While on the bus I managed to get quite a bit of work done while Leigh polished off a book. Both Leigh and I managed to get quite a bit of sleep on the bus so we felt pretty good when we got off at the terminal in the south of Mendoza. Mendoza is a big city and we didn't want to see more of it than we had to so after putting the bikes back together (I had to remove pedals and front wheels as well as straightening the bars for the bus), we headed out to Maipu, one of the easier places from which to visit the wine bodegas. Getting out was pretty easy and we didn't have to negotiate any of the highways we heard we would be faced with on leaving Mendoza.

We headed for a hostel on the south-east of Maipu that has had some very good write-ups but they were full so we headed back towards the town and settled in at Hosteria Winery. The name gilds the lily somewhat. It is very much budget accommodation - 250 pesos each gives us a private room - and we will probably not use the bed lined provided. However, Gabriel, the proprietor is a mine of information for the area and is so easy to like.

After connecting to the wi-fi and finding out that my daughter had gone into labour with our fourth grandchild, we set off to a local craft brewery a few kilometers away for lunch. A small red ale and some empenades was a good accompaniment to the news that Archer had arrived safely and with seemingly little stress for him and his mother.

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Then it was onto two wineries for some tasting. First of all to Tempus Alba followed by Mevi. They have given us a feel for what to expect from the area but neither had anything that really blew us away. The reserve wines from both wineries were pretty good but their standard ranges didn't deliver much for the price tags they carried. Tempus Alba's Tempus Pleno, a 65% Malbec 35% Cabernet Sauvignon blend was probably the pick of the bunch. What struck me was that most of the other guests at both wineries were on bicycles (there are a few rental places here and our hostel provides free use of bicycles if more than one night's accommodation is taken). We'll try again tomorrow and see if we have better luck.