Mendoza to Cordoba

We Are now in cordoba, having stopped off for a couple of days in Mendoza. We were sad to leave La Serena as had become quite attached to our new family, and i think they were sad to see us go. Was such a nice hostel! We caught our bus to mendoza at 11.40pm, which actually was alot more comfortable than it looked. We didnt reached the argentinian boarder untill about 8am, which was super efficient and we didnt even have to take our bags of the bus. brilliant!!! all a nice change from the mayhem of Bolivia.

Arrived in Mendoza at about 11am, stepped off the bus and got hit by the heat. Never a bad thing in my book, but then we had to stand in a que for 40 mins for the ATM as we had no argentinian pesos for a taxi etc. Not loving the heat quite as much by the time we managed to get in a taxi. We also only had 100 peso bills and EVERYONE expects to be tipped here, so i think we may have angered the guy who opens the taxi doors for you. oh well!!! Got dropped off at one hostel which turned out to be full, so then had to walk with all our stuff, getting sweatier by the second....eventually managed to find space at Itaka Hostel, after a very nice man at a previous hostel had rung ahead and reserved beds for us. Hostel was nice, internet, breakfast, pool etc, but our room was in a kinda out house, with 14 beds and only one fan! Not the best nights sleep ever, and i had a snoring man next to men. great!!! Still had a nice afternoon wandering around the city and found a huge park where we sat, in the shade for the rest of the afternoon. We then spent the evening sat in an irish `pub drinking massive measures of vodka with SPEED. (argentinina equivilant of red bull we think). Went back to hostel for free cocktails and were in bed by midnight. Still havnt made a full night out since leaving La Paz, will have to make up for in Cordoba! Was wierd as everything was just getting going at midnight, people were just sitting down to eat their dinner, and we were off to bed!

Spent saturday in the park again. Is so beautiful. We are planning a picnic there with alice when we return. Plan is to visit Mendoza with alice before we fly to NZ from Chile! We therefore didnt want to do too many of the sights without al, so enjoyed reading our books and lying in the sun. We did have a strange man on a bike sit by us trying to look up our skirts, rude! We moved and he eventually got the message, phew!! I think we need to memorise the spanish for "bugger off" "no thankyou" doesnt seem to work very well!!!

We had a slight panic at about 7pm as i read that BA was an hour ahead of chile and we hadnt actually checked the time in Mendoza since we had arrived. We need to leave for our bus by 8.15pm and, if on BA time, it was already 8pm and we were still in the park. opsª rushed back to hostel but turns out Mendoza is same as chile so no panic. made our bus in plenty of time. During the night we drove through a thunder storm and arrived in Cordoba in the pouring rain.....not impressed.

We are staying in Cordoba Backpackers, which alice recommend, and it only rained for the morning of sunday. last 2 days have been beautiful. We spent sunday afternoon eating cake in tha mall and pop corn in the cinema. very naughty. Since then we have been uber healthy and productive. Today we went to Alta Garcia to visit the Che museum. Was great to get out of the city and the museum was really informative, although as alice said, slightly bias. We have even got up to date with our journals, well i have. Jay is still in the salt flats i think. Tomorrow we are heading to the playas de oro which was recommeded to us by our icelandic friend Helgi. golden beached on the shore of a river apparently. Oh also last night we bumped into Kat and Rob who were the english couple on our salt flats tour. they were in the hostel bar. also bumped into english couple who we met in La Paz so have had nice time chatting to them.

Have booked bus to falls for friday and our staying in same hostel as Alice over the weekend. We may even pop into Brazil whilst we are there. extra stamp for the passport.

Well i think that is it. enjoying free beer tonight, and are goign to cook ourselves some jackets with tuna and sweetcorn. yummy. hope all is well in England and you are all enjoying the snow. am sure you are if it means skiving school or work.........always a bonus. We cant wait to see you mummy and ron in BA. so excited. Missing and loving alice muchly, glad you are loving brazil. becareful. love to allxxxxxxxxx