Bariloche, Argentina

We had a longer than expected drive to Bariloche in the lake district region of Argentina. Here are adventure sports galore. Some of the group have been white water rafting, horse riding, paragliding and on boat trips and hiking around the lake. I've had a couple of chill out days, deciding that I would do my rafting further north on the trip when the rivers are a bit more challenging to raft and the water is a lot warmer. The town is touristy but quite pretty and its been great to have WIFI- I've spent a lot of time in McDonalds!! We have had mild weather, which has been very welcome for lots of sitting around. As we have been camping lots recently we have been making meals using the truck kitchen and a few were missing the local Parilla's (basically a meat restaurant). Whilst in Bariloche we took advantage of the huge number of restaurants and went out for a group meal. It's amazing what you can get here, the steaks are huge. 400 grams is counted as small and most meals need to be shared. Some of the group decided that they would get meat platters which were about 4 times the meat you would need for a regular meal. As not really a steak eater I have been opting for sausage and chips which has been huge but a more manageable size. It's a wonder all the Argentinians don't die from heart attacks!! Next stop Pucon in Chile for New Year.

Feliz Navidad!! Los Alerces NP. Argentina

Los Alerces NP is our camping stop for 3 days over Christmas. We are located next to a lake and it's been very nice to chill out for a few days and I feel that everyone has appreciated doing not a lot. Christmas Day was great. We've been suitably fed and watered and I have to admit that it's amazing how much food you can cook over a fire. It was the first Christmas dinner I'd had with no roasties but my plate certainly wasn't lacking food and the crew and the cook group did a great job. The secret santas were unveiled as Pete dressed up as Papa Noel, Kirsten as a reindeer and Graham as an elf! Karen liked the gift I got for her and I was delighted with my present from Jeanne- a first 1000 Spanish word book and some lip balms. Boxing day presented us with some sun so we had washing lines everywhere and most just sitting around camp enjoying doing nothing. Myself, Francois and Tony had a quick dip in the clear lake waters. Cold but not as cold as some of the showers on the 'W'.

Cueva de los Manos “Cave of the hands”. Argentina

We left Ushuaia and headed north. We had to cross into Chile to then head back into Argentina again. We had a couple of long drive days and some bouts of dodgy weather before stopping in the middle of nowhere in order to visit the Cueva de los Manos, in English the cave of the hands. Most of us woke up to a lovely sunny day and decided that the 18km walk over and into a gorge to visit the cave was a great idea. The other group members who wanted to treat their feet to a rest got a lift in the truck to the cave. The scenery was great but the sun hot so we were happy to see the truck parked half way up the gorge.

The caves are a UNESCO site and most of the art in them is approximately 8000 years old. There are paintings of guanacos but most are negative prints of left hands suggesting that the locals were right handed as they placed their left hands on the cave wall and blew natural paints through a tube and onto their hand creating a negative. It was interesting to see how all the art has been interpreted but i'm a bit skeptical as to the genuineness as some of it looked very 'new'.

Magellan Straits to Ushuaia, Argentina

We headed off for a couple of long days drive from Torres del Paine, heading south towards the Magellan Straits on our journey to Ushuaia right at the bottom on Argentina sitting on the Beagle Canal. We bush camped on the southern side of the straits which were crossed in 20 minutes with a simple drive on drive off ferry. We had another long day driving as we crossed the border from Chile into Argentina to get to Ushuaia and the Tierra del Fuego region. The region is full of forested, but snow topped mountains and the drive was pretty smooth until we got held in a traffic queue due to protesters blocking the road.

Ushuaia is known as 'the end of the world' and is quite a touristy town due to the amount of cruises on the Beagle canal and also to Antarctica from here. I wasn't interested in the Beagle cruise as it's been pretty cold here and the thought of sitting on a boat for 4 hours looking for sea birds and sea lions wasn't really taking my fancy. Most of the group did the cruise though and really raved about it. I've spent my 2 days here just mooching and munching around the town. The weather's not been fantastic but good considering where we are in the world. I've been pretty happy doing not a great deal and chilling out. You can't do something everyday!

Next we are heading north (for the meantime), stopping for a couple of bushcamps, one of which in Chile before heading to the Lake District region of Argentina and hopefully some fractionally warmer weather! Mikkel is headed to colder weather though as he has left the group for a couple of weeks after finding a "cheapie" trip to Antarctica last minute. We are all very jealous!!

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

11/12/12

We headed south toward the border with Chile, stopping for a very wet and windy first bush camp along the way. The Chile border was pretty simple, they just scanned our luggage looking for fresh produce and dairy. We headed to Torres del Paine National Park for 5 nights. Most of us had plans to hike the famous 'W' track. This track takes 3 nights/4 days and covers 70 odd km's. Myself, Terry, Lesley, Keith, Neil and Graham were camping the track so we carried all out camping gear and food with us. Everyone else decided to stay in dorms and have their food included. The track was beautiful and the views amazing as we saw glaciers, jagged peaks, rivers and waterfalls. The finale of the trek was seeing the granite Torres. It was a steep scramble up hill to see them. We left at 3.30am to get to the top for sunrise, and the torres were covered in a little cloud. Others got perfect views by heading up later in the day but whatever the view I think everyone was glad to finish the 'W' and still have toes attached!

