Hello, anyone surprised by the location from which I am sending this obviously hasn't heard about my little accident in Bolivia. So just in case you are thinking I may have been kidnapped as I haven't updated this Blog for so long, I am letting you know I am in fact safe back in the cold, damp UK, but not for long..... I fell off a mountain bike whilst attempting to cycle down Death Road (La Paz to Coroico) in Bolivia. To add insult to injury (no pun intended, honest :-) I fell right at the top, after about 30 minutes [View Full Entry]

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Well I have finally dragged myself over the border and left beautiful Argentina behind. As you can probably tell that country made quite an impression on me and I hope I will have the chance to go back one day and get to know it better! Anyway since my last entry I indeed went back to Bariloche which was very different this time round with a much quieter crowd in the 1004. It was good to see the guys that run it again though and felt a bit like coming home! I only stayed 2 nights and got a bus at [View Full Entry]

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Well I finally made it to the most southern city in the world! First impresions- its not as cold as I expected!!!! The trip here was a good laugh- as planned 5 of us squashed ourselves and our packs into a very small car and headed to Rio Gallegos from where we planned to fly or bus it down here. After about an hour Brid (Irish girl) realise she had left all her shoes in the hostel in WEl Calafate and only had the flip flops she was wearing-not ideal for a place so near the Antarctic!!! Still she took it [View Full Entry]

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So after the long bus ride from Puerto Madryn (watched The Cinderella Man which was excellent although apparently not supposed to be in black and white...dodgy pirate disc perhaps?) we finally arrived in El Calafate at about 5pm on Monday 10th to find that the hostel we wanted to stay in was full. As one of our little travelling family was on a tight timeline being near the end of his trip, we decided to get on another bus (just can´t get enough of ém!) and go straight to El Chalten 4 hours away where we wanted to do some hiking. [View Full Entry]

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Finally left Barioche on Friday- was a bit of a wrench as 104 had become a real home form home! However as I am now looking less like a monster and more like I just walked into a door there was no excuse not to continue the journey! A big crowd of us checked out on the same day and the hostel was scarily quiet when we left, still doubtless the staff won{t be too upset at the lack of pissed Europeans playing crazy drinking games til 3am, then going to the pub and rolling back at breakfast time. No I [View Full Entry]

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I have been told by a veteran traveller that 3 bad things always happen to you on a journey. Just a superstition I am sure! I am in Bariloche now- a lovely town on the shores of a huge lake with mountains all around. The town has been built after the Swiss Alpine model, with lots of log cladding and stonework- some of the buildings are a corss between Bedrock and a Swiss Chalet but overall its a nice effect!! Did a great hike on Wednesday up a nearby mountain, 2.5 hours up of which the last was in snow over [View Full Entry]

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Today is my birthday and finally the sun has come out over Mendoza to give me a valid excuse to wear dark glasses (of course I´m not hungover!) and make up for the fact that in order to check out of the hostel I had to get up at 11am having gone to bed at 4.30am last night (/this morning). We (I travelled from Salta with Ciara and Majeda and Ian who I met in the hostel there) arrived in Mendoza on Thursday 22 at 9am to be greeted at the bus station by ´Rasta Max´touting for business for one of [View Full Entry]

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Salta is fantastic! I would definitely come back here. Possibly my view has been skewed by the fact its hot and sunny which is a first since I arrived in South America but even so its a very friendly town, compact and in beautiful countryside. I have been out exploring the area over the past few days with a girl I met here. Sunday we got up at 7am (not natural I know) and got a local bus to San Lorenzo, about 30 minutes away, there´s a nature reserve there which we hiked up, alongside a river but then we crossed [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Salta this afternoon at 1pm having left Iguazu yesterday at 10am. And the sun was shining!!! So all my warm clothes are now at the lñaunderette so it had better be warm and sunny tomorrow as I won't get them back til Monday!! Anyway Salta is lovely- the muntains coming here were rising on both sides and amazing but in some places the land was so flat the fields stretch endlessly, or at least to the horizon. There are chickens and horses and cows grazing along the road- truly free range! And shacks abd shanty villages where the poorer [View Full Entry]

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After a mere 17 hour ride I got to Iguazu right in the North of Argentina o the Brazil-Paraguay border. So much for my hopes for some sunshine- its cold here too and raining but that can only be good for the waterfalls right? Theres so much water going over them right now that part of the falls- the Garganta del Diablo is closed due to risk of being washed away, but the rest is pretty amazing- I have never seen so much water or so much power- truly awesome. At one point the walkways allow you to approah one of [View Full Entry]

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