OllyG

As I passed a group of guys going back home from their night out, I looked forward to some more sleep on the bus. Driving the unpaved Route 40 is supposed to be one of the most beautiful/ dangerous/ long journeys in South America (depending as ever on who you talk to), but at 6 o´clock in the morning that seemed a bit far off; besides I had two full days to enjoy it! Admittedly the countryside is spectacular: typically patagonian with sparse brown scrub as far as the eye can see, occasional guanacos, nandus and lots of birds. Houses (or more usually farm buildings) are rare and judging by Perito Moreno, the (one horse) town where we spent the night, towns small and far between. The only difference I saw was that it is much ... read more

After arriving back in Bariloche (and a much needed shower) I wandered up the road to my new homestay. Not quite believing my luck, I was welcomed to the biggest house on the street by Bernado and shown to MY OWN room! Dora and Bernado had 3 other guests staying (english, french and canadian) and my spanish was severely stretched over a delicious home-cooked supper that night. The double pronged attack will hopefully improve my language skills, although remembering and using what I´d already learnt was difficult enough without adding more... Mid-week we went out for a birthday drink, and were perfectly postitioned to see the lunar eclipse from our seats in the pub. Luckily it was a completely clear sky! Venturing further afield for my weekend hike, this time I went to Mount Tronador - ... read more

The bus arrived 5 hours early in Puerto Madryn, so two very sleepy people were slightly surprised and confused having being woken up and told to get off. After finally having woken up, and several very cheesy empanadas (small pasties) later, we walked out to the Ecocentro on the outskirts of town. Welcomed by the skeleton of a Right Whale outside we stepped into the perfect beach house - and a cool exhibition about the local area and why is is so important to a huge variety of sealife. We spent the whole of the next day in a minibus. Well it felt like it. But we did manage a few stops on the tour of Peninsula Valdez, taking in sealions (lots of fighting, waddling, swimming, smelling), penguins (cuddling, sunbathing, climbing/walking huge distances on little legs), ... read more

On sunday I climbed my first hill in Bariloche. I thought the views from the hostel (10th floor with balcony overlooking the lake), were good before this... The views from the top were spectacular. Cerro Otto is just out of town and easily reachable on foot, a 5 hour hike took me to the top, with great views over the main lake and Bariloche town. However a panoramic/rotating restaurant hogs the best views and a cable car brings lots of people up so I moved on to another viewing point for... more amazing views. There were even condors soaring above and below, cruising around on the thermals. Holly, a friend from sailing, arrived and we went for the (now traditional) HUGE steak as a welcome to the country. Planning the next week, the only difficulty was ... read more

For various reasons, some of which are too long to explain here and some of which made little sense even at the time, the next step from Iguacu involved a 70 hour sleep-deprived road trip, more of which later... But first an extra day in Iguacu because of bus schedules gave us the perfect excuse to indulge ourselves. The rest of you 'dam fans´will already know that Paraguay is the world´s largest exporter of hydro-electric power, produced by the Itaipu Dam just across the border from Brasil. Imagine our disappointment then, when having run across the border (in retrospect not such a good idea - long queues, sweaty clothes, but fun at the time) we found the dam closed to visitors. Cuidad del Este is pretty grim so we beat a hasty retreat to the hostel ... read more