Mendoza (Arg) - Week 25

1st - 6th March

Left Valparaiso on the 8am bus on our way to Mendoza. The 8 hour bus journey was amazing, right through and over the top of the Andes. The roads meandered left and right to get up to 4000m and it looked like we would never get there! The Chile/Argentina border crossing was right in the mountains and just before we got there we had a view of the highest peak in all the Americas, Aconcagua at almost 7000m.

We arrived in Mendoza at around 4pm and after booking our bus tickets out to Buenos Aires, found a local bus to get to our hostel. Hostel Alamo is a great new hostel in a big converted house. Original parque (how do you spell that?) floors, big airy dorms and in the fancy double room which we splashed out on for just one night, a beautiful, old, original bathroom.

Mendoza is a lovely city with perfect climate (about 28 every day with a breeze) and wide, shady, tree-lined streets. The main square is the Plaza Independencia and there are four other beautiful little squares all in the centre.

Stayed in the hostel chatting on the first night then after a leisurely breakfast on Friday morning went out to find a winery for some good old wine tasting and a nice lunch. We took the local bus through Maipu (all these famous wine names - it's too much for us, especially when James keeps sniggering like a little boy at the name Maipu/mypoo!) and on to one of the bigger wineries, La Rural. It was great, a tour round the winery and wine museum and tasting at the end and it's all free. They only put out the crap wine at the end though for the tasting but we got a couple of big glasses...




We learnt a little about wine making. Considering how much wine we drink James was suprised to hear that you can make white wine from red grapes. The colour of the wine comes from the skins and not the juice, so you leave the skins in and ferment to make red or remove the skins and ferment to make white. Pinot Noir is made from red grapes - who'd have thought it!! Of more concern was how little the grape pickers were paid. For a large basket they would make 1 peseo or 17p, on a good day they make 4 quid...

The old way of getting the juice out by trampling. An inside out ox skin with the wine leaving by the poop hole - charming!

Then we walked to a restaurant nearby that had been recommended and had the most delicious meal! Bread, oil, vinegar and a big plate of parma ham to start then James had a delicious beef in Malbec wine and Katie had suckling pig with roasted aubergines. Creme caramel to finish and a lovely bottle of Temperanillo all for 12 quid. Argentina is bloody wicked.

Katie refusing to leave the restaurant of her dreams.

Got back to the hostel mid-afternoon and watched a film then started drinking more wine and chatting with people from the hostel in the garden. Decided we should go out about 3am so went down to the cafe on the corner to play pool with Alex, Matt and Alfie from the hostel. Then it all went horribly wrong when the triple gin and tonics came out... All I will say here is that Katie had to be carried home and was not well the next day. We got home about 5.30am and Katie woke everyone in our dorm.

So, Saturday was spent in bed until we got up to go to the big wine festival extravaganza in the park which we had jammily managed to get tickets for from a bloke in the hostel. We got on the bus to go but Katie was still so ill that she had to come home again without making it into the auditorium, gutted. But James went, accompanied by two aussies, Sam and Mel and had a great time.

Sam, Melanie and James, you'd never guess that Mel was an ozzie! ;o)

The finale with about 400 dancers and 20,000 people watching...

James getting a peeping-tom photos of the beauties.

The dancers pretending they are vines!!

Dancers abseiling from a bunch of grapes in the sky - all very surreal!

Sunday was a quiet day with strictly no alcohol and relaxing.

On Monday we did a bit of exploring around Mendoza town to the different little squares and tried to go to the museum but it was shut (they take their siesta VERY seriously in Mendoza and nothing is open between 12.30 and 5!). In the evening we went to 'The Vines' for a wine and cheese 'pairing' session which was fantastic (Vic, Dunc, Suse, Ash - you would have loved this!!). We were there for two hours, the first hour was spent tasting five different wines with different cheeses and learning about the wine and why they pair so well with different cheeses. Then for the second hour, more bottles were opened and more cheese produced and it was a free for all. Think we ate our own body weight in delicious cheese and James had far more than his share of wine (Katie still taking it easy after Friday night...)!

