The overnight bus trip from Neuquen north to San Rafael passed quickly, I think we both slept quite a bit despite the lashing rain which we drove through at some point. We arrived at San Rafael about 8am Sunday morning as the sun was rising. We trundled our bags along to the hotel and went in search of coffee. As in nearly every town or village here the local YPF petrol station has a good cafe. After checking in and showers we did the walkabout. San Rafael is dead flat with lots of cyclists - except during the siesta which seems to last for about four hours during the week and all day Sunday. Some nice buildings and wide boulevards with lots of shade. And the town is a centre of wine production so we had ... read more

We gave ourselves a late start after the travails of the walk the day before. Leaving Bariloche to start wending our way through the northern parts of the lake district. Picked up another car and drove round the eastern end of Lago Nahuel Huapi and along the northern shore to Villa la Angostura. Another very scenic drive with lots of water, trees and moutain scenery under burning blue skies. Our hotel turned out to be on the lake with gardens down to the beach. We had had good intentions of going out to see the Arrayanes park (another sort of tree) but gave in to the temptations of an afternoon dozing and reading, and eating local trout for dinner. Next day we took the scenic but very very dusty unmade Seven Lakes Road up to San ... read more

After our first few days in Bariloche we picked up a hire car to drop back south to Esquel and El Bolson. Stopped for lunch in El Bolson and despite my fears it is not/no longer overrun with hippy types despite what the guidebooks might lead you to think. These days they are growing fruit or maybe some herbal tobacco. Seemed like a nice town. Esquel is about 300 km south of Bariloche and just about at the end of the decent scenery before our favourite road (see previous blogs) starts to cross the steppes. Esquel seems like a normal town with few tourist pretensions despite the number of newish cabanas around. We stayed with a woman who is 3rd generation Argentine/Welsh who still speaks the Welsh language fluently. She also serves up great breakfasts with ... read more

Ok it wasn't quite the road to nowhere but the bus ride from El Chalten to Perito Moreno is like an as yet unfilmed Werner Herzog film: hours and hours go by with nothing happening, the scenery along Ruta 40 is mesmerising in its sameness and its vast emptiness. The trip itself: Day 1 El Chalten to Perito Moreno town (not glacier) As the 40 odd (sic) passengers gathered for the bus in El Chalten there was a certain group mood of expectation and perhaps anxiety. We had all signed up for either the one day trip to Perito Moreno along R40 or some like us were doing the whole two days to Bariloche and were not totally sure what we were letting ourselves in for. Perhaps the rain and wind did not help. The road ... read more

Up early again for the bus ride to El Calafate. Long wait at the Argentinian border whilst the dogs had a good sniff of the luggage. Probably distracted by the smells of some trekkers who looked like they had not been near hot water for a while... Arrived to find the town bathed in sunshine and very warm, our home for the next few nights is a glorified wooden tent, Susan thinks it is from the Snow White set. In lovely gardens with very friendly owners. From our initial stroll down the main street we realised that there are lots of souvenir shops and associated window shopping tourists to be walked around. Booked ourselves an "alternative" glacier trip for tomorrow and picked up info on how to get from here to further north. The alternative trip ... read more