Mendoza is a university town in Northern Argentina and it is packed with adventurous tours you can take in and around the Andes. If you go there, make sure you put aside at least four days as we ran out of time to do everything. Mendoza is a major area for wine production so we'd booked a wine tour for our first day there.

Somewhere in the organisational structure our booking got lost but the hostels very friendly staff member Romilo offered us the more expensive ''Sunset By Horseback'' for the same price. He added that it included a barbecue and wine so I was sold immediately.

Putting aside my childhood fear of horses, we set off for the ranch with a vanload of others and our friendly driver Pablo. The van rocked up a rickety path to a collection of stables with horses tethered to posts, flicking away the hundreds of flies annoying them in the Mendoza heat.

When I noticed the five or six bona fide gauchos (Argentine cowboys) I realised this was going to be a very epic experience. There they were in their cowboy boots and an assortment of cute hats getting the beasts saddled up for us. We were each given horses and we were shown how to get ''on board''. My horse seemed okay at first but he turned out to be one stroppy steed.

When you're not accustomed to travel by horseback, it's a very odd feeling but I sucked up my anxiety and took in the brown, dry expanse of the hills as the robotic-like horses took us on their tour. It was completely exhilarating when they started trotting in certain parts. I would let out huge screams as I was sure I would not be able to keep my butt in the saddle.

The trek was pretty magical. We were deep in the hills as the sun disappeared and when it was really dark there were fireflies zipping around us. Our horses lead us high in the hills which overlooked all the glittery lights of Mendoza City.

However, after two and a half hours I was in all kinds of pain and my horse had started randomly kicking other horses, making him and I the lepers of the group. When we arrived back at the ranch it was past midnight and I was happy to dismount without any broken bones.

A long table was set up with plates and jugs of vino tinto (red wine) and there was what seemed like a whole beast cooking on an open fire. The ranch animals had all gathered around to collect the scraps and we had puppies and kittens sitting on our laps and at our feet. We sat with the gauchos and Pablo and had a traditional, delicious Mendoza barbecue.

At 3am Pablo finally took us home, joking all the way about how the men should have let the women get lost out there. We fell into bed realising that in a city like Mendoza, it's best to put the idea of a good night's sleep aside for a few days. There's too much to do to worry about your beauty sleep!

Check out more photos from my trip in my Flickr album.

Find out about Argentina.

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