Bingo Andesmar and In at the Deep End

Guess which bus took us the 17 hours to Mendoza?



More demand for buses than trains around these parts!

Bus journey was OK - not such a luxury bus as before - there seems to be a wide interpretation of the term 'bed' - not a flat bed this time - more a luxury recliner. Still good but not so easy to sleep - the steward started the DVD's (loud - not good films) so Tina listened to her Nano which reminded of her girlies! which was lovely - are you all okay girlies? miss you xx

After the light tea and coffee (yuk!) the steward came round and asked if we would like to play Bingo Andesmar (Andesmar being the name of the bus company). To Tina's utter suprise Ian (who hates playing games) said yes before he realised what he had said. Oh well it will help with the Spanish - guess what happened, oh yes Ian won, but wouldn't shout out Bingo Andesmar so Tina had to! but he got a bottle of fine Argentinian wine and everyone gave him a clap! ahhh

We arrived at 8am (tiring journey this time) to find Mendoza really quiet - it is a public holiday today. Hotel Alexander (picked from Trip Advisor in about 1 minute yesterday) very friendly owner, good location (but maybe noisy tonight) and only £22 for the night. Let us have the room when we arrived (8.30am) perfect as desperately needed to freshen-up after the journey. Owner was an interesting character - Argentinian who lived in New York, typesetting for the New York Times - big fan of 'Tottingham' football club since the Ardilles days!

Having a quiet day today - Mendoza sunny but sleeping most of the day (apart from the tourist bus around the city and park - see above). Capital of the Argentinian wine region but no sign of any vineyards yet.

BIG DECISION - we have decided to take the plunge and take an immersion course in Spanish starting Monday at a school in Mendoza - let's hope we haven't drowned by Tuesday! 20 hours tuition plus afternoon activities (!) and most challenging of all - staying for the week with a 67 year old Argentinian lady - non English speaker - lives in Avenida Belgrano (hmmm). She has 3 sons who have now left home and is apparently a very good cook - that's all we know.

So it's back to school, Tina in Beginners of course - Ian not sure yet as has to do a test. Just felt we were not really speaking enough Spanish so now for a week, we have no choice! Only decided on Friday - Tina coping well with all this spontaneity!