The long distance bus station in Buenos Aires on the evening of 23rd Dec is not a sensible place to be. Here they celebrate Xmas on the evening of 24th Dec so the entire population of BA seems to be in the long distance bus station trying to get home with mounds of suitcases and parcels. Your ticket doesn't actually tell you which of the 70 odd stops your bus leaves from, it just says between stop 35 and 52. This is because the stops are allocated as the bus drives into the terminal 5 minutes before its due to depart. In theory there's an electronic departures board but its only showing a dozen departures and there are at least 50 buses loading passengers. So one of us stands with the luggage while the other attempts ... read more

Wooden churches are everywhere in Chiloe - not satisfied with the dozen easily accessible UNESCO listed ones we decide to head off in a hire car to discover some churches of our own. There is only one paved road running 164km from the top to the bottom of the main island but small gravel road head off in all directions to interesting little villages (i.e. 4 wooden houses one of which usually has a tiny shop in the front room and a big wooden church on a 'village green'). Its great fun; we find lots more churches in different colours, shapes and styles and we stumble across all sorts of interesting places and people. The locals all wave and say 'hello' as we pass, some hitch rides as the buses aren't too frequent down these tracks. ... read more

From Ushuaia its 2000 miles back up to Buenos Aires. However, before heading north there is important business to attend to - yes we started at the top of the world with a skinny dip in the Arctic Ocean so very early one exceedingly cold morning, with a temperature of 2C and snow falling, a few of us headed back out to the end of the road and had a quick dip at Lapataia Bay before the tourist buses arrived. Despite being well north of the antarctic circle the water was much much colder than the Arctic Ocean all those months ago. Now we should be heading north but when have we ever done what we are supposed to? We do leave Ushuaia heading north but then we divert off to Harberton, an historic estancia on ... read more

After 7 days of riding on gravel we have two 'rest' days in El Calafate. However, this is the gateway to Glaciers National Park - hence, sitting relaxing is not an option. So we climb back on the bike to go and get up close to the Perito Moreno glacier. And we really did get close, last time I was here it was way back across the other side of the lake. This time its right up against the near shore, actually making contact down below us. Its late in the day so the low sunlight is glancing off the icy peaks make it glow blue. We sit watching patiently and quietly (all the big tourist buses have gone), only its not quiet as the glacier is constantly creaking and groaning, and then suddenly there will ... read more

South of the Chilean Lake District the roads run out. There is only the Carretera Austral heading south and that was only opened to traffic in 1988 (it was initiated in 1976 by General Pinochet). To paraphrase the guide book - it stretches over 1000km through the wildest, wettest, greenest, narrowest parts of Chile. It passes through untouched tracts of wilderness and through the world's largest swathes of temperate rainforests. Sounds good doesn't it? and the vast majority of it is still dirt road. Its more riding alongside fast flowing rivers through forested sections either undulating up and down with the road or winding round sweeping bends. We've seen a lot of forests, lakes, rivers and mountains in the last few days but its not at all boring - every one is different. Its difficult to ... read more