only a full barbeque, but also a pasta chef cooking any pasta and any sauce you wanted, and a pancake chef cooking pancakes with whatever filling you wanted (as long as it included copious amounts of dulce de leche, which is toffee). We paced ourselves and managed four courses each. It was a fantastic local restaurant filled with Argentine families all gorging on meat, it was probably the equivalent of a Toby Carvery in England! (By the way, I am writing this sitting in a hairdressers in Buenos Aires waiting for my friend who is having a pedicure in one of the side rooms. The place is empty but me, and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" just came on! Would it be wrong of me to get up, grab a hairbrush, and perform in front of the mirrors...) Back to Mendoza. One morning I decided to visit the Museo del Area Fundacional. I was stung by a bee and a taxi driver on the way there. The museum is built on the preserved remains of the old city (Pre-earthquake) and houses lots of fairly standard pots, pans, arrowheads etc that had been dug up in the area. The most interesting exhibit was a painting from the 1800's that presents the social hierarchy of the time in the form of a tree. Of course, at the top of the tree sit the smug Spanish, below them are the Merchants, the Military, the Crioles and right at the bottom, the indigenous Indians. I would like to be able to say this has changed in Latin America... On our last day in Mendoza we headed out to have lunch at a small village Vicky had read about. At lunch we befriended a dog by feeding it all our leftovers, Negrita, as we called her (Little black one) followed us all afternoon despite numerous attempts to get rid of her. 
Just to note, befriending dogs happened to Christian and I just about wherever we went, whether we ignored the dogs or not, we were like the Pied Piper of Latin America! When we finally got rid of the dog and found a taxi, the driver looked about 15 years old, and also drove as you would imagine a 15 year old to drive. Miraculously we made it back to Mendoza and all said our goodbyes. Vicky and Thib were heading to Salta in Argentina for New Year and Christian and I had made plans to cross back to Chile for New Year with friends there. We had endured many late nights and hangovers in Santiago, so we were curious to find out what New Year would be like... You can probably guess the carnage that ensued, but if you want details read on.
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