Pucon is the first taste of good weather I've had in a long time. but donning a pair of shorts was not the entire reason for travelling here: the plan was to climb the 2847 metre Volcan Villarica - an active Volcano on the town's doorstep. The ascent can only be done with an accredited guide, so we signed up with one in town and we were fully kitted up with boots, gaitors, waterproofs and best-of-all an ice axe!!! As I said to Chris, my motivation for doing even the most menial of tasks would be huge if only I was able to complete them using an ice-axe!! I don't know why but it just feels really good to be wielding one of the beasts!! The ascent initially sounded quite daunting, 1400 metres straight up the ... read more

Have returned safely from spending two weeks trekking round the beautiful and rugged Torres Del Paine national park in the far south of Chile. I thought I´d put down a few general ramblings about my time, both in the park and Patagonia generally, and let you know a few of the highlights rather than go for a blow-by-blow account of what I got up to. Should get some pictures from the trek online in a couple of weeks time so the descriptions will hopefully make more sense then!! Firstly, Chile has been, well chilly. I guess the clue should have been in the name. Its also the windiest place I think i've ever been and, helpfully, it is often both very chilly and very windy - at the same time. Being the slightly fair-weather travel that ... read more

The main (only) reason for visiting El Calafate is to take a trip to the incredible Perito Moreno Glaciar. Unfortunately, the glacier is located 75km away from the town and no public transport runs out to it!! Therefore you need to book on a quite expensive tour, or use your wits to get there. Fortunately, as James and I don´t have much in either of those two departments, we found secret third option C, which was to bump into some Israeli guys that I had met in Buenos Aires and for them to have 2 free spaces in the car that they had rented for the following day - resulto!! Thus we drove down to the Glaciar the next morning. About three quarters of the way to the glaciar, the road turned to winding gravel, and ... read more

Yep it seems my ability to sit still, read, listen to music and watch some of an incredibly bad romantic comic starring Paul Nichols (yep, that guy who was on Eastenders once and covered his bedroom in tin foil or something!!) reached new levels as i´ve just stepped off an 18 hour bus journey feeling almost refreshed!! Currently we're in Bariloche, which is the aforementioned 18 hour bus ride South-West of the capital Buenos Aires, near to the Chilean border in an area called the Lake District. The area is beautiful: Bariloche is situated on a vividly blue lake and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It is, however, also rather nippy - especially when the wind gets up. But it does give me an excuse to bring out the fleeces, scarves and gloves that have until this ... read more

Post Rio we have stopped off at the Iguacu falls, which have been a real highlight of my travels. We visited both the Brazilian and Argentinean sides, and found the Argentinean side to be just amazing. They had constructed trails and walkways which allowed you to get really close to the vast amounts of water pouring over the falls. The main cascade is, (appropriately), called the "Devil´s Throat" and is suitably awe-inspiring given the name. We were standing less than 10 metres away from a massive horseshoe of thundering water. The highlight of the day was probably when we decided to act like naughty teenagers and ignore the "do not pass" signs to go exploring and rock-hopping around some of the smaller falls. We discovered a shipwreck (artistic licence taken - read rusty rowing boat) ... read more