While we were waiting for the car to turn up, we had a day free and decided to do a short cycle tour around ther edges of Bariloche on what they called the "Chico Cicuito". Was very nice, but the guy who hired us the bikes thought we were mad taking them out in the pouring rain. We explained to him that this was a poor weather alternative as we couldn't get into the mountains. He thought we would be back in no time, but we spend a really nice (if a bit soggy) day cycling around and taking in the sites (although it did involve lots of stops for coffee and cake).
The car tour was very nice also, although we couldn't see much on the first day because of the rain. I hear it is very nice scenery though. The car we hired was a corsa, although I am convinced that it muct have been a super 4WD corsa, because some of the roads were a foot deep in mud, and we didn' get stuck once! The weather did get better during our three days with the car, and the scenery was really amazing. Kind of like if you stuck Scotland, Cumbria, North Wales and the African Plains all together and tripled the height of the mountians.
Next stop was the wine region in Mendoza and immediately on arriving at the hostel we booked a half day wine tour. As we were booking this tour at reception of the (security gated) hostel, when a weedy little guy in a Hawiian shirt reached around behind me to grab his bag and went out the gate. I noticed Alison wasn't actually wearing her bag, although she had been a minute earlier, so I followed the guy out into the street and then saw that it was Alison's bag that he had picked up! Without thinking I shouted at the receptionist to let me out the gate and legged it up the road after this weedy little *******. He was just ambling up the road and I was gaining on him rapidly and when I shouted at him he dumped the bag on the pavement and disappeared around the corner. I quickly checked the bag to make sure everything was there, and thought it wasn't worth chasing him any further.
Anyway, after the excitement I needed a drink. All the local people we had met kept saying how nice the Argentine wines are and we were looking forward to finding this out for ourselves, having always enjoyed the wines from the other side of the mountains in Chile (there is a lot of rivalry between the two countries). We did a short half day tour the first day we got there and I wasn't overly impressed by the wine, although I had many samples just to make sure I wasn't mistaken. However, on the tour we met three other people who had similarly lost posessions, including one Irish girl who had been pulled off her bike during the cycling wine tour we were planning to do the next day. This added an extra element of excitement to what could already be seen as a hazardous activity, but we thought we would be fine as long as we were careful.
We got the bus out to the winery area and got our bikes the next day, and arrived at the first winery at about 10:30 (having left all posessions at home, except lunch and a camera cunningly hidden in an old shopping bag). Highlight of this day was a liqueur and chocolate fasctory where you got 2 free samples along with the tour, where we had to by a really nice "Hipocrates" liqueur (for medicinal purposes only- of course). We also found out lots about the wine, including the fact that Argentine wines are not that great because they have only recently started producing quality rather that quantity, although I would never repeat that in front of an Argentinian.
Anyway, six wineries, one liqueur factory, an olive oil factory, lots of dodgy trucks on narrow roads and lots of friendly people later we wobbled happily and safely back into the bike shop and got the bus back into the city, stopping off at a nice cafe in a leafy boulevard for dinner on the way. The next day Alison decided to get a bus tour up to look at mountains, but I was content to laze about the hostel and work on my hangover cures.
Think I have rambled enough now, and well done to those of you who have made it this far down the email! We are now back in Buenos Aires and about to head off to Iguazu falls which we missed last time we were in the vicinity, but wilkl report back on those later.
