We so liked the laid-back capital of Jujuy province that we stayed for several days. The formal name of the capital is the fantastical San Salvador de Velazco en el Valle de Jujuy, although it is generally referred to — thankfully — as San Salvador or Jujuy. The city has a strong Indian presence, and its colonial architecture gives it a colour and architecture that contrasts markedly with the urban areas of the south. We sauntered around town enjoying the atmosphere, replenished our supplies, enjoying our last Argentinean wine, and wandering up the hill behind town to visit a fascinating small archeological museum run by a team of expert enthusiasts and donations from visitors. Among them is the shy archeologist Jorge Kulemeyer, who took the time to illuminate the exhibits with his descriptions. Many of them ... read more

Our holiday with Erin in Buenos Aires and north-eastern Argentina has been a radical change in mode of travel for us, as we took to buses and did the trad backpacker thing for almost three weeks. Buenos Aires is a crazy city! It is vibrant and lively and full of art museums and movies and other cultural things we've been starved of in remote areas, but also polluted enough to hurt our throats and eyes. We noticed that people had a pressed, tired look that we had become unused to in the west. Erin's first day with us happened to be International Women's Day. We soon discovered that, for most porteños (residents of Buenos Aires) the meaning is far from the usual one of equality of choice and opportunity. Everywhere there were ads for IWD ... read more

Dust. Headwinds. Gusts from the side strong enough to blow cyclists off the road. The occasional tailwind! Rain. Climbs, descents and more climbs. Gravel roads. Endless corrugations. Potholes. Teeth rattled loose in the jaw. Stock cubes turned to a residue that is reminiscent of used engine oil. A blessed stretch of tarmac. Tábanos (horseflies) in at least three, equally voracious and persistent species. Orange-framed bridges over turquoise rivers. Turquoise lakes. Deep green rivers. Hundreds of waterfalls freefalling out of clouds. Roads hugging the edges of cliffs high above turbulent rivers. Condors floating in the heavens. Forest as far as the eye can see. Mountain sides too steep for vegetation to cling to. Landslides. Wildflowers. Green valleys. Grazing cattle. Raw slashes of bulldozed land that marks a new settler's beginnings and hopes. Occasional farmsteads. Paddocks of grasses ... read more

With the realisation that we could easily spend a month cycling to reach the southern end of our next major destination, the Carretera Austral, and that that would eat into time we want to spend in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, we decided to take the bus from Ushuaia to El Calafate. Once through the mountains north of Ushuaia we were into flat plains that continue through the rest of Tierra del Fuego and all of Patagonia. What an awesome expanse, even from the capsule of an air-conditioned bus. It had Claire reminiscing about friends and travels in similar landscapes in the western plains and the gulf country of Queensland, and the Karoo in South Africa. The Patagonian steppe of plains broken by small, rounded hills looked like the folds of old brown velveteen for hundreds of ... read more

Having booked a last-minute cabin on an expedition ship to Antarctica over the internet, we had to get ourselves to Ushuaia in Argentinean Tierra del Fuego pronto. A quick visit to the airline office in Castro (capital of Chiloe) secured us two tickets from Puerto Montt to Ushuaia, arriving in time to explore the southern end of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego before embarking on our ship. The name Tierra del Fuego (literally Land of Fire) comes from Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first European to pass it in 1520. He named this island after the many fires of the Amerindians, which were visible from the sea. He believed that the "Indians" were waiting in the forests to ambush his armada. They were, however, only using fire for heating and lighting. Charles Darwin called this ... read more