I arrived in Mendoza, and took a few flyers from the hostel solicitors, but decided to walk around instead of go with any of them. It was a long bus ride, with a movie about Keri Russell making pies. I thought one guy from the solicitors seemed to not care that much if I went or not, so I chose to go to his hostel, 'Hostel A', which was a pretty good choice. There was no-one there, and they had only one other lodger for the week I was there. I wasn't in the mood for a busy hostel anyway. Mendoza is a big destination in Summer, and is the Wine capital of Argentina. The city produces more wine and olive oil than the rest of the country combined. It also turned out to be the free movie capital of Argentina.

The weather was moggy but not raining. I put my things down and I went and bought some sandwich materials. I found an amazing deal of 200g salami, 200g cheese, and 200g polony for A$8. So a full loaf of bread's worth of sandwiches for about US$2. I was initially unimpressed with Mendoza, because they had no rubbish bins. I was impressed with their drainage systems though. Every single street has waist deep ditches for when the rain floods. With its wine culture and huge ditches everywhere, Mendoza must have the most drunken stumbling fatalities of any city in the world.

The hostel owner was called Mario, and he was a paragliding fanatic, and international champion. He told me he had never seen a black man paraglide, and asked if I had seen one, being from Cape Town. No, I had not, and said that generally black Africans put Xtreme flying sports low on their list of priorities.

He suggested I go on a wine tour for A$50, where they pick you up and drive you around. It was at 2pm, so I went. They took us to 4 places, each of which offered a few samples. One family winery, Las Cavas del Don Arturo; An olive oil factory, Pasrai, which was pretty interesting, actually; A large semi-reknowned winery, Baudrin; and finally, La Antigua, a family-run exotic liquor producer. The funny thought I had that day was that the wine type 'Malbec', if thought of as the Afrikaans words, Mal bek, are retranslated to Spanish as 'Boca Loca'.

I bought a Cab-Sav-Merlot mix from Don Arturo's, and the 150 proof Absinthe, which was disgusting to start with, and will only get more toxic and potent with age. The people on the trip were nice enough. Some 40-something ladies from california were in my 'english' group, and they were basically lushes, and buying everything they could. they lamented the 2 bottle airplane law.

When I got back to the hostel, I was informed about a free movie about flamenco, and i went, and fell asleep in the theater and woke up with the credits. I walked out, and was mildly embarassed when i saw the main actor open the door, and i looked like it was the most sleepy film i'd ever beared through. i said 'ah eres tu?', he said 'si', and i said 'bueno'.

A new lodger, Jules, of French and English descent, came to stay for a few days. I cooked us a braai, and it was yummy. I explained braai culture.

Mendoza vineyards	Trying the grapes
Wall of Bottles	Olive press, first step
Olive oil final step	Praying to Dionysus
Wall of Liquor	Trying the absinthe

The lady who watched after the hostel, Fanny, spoke to me about my barefeet. She said I'd catch a cold, and I said that scientists have proven that cold feet do not cause colds. I went out to walk around the public gardens. Their garden area is the largest I have seen in my life, with the total size of the park being larger than the city itself.

Street ditches	Big red tree
City park	Yay go South Africa!

Mendoza is a pretty average city. What makes it worth going to though, are the places to visit nearby.

The weather was still crap, so I went to Potrerillos for a day trip rather than trying to stay there for the night. I walked down to the lake, and back just in time to catch an earlier bus. However, it did have the biggest tumbleweed I have ever seen. When I saw it a few days later in the sun, the place was fucking incredible. But drizzling with the clouds that day, it was miserable.

Potrerillo when its cold	Potrerillo when its warm
Massive tumbleweeds	Random horse tied to tree

I went back to Mendoza for the night, and checked out a lot of free cinema. Jules and I went first to 'A debate on dystopias', which turned out to be a showing of V for Vendetta, but the audio didn't work, so they just put on Spanish subtitles, and said that afterwards they would be asking for some money, so we left.

Instead we just made it to the 9 oclock short film festival, which was cool... If you don't want to read about short films, skip this:

5 shorts: an Italian one, called something like 'the free-range chicken'. It was brilliant. Then 'autumn fire', which was too artsy for me. No plot until the end when they run into each others arms. Must have been better in the 30's. Then '12 miles to Trona', which was about a guy who takes drugs by mistake and then goes to the hospital... was cool cause of the druggy filming. Then a cannes short, by Lars von Trier... a guy says he's a successful businessman, and is really annoying, and then is killed gruesomely and unexpectedly. That was cool. Then finally a David Lynch short called The Amputee, where he filmed some unintelligible soap opera monologue while a guy cleans the amputee narator's stump wounds. It shows the film twice, shot on different film. And it's still almost impossible to follow the plot.

