An interesting thing happened as the bus pulled up in Cerro Castillo. Carl, an English guy I'd first met in Futaleufu, then again in Puyuhuapi, got off to stretch his legs. Nothing too strange there you might think, you bump into the same people all the time when you're on the road. Except in this case, Carl had been cycling the Carretera Austral. So what the hell was he doing on a bus, and where was his bike? Turned out he'd managed to break it, so it was now lying back in Coyhaique, waiting to be fixed. Other people have bad luck too it seems. The journey to Rio Tranquilo took us along the shores of the Lago General Carrerra, the second largest in South America. Instantly, I was struck by its incredible turqouise colour. How ... read more

I've been having some pretty good luck of late. From getting good weather at viewpoints, to getting a free lift from Puyuhuapi to Coyhaique, everything had been going well. In Coyhaique, I was just going to look for a campsite when I was approached by 2 girls, who had a room going spare for the same price as a camping. And when I got there they had some amazing leftover salmon, which I was welcome to scoff. I thought that nothing could possibly go wrong for me. Then came Friday 13th. It started badly, when I woke up to find a blister I have been nursing had decided to explode during the night, and my sheets now looked like something out of a 70's horror movie. I'd woken up a bit late, so after breakfast I ... read more

First of all, I need to start this entry with an admission. I went to Chaiten purely as a voyeur, planning on taking a view photos of the town, then leaving. For those of you that don't know the history, Chaiten was a busy port village until May 2008, when the nearby Volcano Chaiten erupted. This caused the river to overflow, and the town was devestated. Thankfully, everyone got out alive. Now, despite government warnings, 200 of the 7,000 residents have returned to try and get on with their lives. Anyway, I got off the bus at the dock, and set off walking into town. I figured I had about an hour until the bus returned, so I needed to be quick. This was until Nicholas drove past. Nicholas is the owner of Chaitur, and one ... read more

So I headed south from my life of luxury in Mallin, and ended up in the city of Esquel, which was one of the places that the Welsh colonised when they wandered over this way all those years back. However, the tourist office told me there was no evidence of the Welsh here, I'd have to go to nearby Trevelin for that. For the time being however, I found myself a campsite, and just as I was beginning to think I was rather peckish, some Argentines said they had far too much steak, and would I like to have some? I believe the well known phrase is "Do bears do their business in the woods?" I'd love to say that after a lovely steak dinner, I set about the afternoon with a heightened desire for exploration, ... read more

Hah! You didn't think I was serious when I said steak was off the menu did you? With a blog title relying on it, and also needing to provide Chris with his first Argentinian steak, all we were waiting for was a place to cook it, and luckily our campsite in Bariloche provided that. I mentioned in the last entry that Villa la Angostura felt touristy, but mostly Argentinians. Multiply the number of tourists by about 100, and make them gringos, and you get an idea what Bariloche is like. To be honest, I wasn't overly taken by the city itself, but it did have the saving grace of being situated on the beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi, and also being the centre for excellent walking in the National Park. I spent a couple of days muddling ... read more