On Tuesday we took a bus out to another wine region and visited two more wineries. The first was a very small winery with a charming old owner that gave us a wine glass each and took us through all his barrels, every wine was delicious! At the start, Katie told him that we did not speak much Spanish so could he speak slowly but he said (in very fast spanish), 'It doesn't matter what I'm saying, it's all about the wine'! Couldn't have put it better ourselves...

The second winery was bigger, and we got a full tour of the winery and how the wine is made (including their sparkling wine which is made by a single man that works in solitude, turning and shaking bottles every two weeks...). Then we had another tasting of three excellent wines at the end.

Got the bus back to Mendoza at 5pm and after a quick watch of the Liverpool v Barcelona match, took a taxi to the bus station for the overnight bus to Buenos Aires.

Books we read: The Getaway by Jim Thompson - pretty good, better than the film!

Valparaiso & Viña del Mar - Week 24

25th - 28th February

After a 14hr overnight bus from Orsorno to Valparaiso, that included a snoring man like a fat pig all night behind us, we arrived in Valpariso to thick cloud - and we were hoping for a bit of beach action here! Luckily the weather is like that each day and by early afternoon the sun burns the cloud off leaving bright blue skies. We stayed in a pleasant little hostel called Casa Aventura on Cerro Concepcion where a lot of students and bohemians live, giving it a very trendy, relaxed feel.

Valparaiso is a strange and interesting place. It is built on a hillside made from lots of steep little hillocks or cerros dotted all over the place. All the buildings cling periously to the cerros fighting for space, with expensive houses mixed in with shacks made of wood and corrugated steel. There is also lots of graffitti and murials but they are done in such a way that they don't make the city look run down, but really add to the character of the place.

In the 19th century, Valparaiso was the key port for US shipping between East Coast and California and was also a major banking district. It's decline began with the opening of the Panama Canal and banking moving to the capital, Santiago and the rich people moving out to Viña del Mar nearby. However, Valparaiso is officially Chile's capital of culture and is a major university town and so is now reviving.

We got into our room on Sunday at about 1pm then walked down the hill into town to find the supermarket and did some cooking. Very tired after no sleep on the bus the night before so we were in bed early that night.

On the Monday, we did a lot of walking around Valparaiso. First, we walked Avenida Alamena which is a long, curving street around the top of the cerros with great views of the town all along the way. You could also see the huge fancy mansions perched amongst the slums, very strange.



Next we walked along the front of the port to the west of the city to take our first (and in fact, only!) ascensor ride (on Ascensor Artilleria) up to a viewpoint. There are about 20 ascensors dotted around the city to transport people up and down the cerros and they are a major part of the Valparaiso landscape.


On Monday night we went to the cinema (hadn't seen a film for weeks - what a treat!) to see the very cheesy, The Vacation.

On Tuesday, we had intended to get the train to the next town, Viña del Mar but the main point of Viña is the beach and the weather was not good, so we did some more touring of Valparaiso. We walked through the streets around the Museo al Cielo Abierto which is a collection of 20 street murals designed by Chilean contemporary artists.

We then walked up to Casa de Lukas, the beautiful home of a famous Chilean caricaturist, which displayed a lot of his fantastic drawings. We also visited the former house of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet but James was more interested in the design features of the house as inspiration for our next house when we get home than the museum... Saw many more ascensors on the trips around town like the one below:

That evening we couldn't resist the cinema again (still suffering with our allergic reactions and not allowed alcohol with the antihistimines!) so went to see Babel which was brilliant. Bit tricky because so much of it was in a foreign language and, of course, had Spanish subtitles but we understood most of it, surprisingly. Good practise!

