La Cuarenta Before we began our trip, I remember reading Charles Darwin's famous description of Patagonia, a description which made me want to see this intriguing area: In calling up images of the past, I find that the plains of Patagonia frequently cross before my eyes; yet these plains are pronounced by all wretched and useless. They can be described only by negative characters; without habitations, without water, without mountains, they support merely a few dwarf plants. Why then, and the case is not peculiar to myself, have these arid wastes taken so firm a hold on my memory? I can scarcely analyze these feelings: but it must be partly owing to the free scope given to the imagination Visiting Welsh Patagonia and the Lake District had given us a view of modern Patagonia, but it ... read more

El Bolsón When I read that El Bolsón was known for it's micro-breweries and hiking, I had a feeling we might be visiting the town. We liked it so much that we based ourselves here for a week, spending most of our days hiking in the mountains around the town, or further afield in Lago Puelo or Alerces National Park, and our evenings drinking beer and planning our next adventures. El Bolsón was founded as a hippy community in the 1960's, but don't come here expecting everyone to be lying around stoned and listening to Bob Marley! The people here seemed no different to us from anywhere else in Argentina. It's the first and only non-nuclear community in Argentina, though what exactly this implies beyond the statement I don't know. Climbing Piltri: Our first Patagonian Summit ... read more

I think we could easily have spent our entire trip exploring North-West Argentina, as it's a beautiful region, the weather is perfect - well a little too hot, perhaps - and there is plenty to see and do, much more than we had initially expected. We had originally planned two weeks in the north west, but that quickly became three, and would easily have become four had we not taken the decision to move on. Tucumán: Where the siesta should be obligatory San Migual de Tucumán (or Tucumán as practically every one calls it) is the largest city in the northwest but we spent less time here than in any other place we visited, with only 12 hours between our arrival from Tafi del Valle on the bus and and our departure on an overnight bus ... read more

Twenty hours after leaving Asuncion we finally arrived at our next destination, Salta, in North-West Argentina. This was the longest bus journey of our trip so far and we were a little unfortunate in that neither of the buses we took had "cama" facilities: I'm not sure such a thing exists in Paraguay, whilst the only bus with spaces from Resistencia to Salta was semi-cama. It might not seem that big a deal but for me it's the fine line between a good night's sleep and staying awake most of the night! At 7am we made it to Salta and were immediately talked into a hostel nearby for 45 pesos. Well, that solved the accommodation problem anyway. Salta is at 1190m altitude so after such a long journey we should probably have taken it easy, but, ... read more

A few months before we began our trip I remember we went to Stanfords, the best travel shop in London, to ask for books or any information about Paraguay. And they had practically nothing. No guidebook, no maps, no travel literature; all they offered was Lonely Planet's South America Shoestring guide which gives 29 pages (out of 1000+) to Paraguay. So what was it that put everyone off from travelling here? As we crossed the border from Posadas in Argentina, I read the Lonely Planet to see what we could expect from Paraguay: Friendly people, who all carry guns, and in the countryside, horrible poisonous snakes. Excellent! Paraguay, however, made a good first impression on us. The lady in the tourist office at the border was possibly the most friendly and helpful tourismo person we´ve met ... read more