Dozy In Mendoza

We are struggling a bit with the Argentinan lifestyle and how it ties into Overlanding - over the past 2 years we've generally been getting up with the sun and going to bed at 10ish. However here the time zone is skewed towards Buenos Aires so it still pitch black at 8am and really doesn't warm up until 10ish, then by the time we've eaten breakfast and got ourselves going all the shops and businesses are shutting for their 4 hour lunch break... and then the restaurants don't open until 9ish! Anyway the above means we didn't get to San Juan until the extended lunch break so there was nothing for it but to eat a big steak with roquefort sauce and huge tasty caprese milanesa!

After an uninspiring night in a petrol station (not as bad as it sounds as they are set up for truckers with wifi, toilets, etc and it was reasonably quiet) we finally arrived in Mendoza. Here our luxurious accommodation was a 24-hour car park but it was smack in the centre so it meant we could go out out! Queue a few more parillas and steaks :) We also had boring admin stuff to do - laundry and dog papers to prepare for Chile.

We decided we'd had enough of carparks and petrol stations so drove just south of the city into the vineyard area and found a lovely hospiaje run by a former overlander who let us park next to the vines but sit inside by the log burner - bliss! We met a fellow traveling Brit, Tony, and spent the next day touring vineyards and breweries on our bikes. Maya was very happy to get a chance to properly stretch her legs and we've been doing a lot of cities, eating and driving - not her favourite activities. Of course staying out much too late so we ended up tipsily riding home in the dark with no lights....

Unsurprisingly the next day was a bit of a write off and we spent another night around Mendoza, but this time in a nice little campsite with WiFi, electricity and hot showers (what more could you ask for!) before heading back into town the following morning to pick up the stamped dog papers.Read more