On Wednesday, we finally got to Viña del Mar and sat on the beach for an hour or so. Sea was absolutely freezing so no swimming action! Viña is right next to Valparaiso and is basically the holiday resort for Chileans. We weren't that impressed. Very Torremolinos! Had a good cheap 3 course meal (2 quid) of soup, steak and chips and fruit though, then headed back to Valparaiso.

That evening there was a concert in one of the squares which we went down to have a look at. We gathered it was a 'back to uni'-type affair but there was far more talking than music so we got bored and went to an Irish pub where James had some nice stout and there was a flamenco show (random). Then back to get packed ready for the bus to Mendoza the next day.

Book Katie tried to read: On the Mississippi by Mark Twain, got boring half way through...

Chilean Lake District - Week 23

16th - 24th February

A big blog this week as we've been packing it in, covering about a 1400kms through the Lake District in a hire car and bussing onto Valparaiso.

We were organised on this occasion and bought our bus tickets from Castro to Frutilla in advance. Got on the bus at Castro and arrived in Puerto Montt on time, so far so good. Then when we changed buses, things started going wrong. The driver moved our bags to the bus to Frutilla and told us it would be leaving in 15 mins so Katie dashed to the toilet and was back 5 mins later to find a slightly concerned looking James who said that the bus (with the bags!) had gone but we should get on another bus an hour later and meet our bags there. Very strange but anyway, we went with the info James 'understood' and went for an empanada (find time every day for an empanada, a tastier version of a Ginsters!). An hour later, there was no bus to Frutilla so we thought we'd check it at the office. Predictably, the people there had no idea what we were on about and insisted that we should have been on the same bus as our bags but tough, we'd missed it and there were minibuses outside that went to Frutilla all the time so we had to pay to get one of those and meet our bags there. True to form Katie went into one, i´m sure the non-english undertanding staff now know english swear words! Unbelievably, the bags really had been dropped off in the right place and the rest of the journey was uneventful to Puerto Octay on Lago Llanquilhue.

We stayed in a beautiful spot just outside town in a hostel in endless open fields with a spectacular view of Volcan Osorno. The place should have been fantastic, a lovely wooden new building with spotlessly clean bathroom and dorm but somehow it wasn't great. Too clinical, too stingy to put the heating on and no sofas! All the other guests were German so for the first time, everyone was speaking a language of which we couldn't understand the first word (don't know what happened to my 4 years of German with Mrs Losse!).

Anway, the next day we wondered the 30 mins into the town to have a mooch round and ended up in a pub garden drinking a couple of large cervezas... On the way back we went blackberry picking along the road back to the hostel, which put out a couple of local lads also picking berries as it seemed that it was their way of making a bit of cash, oh well it's a free market out there!

After having a chat to the various people in the hostel it became obvious that to really see all the Lake District region we would need to hire a car for the week. So that evening a bloody Chevrolet (Vauxhall) Corsa arrived - quality vehicle! Next morning we discovered that we had been bitten badly, so badly it's still causing extreme itching over a week later. We thought it might have been the bed bugs, but thought it was strange as the hostal was clinically clean (Owned by a Swiss/Chilean couple so you can imagine) so we left looking like plague victims.

We drove around the whole circumference of Lago Llanquilhue to Petrohue, next to the beautiful lake of Todos Los Santos, onto Purto Vargas, and stopped for Coffee and delicious Kuchen in Fruitillar Bajo. All the villages around the lake had a very German feel, partly due to the great number of German Tourists in Chile and that the whole area had been settled by Germans in the 1850's, bringing the whole culture with them. Style of houses, churches and food - not such a bad thing as their cakes are really good!

That evening, after stopping in Osorno to book our northbound bus, we stayed in Entre Lagos. The woman that owned the place reminded James of his Auntie Jo, very friendly and smiled the same way. After a long day we were happy it had a telly so we could watch Desperate Housewives and the OC, even though we are travelling you cannot beat a bit of telly!!

The little Corsa didn't quite fall apart on these loose stone roads...