Jules didn't want to go to see Electrochicas, but I convinced him, on the condition that it was just to check it out. When we got there, the decor on the outside was: a big sado-masochism lady in leather, and a giant red male symbol, like the volvo sign. We went in, and the lady said 'hey $10', so i said 'oh i thought cause it was in the guide, it was free'. so she says 'well you can check it out if you buy a drink'. But it was playing the most radio gay music ive ever heard. I said no thanks, i thought electrochicas was going to be more hardcore, and she said they only start later. Aaaaahhhhh, we laughed and we left. Out in the street though, guys were throwing bubble wrap in the street, and cars were popping it POP POP POP, and screeching to a halt, thinking their tyres had exploded. It was great. Jules said it was worth the walk.

The next day I went to Cacheuta, where there were hot spring baths. After all that Patagonian hiking, sitting in the bubbling hot tubs was amazing. I got into the outside tub with a bunch of 19 year olds, and said 'this is the life' and they all bust into American English. 1 Chinese-Colorado guy and 3 Wisconsin girls. They were so happy and goofy, but I acclimated. We walked through the canyon afterwards to get used to reality again. They were lazy but I called them ahead, to show them a cool submerged derailed train.

Chillin in the Spa	a bridge
River Slime	The capsized train
Time machine?	Doctor Octupus!

The next day I went to Puente de los Incas. It was a 3 hour ride, and it went through some amazing scenery. The puente, or bridge, is a unique glacial bridge formation, and fairly cool. I zen-walked about 5 kilometers to the Parque del Aconcagua, and that was incredible. I saw the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas, and it was big. Roughly 7 times taller than Table Mountain, but it sort of starts at about 3k's, so its only 4 times taller when you stand at its base. And it was far away, so it looked pretty small, actually. But im sure it's huge.

I slept 25 meters away from the Puente. It was freezing. My water bottle froze. I had frozen bananas. I should have thought, hmm, that's a bridge famous for being formed by glaciers, maybe I shouldnt sleep 25 meters away from it.

Puente de los Incas	the next morning
The town	Mt Aconcagua from a distance
Mirror lake	The river to Mt Aconcagua
The mountain and I	Some nice little lake
A bird	A St. Bernard

I had to choose between meeting up with Jaroslav in Chile, or continuing north through Argentina, and I decided to carry on north. So the next semi-logical stop was Tucuman. (San Miguel de Tucuman). It is like the Washington D.C. of Argentina, and called the Garden city. I checked out their museum, and it is where they signed their independence. Tucuman also has orange trees on every street, which is kind of cool. Apparently, Tucuman is the world's leading orange or lemon producer, and some town in South Africa is number two, as they are both on the correct longitude.

I arrived early and put down my stuff at a hostel, and took a bus to San Julian, walked around for an hour and a bit, and came back... San julian is pretty fucking beautiful. Its basically the little town on the hill above Tucuman. Theres a big Jesus on the hill too, and he's doing a peace sign. Reminded me of Buddy Jesus from Dogma.

I met a rasta at the hostel, and smoked my weed from Bariloche with him. It wasn't much, but it did the trick, with his pipe. He was pretty cool, living day by day, making a living by selling puzzles on the street. I bought two off him, for 5 pesos each. One was hard, but doable, the second one took me a few weeks, and now I've solved it but can't put it back together again.

Jesus showing some leg...	Buddy Jesus
We are all part of the circus	A pretty moth
San Julian hill	Another San Julian hill

In Tucuman I got some maps of the area, and decided to stop at a few places on the way to Cafayate after asking some locals what was nice. The bus ride leaving Tucuman was beautiful, and changed from jungle to barren grasslands, and then to Saguaro cacti forests.

I stopped in Tapi del Valle, named after the Tapi people who lived in that valley. I climbed their little mountain with a cross on top, speaking briefly to a lady who was there on a Biology conference. I then took the bus back to Mollar, where I visited the 'Huanca Protector' statues, which are these phallic stones built to protect stuff.

I camped there in Mollar, which was no easy task. There were three camp sites but they were all closed. I hopped the fence of the one, and some guy who looked like Big Chief from One flew over the cuckoo's nest came out of nowhere. He let me sleep on the porch with wind shelter, and use the bathroom and stoves. In the morning, it turns out it cost A$15, which was a bit more than the nothing he told me before. It was really cold. He was jovial, and had a strong accent. Spoke no English.

I stopped in Amaicha, and noticed the Kiwi, Andrew, who I met briefly at the Tucuman hostel, was on my bus. We went together to find a hostel, and found a ridiculous A$15 room, which is really cheap. There is fuckall to do in Amaicha, which is why it's so cheap. There is a sign in the town that says 'Amaicha - Days of rain in 2007: 4'. The roads are all made of dust.

We visited the Quilmes ruins, which is one of the best preserved ruins left. The Quilmes had a few nicely located hills, from which they held off the Spaniards for a few years. Then, the Spanish cut off their water supply and made them walk back to Buenos Aires. Of the 1000 they took, none made it. Now to honour them, the national beer is named Quilmes.

The jungly bus ride	Tapi del Valle
More Tapi del Valle	The Huanca park
Amaicha	some dude, Andrew and I
Me near the Quilmes ruins	Quilmes rooms of some sort
Redneck at the Quilmes ruins	er, Quilmes ruins

The bike ride outside Cafayate was one of the most amazing scenes of the trip. We got such a better deal than everyone else, which made it an even better day. The people who booked through the hostel all paid 50 pesos for guided walks, and we paid 40 pesos for bikes and to be picked up at the last spot. We biked 40 km's or so through the Quebrada.

