Mendoza and Cordoba

Even before I left Ireland for this trip, if anyone asked me which place I was most looking forward to seeing, I would answer with Mendoza. I had visions of me cycling through vineyards in the sunshine with a summer dress floating behind me, slightly tipsy and delighted with life. So while I wasn't prepared for it to be 2 degrees when we arrived, I DID get to do my cycle through the vineyards (I just did it in thermal leggings!). The creatively named "wine bike tour" took us between 4 different vineyards where we learned about the amount of work and time that goes into making a single bottle of wine. We learned about oak barrels and Malbec grapes and... I'm not sure what else because they each give you 3 glasses of wine which is quite distracting, but by glass 12 I declared myself a connoisseur anyway! We were with a really fun group of people and miraculously all stayed upright on our bikes for the entire day. 

We stayed in Hostel Campo Base, which was perfectly fine but a little bit subdued compared to what we are used to. The bunkbeds are also not suitable for people like me who fall out of their standing on a regular basis - they were so high (some of them 3 stories) with no railings whatsoever! 

We talked to a few people who stayed in Mendoza Inn, which is on a much busier street and sounded like a better option. 

There's lots to do in Mendoza for people who like hiking and climbing and ab-sailing etc. But luckily for people like us, there is also lots of wine to drink. 

After 3 nights in Mendoza we got the fanciest bus of all time to Cordoba. 

It was so comfy infact, that we almost ended up back in Mendoza because we were so fast asleep we didn't hear everyone getting off and the bus drivers changing over. Luckily the new bus driver checked the upper deck and woke us up by shouting "SEÑORITAS!" and tutting while we scrambled to get our stuff together! 

Cordoba is a student town so there are lots of nightclubs and lots of really cool clothes shops, which were very hard to resist. We stayed in Le Grand Hostel expecting a party, but we were almost the only people there. It was a pity because it was a cool place and apparently it gets very full at the weekends, but we were there on a Wednesday and found it bit of a stretch to keep ourselves occupied, not helped by the fact that it was lashing rain. So we wandered around the museums and drank a lot of tea, but decided to cut our Cordoba stay to one night and head to Buenos Aires a little earlier than planned. 

Next stop: Buenos Aires