9th December

Seemingly no sooner had I shut my eyes but the sun was up. Red sky in the morning means only one thing and putting away a tent in a storm is not my idea of fun. Yes, I had the hangover from hell and if we hadn't found a quiz book on the truck I think I would have been in a worse state. The questions were good and pretty recent. It turns out Ed and Ian are geniuses. Tina was hilarious and only seemed to wake up for the Irish questions which she got right. Even Jitka played - it is good to see everyone bonding for once. Connor and Kellie argued for most of the morning, but I guess that is what they do.

No getting away from the distance between Córdoba and Mendoza - about 800km. So it was a case of put up and shut up. We stopped halfway for lunch whch was salad and very nice. A bit gutting we had to throw a lot of it away as you can't bring fruit into Mendoza to protect the vines from fruit flies etc. We also had a fuel/ice-cream break. Had this mint chocolate thing that was entirely black but sadly didn't live up to being the Darth Vader of cold snacks.

We arrived in Mendoza at around 7pm. On the surface it is very leafy green and quiet, but then it was Sunday. Looks a bit like Recoletta in BA. Hotel is ok, budget but everything seems to work. Passed on the idea of all night drinking with Andy and Tubbs due to the previous night's beer fatigue, but did go out with the 4 gringas, Ed and Ian and had a very nice stuffed hake, purée de papas, beer and shared a couple of bottles of Torrontes with the others. Had to borrow Cherry's belt which was a bit humbling as I left mine on the truck which is now in a truck park - but I suppose I haven't stretched to a 34 inch waist depsite the indulgences of the last three and a half months. When I got back Rob went out to find the others and I fell asleep watching "The Core" on telly. Free day tomorrow which means lie-in. Mmmm.