Next day we headed further north, driving around Lagos Panguipulli and Calafquen on ripio roads, no tarmac. The car really came in here as buses rarely travel these roads. The countryside again really felt like England's Lake District, with the exception that sometimes we would come round a corner to see a massive snow capped Volcano!! The ripio roads go through isolated rural farming communities in deep valleys with small lakes and very few people. We stopped off at Panguipulli for a little sit on the beach. As it's full swing Chilean holiday season there was lots of holidaymakers in swimming in the lake, so Katie joined in (James is not so silly) with the freezing cold bathing. That afternoon we carried on around the lakes through Conaripe (picnic on the beach) to Lican-Ray for a couple of beers and then onto Villarrica to stay at Torres Suiza for a couple of nights.

Enjoying a couple of beers at Lican-Ray, Chileans bombing around on Jet-skis in the background.

Torres Suiza is another Swiss owned/run hostal, all very efficient, but a bad first impression. The owners gave the initial impression that we were causing them a lot of hassle by being there, being very abrupt in a very stereotypical Swiss way. With Katie's skin not recovering from the bites and turning into a full blown allergic reaction the owner showed her true colours and was very kind organising a doctor. It turned out that there is a particular type of mosquito at the lake in Puerto Octay that people can react badly to, so after some really strong anti-histamines the beginning of the end was underway, still with constant scratching!! But hey, at least it's not dengue fever or malaria!

On the first day in Villarrica we went to some local waterfalls and then sat on the beach at Carburga the whole day with Dan & Lucy, an English couple we gave a lift to from the hostal. Amazing weather - high 20's and not a cloud in the sky.


The main activity here though was to climb Volcan Villarrica (yet another volcano but this one has snow on top!) for the not inconsiderable 40,000 pesos, 40 quid each. The weather is highly unpredictable so on Tuesday it looked like this:

and the next day after a 5am start, 45min drive to Pucon to get our mountaineering gear on (ice axe and crampons - cool) and a 50mins bus ride to the start of the climb we arrive to this:


Needless to say the climb was aborted, we were a bit relieved as 80 quid is 2 days budget and a bit steep for a 8 hour walk.

The next day we decided to head on further North as Villarrica/Pucon were a bit too rammed with Chilean toursits to enjoy the scenery fully. So, on we went to Curacautin and found a lovely little hospedaje called Alewin. Very friendly owner and really lovely, cheap double room with en suite. We dumped our bags and headed straight back out to Termas de Tolhuaca which were in beautiful surroundings of pine forest but not nearly hot enough for James's liking! There was some walking to do around the national park but after 3 nights of virtually no sleep due to the constant itching, we were knackered and headed back to the hostel for an early night.

The next day, we left Aliwen and drove to Conguillio National Park for a couple of fantastic treks. We also picked up our first (and, indeed, only) couple of hitchhikers, a nice young Chilean couple on their summer hollies.

This national park is the best place in Chile to see the araucaria (ie: monkey puzzle trees) forest and our first walk was to the oldest tree in the park, an estimated 1800 years old:


The next walk was more of a hike up 1650m through the forests to a fantastic view of Laguna Conguillio and Llaima volcano:

This was the best walk we did in the Lake district, absolutely beautiful! The walk was very peacful with few people around, allowing the mind to wander and daydream. This walk in particular gave the greatest feeling of how fortunate we are to be able to be able to travel through these beautiful places for a year. How fortunate we are to have been born in Europe to loving parents, well educated to allow us to get good jobs, to save money in a country that has a strong economy giving us the oportunity to make a trip like this. You sometimes can sense a feeling with people here that they are a little envious of the way Europeans and Americans are free to travel with our strong economies, in particular with the Argentians with their recent economic crash. There is also the feeling of how long will these environments be like this, with the climate changing rapidly and these developing countries keen to have the things we take for granted as quickly as possible with little thought of the environmental consequences. Walking in unspoilt places such as these stunning national parks really does make us think that we are lucky to be travelling right now and not in 10 or 20 years time. Back to the story then!!