The night was fun. It was one of those social hostels, with interesting people. A Romanian told me the most ridiculous drawn out story about a guy he met in prison, who was an orphan. In Romania they take orphans to be army men and castrate them, but he didnt want to be eunichized, so he rigged the building with TNT, and they arrested him and a commander rehabilitated him, and then...

Then the guy telling the story met this guy in an Austrian prison because neither of them had papers. The conversation progressed into him not liking the sound of the Israelis at the dinner table, and making racist comments. I argued, and eventually revealed I was Jewish, and he said "no you are not like them", and i said yes, and I tried to explain the basic tenets of the equality, and that he was making synthetic a priori statements. The guy called me a "tzutzurico" and said he hated me. But he was funny, he said he had problems. i think he was an alcoholic.

I hung out with an Irish guy and these 2 Americans, and we smoked a spliff and talked in the bar, and me and one of them drank lots of beers. We talked about various things. He is a child of the vinyl revolution. But we had lots in common. He went to Burning man and Love parade. He wants to open a bar in Buenos Aires. But anyway i left them the next day.

They talked about a meal they made for 10 minutes and it was funny, cause they learned how to braai from a South African, and then proceeded to make the most over the top meal, while everyone in the hostel drooled.

Rocks	Start of bike ride
Canyons	llama
xtreme photography	Baggio advert
Some view	looking vs. seeing
canyon	The moon
Mini Me	Gargantua del Diablo!

I decided to take the morning bus to Salta, and went with Andrew to find some recommended hostel. He liked to ask everyone, whereas I have pretty decent spacial map reading skills, and do not need to speak to people to find out where a place with an address is. But I had things to do, and didn't see him again.

Apparently the Romanian stayed at this hostel a few days ago. I mentioned him, and the owner said 'who?' and i said 'Tzutzurico' and they said ooooooohhhhh. Apparently he drank all day here, and sent the lady at the counter an email asking when they are getting married.

I decided to continue into Bolivia, and I walked around all day trying to get a Yellow Fever shot. It was tough. The hospital didn't do travel vaccinations. They told me to go somewhere that didn't exist. I finally found a pharmacy that sold the vaccine. Then I had to go find an 'enfermaria' where a doctor injects it.

That night I had an interesting time. The hostel had a travel agency next door, and the guys were drinking wine there. I decided to check it out, maybe go out that night, though I ended up just sitting in there while two guys argued fiercely about the one selling all the drugs. I was the only one not shnarfing coke, and when I had chilled for 30 minutes and made some conversation, I decided to sleep instead.

The next morning, I decided to climb a mountain, and the girl behind the counter, Carmen, asked if I wanted company. She had a pet mouse tony. So we climbed the mountain and took the cable car down. We have a game of chess pending, and I believe some day we will play it. I moved on that day, somewhat sadly.

Carmen and Tony	Salta
Carmen & I	Teleferico Cable car ride

I was thinking I should check out a bunch of places in Jujuy province, but I didn't. I just went to Tilcara. It sounded like the more natury of the little towns. I arrived at night, and a guy solicited his hostel. I said no thanks, but then couldn't find anything else. But the hostel was pretty cool. That night they played a guitar and charango duet, and sang songs about Jujuy. It was actually kind of surreal. A girl started singing.

I asked if anyone wanted to go climb the mountain. They thought I was nuts. It only took about 5 minutes to climb it. It was the full moon.

I went with the group of Argentina tourists out to the restaurant where they play folklorico music. It was my first time hearing it live, and I thought, this is basically pan flute music. I already made myself food so I just ate some appetizers. I ate llama enchilada. It tasted like alligator. And for those of you who don't know, alligator tastes like chicken.

They played some huge huge pipe for one song, just to show it off. Bigger than any pipe you would imagine. Whatever you're thinking, it was probably bigger. Afterwards, there was some charango player who wore a large felt mushroom shaped hat and who was a blonde albino, and he looked like something out of Deliverance, played like it too.

The next day I woke up and went for the hike to see the 'Gargantua del Diablo'! ie. the throat of the devil, which turned out to be a pretty small waterfall. It was fun though, because I checked out two trails, one of which was not meant to be travelled.

The town also has something like the best preserved, or best restored ruins in Argentina, so that was cool. The name is Pulcara, which meant 'fortress'. It was a village that was first conquered by the Incans, and then by the Spaniards. Tough luck. I walked the wrong way, but hitched a ride on some guy's 150cc chinese motorcycle chopper back to town.

The story continues in Bolivia

Hey that's more comfy than I remember	Sauroman as a boy
Pan flute music	Water aqueduct thing
Waterfall	The trail
The second waterfall	Me and Tilcara
Pulcara ruins	Typical Incan Morning
Me and the ruins	haha a llama on top of a llama