DonŽt cry for me Argentina
Hi guys, did you miss us ?...Well, I´ll take that silence for a "yes, a lot ! ". We missed Argentina, so we´re back !
Correct me if I´m wrong, but I think that I left you in La Serena on the 24th of November. We spent the morning on the internet updating the blog and then headed towards the bus station to get some information on crossing the frontier to Argentina. Big surprise, the border next to La Serena is only open in summer (January and February), that means that the bus has to go through Santiago. Great ! Now, it appears that it did not make any sense to go so far up to La Serena only to come back to Santiago ! So we took a ticket to Mendoza with the worst timetable ever : departure from La Serena 1:00 p.m, arrival in Mendoza 5:00 a.m. And that was only the beggining of our troubles...Anyway, we spent the rest of the day walking in the center of La Serena which is very pretty and lively. Back to our hostel a young couple offered us half of a very good bottle of wine "Concha y Toro" as they were : " leaving the next day and wouldn´t drink a whole bottle" (that´s mad ! Such a good wine. I would´ve drunk two bottles meself !)
On Saturday the 25th we decided to visit the "Valle del Elqui", famous for the beautiful landscape with the mountains and the vines. We bought a daily ticket which allowed us to hop on and off the bus as we pleased so that we could have a look at the villages on the way to Pisco Elqui. The ride was much longer than expected and the driver was going so fast on the narrow mountain roads that it made us sick. We could take some nice pictures, though. It´s so strange to see the high barren mountains and green vines in the middle. We finished the day sipping some Pisco Sour (the national drink) in the Pisco Capel factory.
Yesterday was bus day ! As I mentioned earlier, we left La Serena at 1:00 p.m and spent 13 hours on the bus. I told you it was only the beginning of a series of problems : the staff was rude, they would not answer our questions, the bus smelled piss (there must have been a problem with the toilets), my seat was broken and they showed a horrible movie (crap story, with violence, sex, drugs) that nobody was actually following. I don´t know if you realise but 1:00 p.m + 13 hours equals 2:00 a.m, not 5:00 a.m. as advised. The bus was 3 hours early ! We had thought we could save a night in an hostel sleeping on the bus, but we actually had to look for one at 3 a.m. Thanks to the Lonely Planet we spotted the closest one to the bus station and prayed for it to be open so late at night...and it was ! 
Having slept a few hours we got up this morning at 10:30 and gathered information and leaflets about Mendoza at the Tourist Office. It seems that there are plenty of things to do, so we might stay for a few days. Today the sky was grey and the wind a bit fresh but we were told it was 40 degrees Celsius yesterday. I have good hope that it will be sunny in the next days. We spent the day in the city center and in the huge park. I´ve also found something weird : look at this guitar made with the shell of an armadillo. Gruesome ! Tomorrow we´ll go to the wineries and taste the local production.
See ye !