After two big walks, we still had what we thought would be 2 hours driving to do to get to Valdivia where we were staying that night. So off we sped, or should have sped but quickly realised progress was not going to be rapid as we first had to get the Corsa through a 20km road of volcanic scree - a few tense moments when we thought the car was actually going to shake to pieces...

So, 4 hours later at 10pm we arrived in Valdivia where we had no room booked and we found out that there was a big festival starting the next day! Eek, a very tired Katie and James behaved impeccably, didn't fall out once and after trying a few places finally found beds in one of the hostels. Decided we needed a beer and went out to find a group of hippies playing crazy rock music. There were a group of about 10 youths (!) at the front moshing which was all very surreal and highly entertaining!!

Everyone was carrying round bags of fake snow as the festival was starting and Katie got 'got' 3 times!! James was just taking a picture of the first covering when the second hit:

Valdivia is a city on the coast which was walled in the 17th century because yet again us Brits were on the rampage and kept trying to invade the pace, that Francis Drake really was a bit of a naughty boy. Everywhere we've been he's had a bit of a raid and sacked the place!! So the next day we drove up the coast to Niebula to have a look at the fortifications. The canons below could fire 1500m enough to reach all the way across the estuary below.


We then drove a bit further up the coast for a quick coffee and came accross a fishing village with an amazing sea food market. We found them picking out these strange orange things out of rocky thingies that we've never seen before - anyone any ideas?? They look delicious!


After a lovely picnic in the park, we headed back down to Osorno to drop off the car and get on the 14 hour overnight bus directly to Valparaiso.

Books we read: Man Crazy, Joyce Carol Oates - disturbing story but a good read

Chiloe - Week 22

14th - 15th February

At 8am on a horribly grey, cold and rainy day, we walked to the port to catch the boat from Chaiten to Castro, the capital of Chiloe. And we waited and waited in the rain until we finally got on the boat at 10am and we waited and waited on the boat until we finally got moving at 10.45.

The five hour journey actually ended up being eight but we had good, comfy seats and despite a bit of sea sickness for both of us, the journey went quite quickly. It was a strange feeling coming up to the island on the ferry. It was the first place have been so far that reminded us of England. The countryside was very similar to Devon/Cornwall, rolling green hills and grey rainy skies! We walked through the continuing rain (it had not stopped all day) to a nice hostel called El Mirador, dumped our stuff and headed straight out for seafood which Chiloe is famous for.

Chiloe is a small series of islands off the coast of Chile (about half way up) which is famous for its houses on stilts and churches made by the Jesuits missonaries trying to convert the locals to Christianity, as well as the seafood. The island is only 110 miles north to south and has a different feel to the rest of Chile. The indiginous Mapuche indians have managed to keep their unique culture even when the Spanish finally conquer them. They have a rich folklore with many mythological animals and spirits. They have witchdoctors and believe in a small ugly man known as El Trauco, who can hypnotise girls leading them into the forest, from which they return pregnant - all sounds a bit dodgy to us!

Then we took the bus across to another little island to a place called Achao which has the oldest church in Chiloe built in 1730.

Books we read: East of Eden, John Steinbeck - really good yarn

La Carretera Austral (Chile) - Week 22

Coyhaique - 8th & 9th February

We found a good place to stay on the outskirts of town in a place owned by a funny (well he tried) Chilean bloke. He put us in a decent room with three beds, but had told the other person in the room (absent at the time) that he had the room to himself - he was a bit suprised to see us in there.

We met with Katie & Bill for dinner and decided that the first task in the morning was to book all the transport after the fiasco on the ferry and our troubles with booked-up buses in Argentina. That afternoon we walked to the nature reserve behind the town and went on a pleasent 4 hour walk, cannot beleive we like going on little walks. How old age creeps up on you!!

