Know a good mechanic in Mendoza?

At the beginning of the week after Em's birthday, we thought we might spend a few days in Mendoza, a pleasant, leafy city in the irrigated west of Argentina. Catch up on some blogging, do some bike maintenance and that kind of thing. We checked into a campground, I went looking for a mechanic and some parts, and Em set about the internet stuff.

I wanted to mount some aluminium tubes beneath the cylinders of the bike to carry tools and spares in. This is a bit out of the ordinary, so I asked around who might be able to fabricate them for me. This quickly led me to Ariel Rodriguez, the top guy among mechanics in Mendoza. Right from the first moment, Ariel took time and care to listen to what I wanted, besides wanting to hear about our travels. We sat down and had a yarn, the idea of the tubes started to come alive, and it became clear that I was dealing with a caring professional tradesman, the kind of bloke it has been hard to find in Argentina, and that you don't find every day anywhere.

I went back the next day - maybe Emily thought it was a bit odd that I was so enthusiastic for her to meet Ariel - but hey, I was also excited that we were going to get our tubes. This time we also met Paola and five-year-old charmer Ariadna, the rest of the family.

Shift forward a few days. We've had a mob of stuff flogged along with Em's bag at an internet cafe, leaving us without any bank cards (I had left mine in a bank machine days earlier. Bravo.), and with very little cash. Em has to head to Buenos Aires to replace her passport. All of a sudden we are house guests at Bahia Blanca 625, the house of Ariel, Paola and Ariadna. They would hear of nothing other than us sleeping in their own bed. Really, we tried to insist... but neither wanting nor able to knock back their help, all we could do was be really thankful for it. It was complete rescue!

Em headed to Buenos Aires, and I stayed another night, before heading back to John and Annette's plum farm.