Mendoza turned out to be a really lively and affluent city, we went out in the evening and the whole place was lifting, bars and shops full of people at 10 o'clock so no sign of cutbacks here and everybody having fun. Today started off with a long flat drive across a scrubland desert, very dry and dusty and quite hot, summer seems to be coming early this year. We called in at the Autodromo Eduardo Copello, named after the "Turismo Carretera" champion driver who is very famous in Argentina but probably unknown everywhere else. The circuit was in a narrow valley with very dramatic rocky hills rising steeply away on all sides, all very impressive. Needless to say we made a bit of a hash of things as usual but lucked in with a reasonable result. From there we took a bit of the Dakar Rally route before getting back onto the ubiquitous Route 40. We wheezed up a long uphill stretch for about 75 kms rising from 1000 up to 2600 metres, the highest we have been so far, the views from the top were amazing, so many different colours of rock in huge geological swirls.
After a much needed lunch stop we passed by a bright turquoise lake and then through the beautiful gorges of Cuesta del Viento and on to a regularity section, on tarmac for the first time. The final blast to tonights halt was across a really strange area where the road was a roller coaster ride of short hills for about 60 kms, a bit of a lurching ride not for the faint hearted.
The rally is organized by a Dutchman called Bart Rietbergen and a fair proportion of the competitors are Dutch too, with a smattering of Belgians, Germans, Brits and Irish. After nearly two weeks we are getting to know everybody and the atmosphere is getting better and better. Most of the meals are communal so it's easy to socialise and have a good time. Thinking of you all back in Blighty, pip, pip!
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