Clairewebst

Claire: After a randomly uncomfortable night bus, we arrived in Mendoza and headed to out hotel (the Confluencia on España - excellent and cheap). The taxi driver took us the long way after ‘mishearing’ the street number I told him... bugger. The day we arrived was bloody roasting, it was too hot to even wander about town and we had to evolve a strategy of ducking into airconditioned places every few minutes. Already convinced i had DVT after waking up from the night bus with one extra swollen foot, i decided that the heat stroke would finish me off before the DVT became a real problem. The capacity for hypocondria really increases in foreign countries, its great. Anyways, we had a little wander around the city, which has 5 plazas (slightly excessive i thought) and lots ... read more

Ross: Getting off at El Calafate brought some funny looks my way. not sure if it was how I looked after 24 hrs on a bus and covered in sand or how I was dressed; I hadn’t bothered changing when we left Puerto Madryn as it was bloody roasting and was still dressed accordingly- boardies, thongs and a small concession to the cold I had put a hoody on. Still it wasn’t that cold and some of these people were getting about like we were in the South Pole. Anyways after a free ride from a nice bloke that worked at another hostel and a short walk we reached our hostel: America del sur. Claire had already booked this place ages ago but Shierley and Johnno (more Aussies from our GAP tour) who were about a ... read more

Claire: from BA we took the bus down to Viedma, where we would later catch the train to Bariloche. we basically spend a couple nights here hanging about waiting for the train (which only leaves on thursdays and sundays). there was tasty icecream (of course) and a nice river to sunbathe beside and swim in if youre brave enough but the town had nothing much else to see. the train to bariloche was wobbly and a bit uncomfy (and long - 16 hours) but the dinner we had on board was tasty and had ross feeling a bit james bond (he kept going on about red wine with fish) and the sunset we saw from the train made it completely worth taking. we arrived in bariloche and found ourselves a comfy hotel. from this ideal base ... read more

Claire: finally a big city! it had starbucks (mmmm!). we went to the zoo, we looked at a big statue of a virgin on a hill, we marveled at the nice weather and we got really, really, really drunk. the measures of vodka here are more than half the glass. also, we sort of decided we dont want to come home, not yet at least... so we changed our flights and booked new ones to go to buenos aires in argentina. in theory we will now be home in march. ill let you know how that goes. next stop argentina! Ross: Ok so I’ve not posted for a while and that’s because I’ve really nothing worth saying about Bolivia. It’s a beautiful country with amazing scenery but that’s about all its got going for it (apart ... read more

Claire: San pedro de atacama is a sleepy mexican feeling little border town situated in the atacama desert (hence the name of the town). the atacama desert is sold as the driest place on earth where it rains at most once a year. typically, this year it rained the days we were there. but it was only light rain and it lasted about half an hour so we can forgive it. otherwise san pedro was like heaven after the freezing altiplano of bolivia. the temperature was 26 degrees and the beer was cold and tasty. also the steak was great and we found a restaurant that was fantastic (restraurant adobe if you ever happen to be in san pedro). we decided to fill our time here with a mornings horseback ride through the desert. the horses ... read more