With an 8:30am pick up and only a 15 minute drive from San Pedro to the border, it wasn't long until we had said goodbye to Chile for the final time and hello to Bolivia. With the Bolivian border being little more than a garden shed with a flag, it was a pleasant five minute border crossing (unlike the 4 hrs Chile/Argentina crossing). Once we passed the border, it was then time to change from minibus to 4x4, which we would be travelling across the arid Bolivian desert in over the next three days. With images in our head of being stuck on a three day tour with a bunch of Argentinians or even worse...Germans, it came as a pleasant surprise when we discovered our 4x4 buddies were two Aussies and an English girl. However, with ... read more

Three hours late and after a four hour, 2am Chilean/Argentinian border crossing we finally arrived in Mendoza to to blues skies and beautiful scenic landscape. Once settled into our new temporary home, we headed off to book and organise the next couple of days. The next morning, with bus passes at the ready we hoped aboard a local bus and headed off to visit a few of the many wineries in this famous wine region...a kind of winery crawl I guess. 45 minutes later we reached our stop, jumped off and headed for Mr Hugo's bike hire. Map in hand and bike between our thighs, off we peddled to our first winery of the day; Rutini. After parking up outside we strolled through a room with enormous barrels of wine into a small rustic museum which ... read more

Our flight from Punta Arenas arrived in Puerto Montt, which left us with a five hour bus to take us to Pucon that same day. With all flight and bus connections going as smooth as clockwork, we were all chilled out in Pucon before we knew it. Sitting ominously in the shadow of the highly active Volcano Villarrica, from first impressions this picturesque Lake District town was everything we had hoped it would be. The previous day we had made a reservation to do what is most likely the towns most famous tour...to climb Volcano Villarrica. 8pm the night before we went for our boot and clothing fitting and for a basic briefing on what to bring and expect. Just as we thought we had left all the cold weather, next thing you know, we're getting ... read more

Three days into our Patagonian endeavour, we arrived in the town of Peurto Natales, feeling somewhat under the weather. Whether it was something we picked up on our flight down or the acclimatisation to our new temperate surroundings, we were both sniffing and spluttering all over the place. With the prospect of 4 nights of camping in the harsh Patagonian wilderness ahead, the apprehension and second thoughts began to enter our minds. After deciding to go for a stroll around town, we stumbled upon a free briefing on what to do and expect when visiting the world famous Torres Del Paine national park; which included being told to expect 100km+ winds, rain, sun, hail and snow. With advice in hand we had a brief discussion to debate whether we were definitely up for this...10 minutes later ... read more

Another day, another bus. This time it was a 17 hour overnight to Buenos Aires. After a surprisingly good nights sleep we arrived in Buenos Aires around midday bright eyed and bush tailed; that didn't last for long. With 40 degree heat and nowhere to stay, it wasn't long before we were wandering around the streets of Palermo in dire need of a place to cool down. Not too much later we decided to splash out and treat ourselves to a hotel...well kinda, it was pretty basic and cheaper than most hostels! Once settled in, we took a wander around the immediate area, had a bite to eat then headed back for an early night. After treating ourselves to a monster lay in (8:30am), we were up for a quick brekkie and out the door. First ... read more