We have also lost all sense of scale in these enormous countries. A 3 hour trek is just like a walk round the corner to the pub and a 5 hour bus ride like nipping to Sainos in the car!

Next day we left Coyhaique on the first half of the section of Carretera Austral we planned to travel to Puyuguapi. A bit of background. The Carretera Austral was started in 1976 under the government of president Augusto Pinochet, one of the postitive parts of his legacy. Before the road this whole section of Chile was cut off as the terrain is so impassible. It runs 1240km from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins in the south through so on the most impressive scenery we have seen on this trip.

Puyuquapi - 10th & 11th February

After 6 hours we arrived in Puyuguapi and the four of us found a little hospedaje run by a very freindly family. We had also arrived on the weekend that they celebrated their village's birthday, with a big party that night - nice timing!! They held it in their gymnasium and was a very high-brow affair. This year it was the turn of the 10 - 13 year olds to be the village king & queen.

The outgoing king & queen in the armchair in the middle!

Afterwards the tables and chairs were cleared and the dancing started led by the local band including accordian of course. The two Katies were hotly in demand by the men of the village, they being fresh talent in the town, so much so that Bill and James HAD to dance just to keep them at bay!!

Next day we arranged a lift with the daughter of the owner to take us to the hanging glaciar south of the village. After a 90min walk to the mirador with reached this view:

Chaiten - 12th & 13th February

Next day we left to travel up the second section of the Carretera Austral to Chaiten. Again more spectacular scenery and little villages.

The drivers of these buses are deffo are on a little side earner a we stopped every half an hour it seemed at another little cafe for a "toilet stop". One place did have fresh-out-of-the-oven cheese, ham and tomato empanadas, little pasty type things that were delicious!!

Bill & Katie were getting the 14 hour overnight ferry to Puerto Montt at midnight so after finding somewhere to stay we met up with them for scrummy hamburgers and a few beers before their ferry. The owner was well gone with his mates drinking by the time we got our food and so as the rolls were quite small he gave us two hamburgers each - result. A couple of others from the bus earlier joined us, Stan from Poland and Mete from Berlin. Later the owner then gave us lots of lamb from the BBQ and free Pisco Sours, so it ended up a bit of a late one. Pisco Sours are a cocktail of liquour with lemon and egg white making a drink very alcohlic but desceptively so - a dangerous combination in the hands of Katie!!

The next morning we booked onto a tour to another glacier and thermal springs. No photos as they were pleasent enough but not as spectacular as the previous one (uh oh, getting complacent!). After a nice fish and chip dinner we headed off to bed early for the ferry to Chiloe in the morning...

Ruta 40 - Week 21

7th February

So, we finally left El Calafate and set off on the long bus journey along Ruta 40, famous in Argentina for being a 4600km long, largely unpaved road which goes all the whole length of Argentina, stretching from the border with Bolivia in the north, to Río Gallegos in the south. That's about the same distance as London to Nigeria!!

You see nothing for miles and hours and hours, but the scenery is like nothing else in the world (that we know of) and time goes mysteriously quickly. There is no desire to listen to music or read books much, the endless scrubland and hours of desert sort of sends you into a day dream! It's one of those places that makes you feel very small in a large world...


There were two 'villages' on the way between the middle 12 hours which had a population of 30 each and consisted of a cafe/shop and hostel/campsite. They were basically just facilities for the significant numbers of crazy cyclists that we saw battling their way through the desert winds! At the various stops we saw guanacos (llama-type creatures) and an armadillo!

The sunset was also pretty spectacular and the further north we got the more strange and interesting the rock formations.

We left El Calafate at 8am and 15 hours, 1100km and what seemed like about 100 food, fag and toilet stops later (sure we could have done the journey in about 8 hours in a car!!), we arrived in Los Antiguos, just at the Chile/Argentine border.

