Day 178 - Thursday 16th March 2006
After having a poor night out drinking in Mendoza, and then a bad mornings sleep I decided to leave the town, so bought a ticket for another overnight bus. This one would take me north to the town of Tucuman.
Day 177 - Wednesday 15th March 2006
Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina and the 8th largest wine producing region in the world. Therefore a big activity for tourists in the area is to visit a vineyard, take a tour to see how it is made and of course to sample some of the local produce.
Day 176 - Tuesday 14th March 2006
After being rudely awoken by some nasty little insects crawling over me while I was in my bed it was certain that I wasn’t going to oversleep and miss my bus whcih would be taking me to the day’s activities - white water rafting & mountain biking (not at the same time).
Day 175 - Monday 13th March 2006
Wanting to get back to Argentina I needed to take a 7 hour bus trip to Mendoza. This journey involved crossing the Andes mountain range. I had heard this was a spectacular road and therefore I decided to make the trip during the day so I could appreciate the famous mountain range.
Day 174 - Sunday 12th March 2006
I wanted to return to Argentina on the following day, which left me about 8 hours to see Santiago before the Oasis concert began in the evening. Whistlestop tour it would have to be, but that is better than nothing. As I walked along a street leading to the city centre I came to a blocked off area and saw a lot of police milling around. I asked someone what was going on and was informed that there would be a parade in honour of the new President, and it would be taking place in a few hours.
Day 173 - Saturday 11th March 2006
After travelling for 24 hours mas o menos the only thing I wanted was a bed. As I arrived in Santiago at 7am I wasn’t able to properly check-in to a hostel until a bit later, so I settled down in the TV room and used their couch as a bed in the interim. I managed to keep my eyes open to see Spurs lose to Chelsea, but I wish I hadn’t bothered.
Day 172 - Friday 10th March 2006
The huge distances between points of interest in Argentina means a lot of time is spent on buses going from town to town. That is unless you want to fly, which works out a tad too expensive. So with the Oasis concert in mind I set out from Bariloche at half five in the morning to make the 1300km trip to Santiago.
