It was the end of our first visit to Buenos Aires, and my wife and I were taking a cab to the airport. We felt mixed emotions. We were sad to say good-bye to our son who is living in the city, already nostalgic about the charming place we were leaving and—all of a sudden—fear for our lives!

Nobody seems to have heard of Copahue or Caviahue, so how did I end up travelling there? I’d love to wax lyrical about my enthusiasm for climbing and my interest in geology, but that would be a lie. I had a couple of days spare before meeting a friend further south in Bariloche, flicked through a Lonely Planet guide, saw the words ‘volcanic baths’ and went for it.

As part of Argentina’s bicentennial celebrations this year the Buenos Aires city government has created a special tour designed to facilitate a rare view of how these diverse barrios relate to one another geographically, and to gain a richer understanding of the history and growth of the city. And all for free!

When our eyes first meet, I’m not sure what to make of Donna. I usually go for the smaller type, and all that shaggy hair is hardly a turn on, but there’s certainly something special in those big brown eyes. If looks could talk hers would be saying “come on cowboy, let’s go for a ride.”

After camping for three weeks out of six during her extensive trip around Argentina and Chile, Vicky Gashe realised the advantages of packing a tent and experiencing life away from the ‘gringo trail’ and universal English of hostels. Many nights led her to drink mate, eat asados and sing folk music around campfires whilst practising her Spanish. Her definitive guide to camping will help those who wish to follow in her footsteps.

In the imagination of writer Jules Verne, Fray Bentos was responsible for serving breakfast to the first travellers on the moon. For Jorge Luis Borges, it was the Uruguayan home town for the fictional Ireneo Funes, a teenager with impeccable memory. To the troops and Europeans of the World War I and II eras the name conjured up the image of food – tinned corned beef, OXO bouillon cubes and more than 200 other products which would emerge from “the kitchen of the world” until 1979.

At 9am my head was still foggy from the previous day’s cycle through the vineyards and too many misguided attempts to abuse the bodegas’ good will by feigning interest in purchasing their wares. It was also the precise moment that the punctual-by-Argentine-standards Rafting Expeditions van rang the doorbell of my hostel, ready to take us out into the Andes for immersion into both the Rio Mendoza and the joys of white-water rafting.

While travelling in Mendoza, there is a never-ending list of exciting things to do: hiking, rafting, horseback riding, hot springs, paragliding, almost anything under the sun a tourist could desire. Hidden among these well-known tourist options lies the simple joys of Mr. Hugo’s bike tour. With little advertisement outside Mendoza, and running mostly by word of mouth, Mr. Hugo’s offers visitors the opportunity to bike through Mendoza’s most prized land: the vineyards of Maipú.

“Small tours, all kinds of activities, and the groups will be around eight people. Group size is limited so we have to book you ahead of time…” The words of the tour agent in Bonito surfaced in my mind as I plodded along on a packhorse behind a group of at least 14 horses with no other vision of wildlife than the horse’s ass in front of me. I considered myself lucky, however, as the group the day before had consisted of nearly 19 people.

Ask anybody about wine and tourism in Argentina and they will likely name Mendoza. But the province of Salta is going head to head with its southern sister, and its excellent wines and growing tourism infrastructure are putting it on ever more equal footing. Things are still more rustic than in Mendoza, but this is something that arguably adds to the desert provinces’ charms.