Blogs from El Bolsón, Río Negro, Argentina, South America

There are some rare occasions in life where you can only look on in wonderment, doff your cap, bow, kowtow, salute and pay homage. A Christmas-eve amble along the shoreline of Ushuaia, popularly known as 'the end the world'. Arrive at the iconic but cliched money-shot spot, and chance upon half-a-dozen champagne-swigging revellers and a smallish, taught, rugged, ruddy man standing next to the 'you have arrived sign' and his loaded, long-distance bicycle. Intrigued, linger quietly aside, and try to unobtrusively capture the occasion with a photo or two. It is cool, in the late afternoon, and the tourist spot is unusually empty. One of the party approaches, and hesitantly at first in broken Spanish, then reasonable, thick-accented English, asks if I know who the cyclist is. "Not a clue." "He is very famous in ... read more

Heading out of El Chaltén we hit the road about 10am for what we expected to be about a 500km driving day on a mixture of pavement and gravel roads, mostly the latter. A nice surprise met us as returned to Ruta 40 with the pavement extending 50km further than was marked on our maps - off to a good start! With the uneven gravel returning, we slowed down and waved to several groups of motorcyclists en route (we've seen so many groups of people making the pilgrimage down to Ushuaia, mostly on motorbikes, about a hundred on bicycles and some even on foot!!!!) A close call with our petrol supply helped us learn some more Spanish to ensure our gas station attendants would always fill the tank to its absolute maximum! (Chilean fuel would give ... read more

Perito Moreno is nothing to write home about, the hotel was ok the second steak in the restaurant was ok as well, the troika of aMexican a Swiss and a Swede was joined by a Japanese, big meeting of the UN. Next morning it was time to go to Chile, yet again, we infiltrated Chile via Chile chico and soon we had Chiles biggest lake on our left and riding on tarmac was a sweet memory, back to the gravel, the infamous ripio. Most of it's good but the now and gain you hit some spots with ankle deep gravel the sizes varying between pellets and golf balls, slippery as hell. Take care is the key word slowly into a curve, you might hit bad gravel or some Chilean cuttin' corners. But the views of this ... read more

I finally made my escape from Chile. Chile didn't make it easy though. Throughout my time there I ran into Easter weekend, infrequent bus schedules, and a tourist season that was winding down. But I also came across great scenery, wonderful people, and a few cool new experiences to add to the list. I'd say overall I'm just disappointed I didn't have more time to spend in Chile, exploring the Careterra Austral. And there's a lot more Chile I didn't see, so I'd love to come back. At the same token, it's time to go back to Argentina. And I've made a rule that while in Argentina that I must eat steak, or ice cream, or both every single day. This is a good rule. I was headed to El Bolson, but of course it wouldn't ... read more

We were back to a familiar place that we both loved. A place with, as the title says, shed loads of mountains, lakes and right in the heart of it all a huge 3000m volcano. Pucon was the towns name, and familiar well because it has a landscape similar to New Zealand and a town not dissimilar to an Alpine one. The overnight bus ride flew by and the jet lag was almost gone. What were 4am sleep times had now become 12pm, and our bodies were finally accustomed to the other side of the Pacific Ocean. What we were not prepared for was to be locked of of the hostel for 2 hours in the cold conditions of the Chilean Lake District. We found the place by 6.30am and it wasn't until 8.30am that we ... read more