El Chalten, Argentina

07/12/12

We left Calafate and headed 4 hours north to El Chalten also still in Los Glaciers National Park. I'd love to say the scenery was amazing but I actually slept most of the way!! The weather was awful when we got there, lots of wind and rain but we still managed to head out for a short walk. El Chalten is one of the trekking capitals of Argentina so most of us dug out our boots and went for a hike. On the 1st day we headed for a 7 hour long walk to see Glacier Grande. It was pretty spectacular scenery, if a little windy. The next day I headed out my myself to walk to see Mt Fitzroy. It was a relatively flat walk past beautiful lake Capri. It was eventful though as I saw 4 woodpeckers, a condor, a mini avalanche and a bolt of lightning

Pete and Graham rocked into town with perfect timing on the last day, just as we were eating tea. They looked shattered after surviving on minimal sleep after picking up the truck in Uruguay. As a celebration we all had a few drinks in the local micro brewery before heading south the next day

El Calafate, Argentina

We are currently in the west of Argentina, still in the region of Patagonia. We are staying in a very nice hotel in in El Calafate so we could visit the southern side of Los Glaciares National Park famous for the Perito Mereno glacier. Getting here was a bit of a mission though. We checked out of the hostel in Puerto Madryn at 10am and hung around until our very long distance coach journey to what looks and feels like temperature wise the other side of the world! We had a very comfy journey with edible food, a game of bingo and some very caring staff who made sure that the films were in English or had English subtitles and I think most people didn't have too much of a bad nights sleep. We had to change buses in Rio Gallegos in the very south of the country and had a 4 hour wait for our bus going west. I think everyone noticed the drop in the temperature as all the warm gear was put on, but it still isn't too cold though. We finally arrived at our destination at 5pm!

El Calafate is small but touristy and looks a little bit what I would imagine an alpine ski resort to look like. We are in a great hotel with views looking towards the snow capped mountains of the Andes. Lisa and I are delighted with the size of the room- 2 singles and a double bed between us. The down size of a big room is that there is less reason to keep all your stuff in a nice neat pile which makes packing up and moving that little bit harder.

Our main reason for coming here is to see the Perito Mereno glacier. It is one of the few advancing glaciers left in the world, advancing 2m a day and regularly carves huge chunks off the face. The face is 5km wide and the glacier stands to about 60m above a lake. The whole area is kitted out with lots of boardwalks so everyone's not in the same area. We spent about 3 hours just watching and listening. It was exciting and addictive to watch as you tried to guess which bit was going to fall next. When small chunks of ice fell it sounded like a gunshot, when larger pieces fell the sound echoed like thunder, then a huge splash. I thought that we would have to wait for ages to see sections collapse but I think the most we stood waiting was about 20 minutes. We were also given a spectacular finale as an entire section if the wall fell. The glacier took a long time to get to but it was definitely worth it.

Next we are heading to El Chalten at the northern end of the national park for some more glacier fun. After a 3 nights there we should finally get the truck as it has docked and is waiting to clear customs and get put back together after shipping.

Valdez Penninsula, Argentina

After a very comfortable 19 hours on a sleeper bus we arrived in a cool and rainy Puerto Madryn in the region of Patagonia. Originally we would have camped to explore the Valdez Penninsula but since we don't have the truck we are currently based in the hostel which has been nice as there has been WIFI and cooking facilities to help save the pennies

As a whole group we had a private coach around the penninsula leaving at 7.30am and arriving back at 6pm it was a long but great day. The weather was back to what we were expecting- sun and it made great photo taking. The penninsula is a UNESCO site for biodiversity so we expected to see different land and marine wildlife along the section of the 400km coast that we were travelling.

First stop was to visit the penguins who were just chilling on the edge of the cliff, some sleeping, some socialising others just waddling around. I could have watched them for hours. It was also funny to see them all run up the beach away from the water when the saw a seal in the distance. Also on our journey through the penninsula we saw lots of the flat scrub land that covers Patagonia and the wildlife that lives there- eagles, sheep, guanacos (a bit like a llama), maras (looks like a giant rabbit) and Rheas which are the South America relative to the emu and ostrich. The temperature here ranges from -20 in the winter to +40 in the summer so all the wildlife has to adapt to the temperature range.

Next stop was a stretch of coast which has a colony of elephant seals. Sadly the ones with the big noses weren't to be seen and it was mainly mums and pups. The photos don't show how huge they were and the noise they made was pretty special. Most of the group took a boat tour to see Southern Right whales. Whale watching is something I'd done in South Africa so I decided to give it a miss and use the money to do an activity elsewhere that I'd not done before so I happily relaxed in a beach side cafe. They came back all smiles and seemed to enjoy as they saw mums and babies bobbing near the surface.

After 3 nights in Puerto Madryn we are headed tomorrow across the width of Argentina to the western side. We still have no truck but it's looking more hopeful to dock soon and Pete and Graham will be able to catch up with us! Next stop is Los Glaciares National Park but sadly we have 24 hours minimum (we are learning that the Argentinians don't really keep to times) of travelling on 2 different buses to get there. The adventure goes on!!