Stayed in a very nice hostel for the night and after cooking up our porridge for breakfast the next morning (has become a bit of a thing after the camping/trekking extravaganza, can't believe we both like porridge!!), we hopped in a mini-bus to cross the border into Chile and to get the boat to Puerto Ibanez in order to get up to Coyaique that night.

And it was at the port that we found out that the boat was full until 5.30 the next evening and we met lovely Californian couple Katie (must be great with a name like that!) and Bill. We really did not fancy a night and all the next day in Chile Chico (dismal little port) so Katie and Katie got on board the boat to speak to 'El Capitan'! What quite we thought we were going to achieve with our limited Spanish I don't know, but we managed to talk to someone who let us wait on the boat till everyone with tickets had got on and sold us more tickets at the end of the queue.

Three very cold and windswept hours later, we arrived at Puerto Ibanez and were herded straight onto a minibus. An hour and a half later all was well, safely arrived in Coyhaique.

El Calafate & Perito Moreno Glaciar (Arg) - Week 21

2nd to 6th February

Up early after our lovely breakfast of toast and marmite (brought from England by Ally - a couple of English lads across the table very jealous...!), we left Casa Teresa's early for the 5 hour bus to El Calafate.

We had heard that the place was absolutely packed and it would be difficult to find anywhere to stay so we braced ourselves for a tour around every hostel in town, but the third one had space. Hostal Lago Azul is the spotless house of a 92 year old Calafatian Pioneer with two rooms that he rents out to tourists. On our second day, he knocked on the door to give us a jar of homemade preserve (no idea what type of fruit)- he is very cute!

The next thing to do was to book onward travel as we keep being caught out with it being the high season and all buses being booked up (our 4 months in Central America were so easy - no forward planning required at all!). And sure enough, the bus that we wanted to take didn't leave on the 4th when we wanted to go and was booked up on the 5th so we got tickets for the bus on the 7th!

So that means we have 5 nights in El Calafate which is quite a nice little place but expensive and nothing really to do except expensive tours to Los Glaciares National Park...

The absolute food highlight (perhaps of the trip so far!) is an all you can eat restaurant that was recommended to us. We have been there every day!!! It is 4 quid to eat as much as you can and you are positively encouraged to have bigger and better cuts of meat every time you go up! There is a huge 'parilla' at the back of the room which is an Argentinian barbeque, with whole lambs and chickens slowly roasting, also sausages, black pudding and enormous sides of beef:

The grillman, our new best friend, in a blur of grilling action!!

The extras are also absolutely to die for: noodles, mash, chips, pies, roast veg, every type of salad... And the puddings! Ice cream, jelly, typical Argentinian pudding which Katie is addicted to and fresh fruit. We will be enormous by the time we leave El Calafate but it really is rude not to go to this place at least once a day ;o)

What else have we done to occupy ourselves? Met some nice Argies running one of the bars here one night and went out with them typically Argentinian-style starting at 11pm and walking home at 5.30am (party was still going but we were tooooo drunk!). So that incurred practically the whole next day in bed...

Also some exploring around the town and nearby Lago Argentino to see the birds that it is famous for. Pink flamingos from half a mile away don't make for great photos though.

And, of course, Perito Moreno Glaciar, which was the whole point of stopping here!

The glaciar is absoluetly massive and the best thing about this particular glaciar is that it pushes up against a headland of rock so you can get really close. The glaciar is 4km wide, 14km long, 50m high at the front face and moves about 2m forward a day. As it pushes up against the rock headland the ice builds higher and higher blocking of the flow of water from Lago Brazo into Lago Argentina. The water can increase another 20m one side until the water pressure forces the lake water under the build up of ice. After 2 to 18 years it creates an archway of ice that collapses spectacularly. Unfortunately the last one was in May 2006, but the ice continually breaks of in huge lumps falling into the lake with lots of noise and waves. The pictures don't really do it justice...

James's favourite ice cream shop

Books we read: Ann Frank's Diary, Ann Frank