Of course, some wines are more equal than others... [Rosario and Mendoza]

Rosario is perhaps the kind of town it is better to live in than to visit. This is not to denigrate it - it is an extremely pleasant town, with wide, tree-lined pedestrianised streets. However, there is not much for the traveller to do - we attempted to visit a few museums, but somehow we always turn up when they are either closed, being renovated or have mysteriously vanished from where Lonely Planet insists they will be. Something about the dreich weather and grey town centre reminded us of Scotland. In a good way! Somehow we ended up spending a few days in town, at a hostel which felt more like a home, with access to the owners´ kitchen.We ate a lot of pizza verdura (spinach and white sauce on top) and visited the birthplace of Che Guevera! (To the left) It is a very nice building but otherwise entirely unremarkable. I refrained from wearing my Che Guevera t-shirt for the visit. It was bad enough having to step aside to let residents into the building as we were taking this photo of their home!

Mendoza was our next stop, and our last before Chile. It´s a lovely place, with gorgeous streets and plazas. It had a really autumnal feel, with cold, crisp air and orange leaves on the trees. The snowtopped Andes were just visible on the horizon at certain points in town. Despite the chill, the cafe culture was thriving. There were many places for us to while away a few hours sipping cafe cortados or the local wine. Our vast, draughty hostel was deserted except for us and the young guys running it. We spent one full day ´touring´ all the different plazas of the city, and another lying on the grass beside the lake at the massive park on the outskirts of the town.

Our main activity in Mendoza was an organised wine tour we went on. Also in our group were a few Argentinians, a Brazilian couple, an uber-confident spanish student from England and a doleful American, with a copy of Ulysses in his pocket. (Honestly! And I just had to bring it up, because there aren´t many opportunities in life you get to boast that you´ve read Ulysses. Which of course was one of the main reasons for reading it in the first place.)

We visited a modern, clinical looking winery and an oldschool rustic looking one. For those interested, the varieties we tried were Malbecs,  Torrontes and a Cabernet sauvignon. The whole experience was fun and surprisingly unpretentious. Although we did all have to talk about what fruits we could detect, and what colours we could see in the wine. (I was like, red?!) We also learned that American oak is bold and sweet and French oak is gentle. So there you go. Included in the trip was a visit to an olive oil factory and a church but neither of those involved alcohol, although there was free bread at the factory. And that concluded Argentina! Chile was just a trip across the Andes, a time change and a few sniffer dogs away.