Argentina, El Chalten & Fitz Roy

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Another day, another mountain. This range was nestled slap bang in the middle of the Andes and was particularly stunning. But I think the photos speak for themselves, so instead of more hiking tales I'm going to share the embarrassing experience of stacking it upstairs in front of a room full of people while holding two plates of spaghetti bolognaise. I went flying, the spag bog, which I'd spent the last hour preparing, went flying. About 30 pairs of eyes looked on in sympathy and mirth as I lay slumped on the floor covered in mince and pasta. Such a classy girl. No pictures of this unfortunately.
[Clare]

Argentina, Perito Moreno Glacier

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A few facts to start... the Perito Moreno glacier is one of a few in the world that isn't retreating, it's 5 km wide and it's part of the third largest lump of ice in the world. Interesting ay? We trekked across part of it and I can assure you it's not a large lemon meringue pie, it's real ice. To finish off the trek, our guide dished out whiskey with ice hacked from the glacier. [Tom]

Chile, Torres del Paine

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Aptly named as after five-days lugging around 15kg backpacks, tents and stoves across 60 miles of mountain terrain, it felt like a Tour of Pain. But the panorama made up for my bleeding blisters. It was truly beautiful, sorry to sound like a guidebook but it really was brimming with magnificent jutting mountains, turquoise lakes, gushing waterfalls and sparkling glaciers. And best of all, there were no guides or tour groups, so we could completely immerse ourselves in the wilderness, filling up our water bottles from fresh spring streams and camping each night at a different location. If you don't like scenery shots, probably best to look away now.
[Clare]

Chile, Pucon

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Still traveling with with Shona and Nathan, we catch a bus over the border into Chile and onto Pucon. Pucon's a lovely little mountain town in the foothills of the Andes overlooked by a 3000m active volcano. We went horse riding into the Andes then, after waiting a few days for the weather to clear, set out at 3:00 am to climb Volcano Villarrica catching the sunrise on the way up. The ascent involved lots of scrambling up loose icy volcanic rock and sluggishly moving up steep gradients using our crampons and ice axes for traction. Felt great reaching the summit. It was a shame there wasn't any lava spewing out at the top though, just lots of toxic sulphur that meant we couldn't stay too long. Rushed down to catch our next bus... all completely exhausted. [Tom]

Argentina, Bariloche

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Very excited about coming here as meeting up with Shona and Nathan, two of my best friends from home. They've been travelling round South America in the opposite direction to us and this is our cross over point. We've got about a week together, which includes Shona's birthday. So excited been bouncing around for days. Poor Tom. Bariloche itself is in the Patagonian Lake District and is, unsurprisingly, surrounded by lakes. It's in a bit of an identity crisis as seems to think it's Switzerland. There's St Bernard dogs with brandy barrels round their necks, chocolate shops and even a few Swiss flags. Quite strange in the middle of the Argentine Andes. Our hostel is amazing, a little wooden ski shack with fantastic views, the nicest place we've stayed so far. We go white water rafting on Shona's birthday, which was great fun until the guide flipped the raft and I got trapped between the raft and a rock. Luckily Shona was there to hold my head above water until I got dragged to safety. Tom was oblivious to it all. In the evening we treated ourselves to a Mexican, I'm still drooling over the burritos. Over the next couple of days we fit in a bit of hiking and a trip to see a black glacier. Bit disappointing as I was expecting a nice shiny Fox's liquorice glacier mint type thing, instead it just looked dirty. Oh well, can't win them all. [Clare]

Argentina, Puerto Madryn

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So, we're in Patagonia now. Hoped to spot an Orca whale rocking up onto the beach and eating a sea lion or 2, we didn't (dammmmn) but we did see hundreds of penguins. It's hard not the tread on them as you walk around. Clare likes penguins a lot, in fact i think she wants to be one. She gets very excitable around certain animals and likes to mimic them. I try to distance myself at these times. This is our first glimpse of Patagonia, it's very rugged and barren apart from one green valley where the local setters are Welsh, still speak and teach Welsh and do Welsh things like serve tea and cakes to tourists like us. [Tom]

Argentina, Buenos Aires

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I love it when a plan comes together. Unfortunately in BA (Baracus) that didn't happen very often as we were ill, lost and late a little too much. But hey, that's all part of the fun. Things went slightly askew from the offset as we had to sit on a street corner (think more tramp than purveyor of the night) for a few hours before we finally got let into our hostel/offices to LIFE volunteers - an organisation set up to help street kids in the city. I use the word organisation very loosely as this place was in greater disarray than my desk at work. But that kind of added to its charm (as I keep telling my bosses). Working with the kids was great though the language barrier was a bit of a pain. International sign language and knowing the word for cake (torta) got us a long way. BA itself was cool and colourful with delicious cheap wine and steak, and a strange obsession with death. Its main tourist attraction is an ornate graveyard, home to the tomb of Eva Peron - otherwise known as the woman Madonna played in that film. We went to a premier division football match - River Plate vs San Martin - which was fantastic until torrential rain stopped play in the second half and frogs took over the pitch. Quite amusing even though we were drenched to our pants. [Clare]

Argentina, Puerto Iguazu

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Glad we're in Argentina now. It's a lot cheaper than Brazil, and has steak and wine aplenty. A highlight was taking a boat right under the falls and getting completely soaked. Apologies about the amount of the waterfall photos over the last 2 posts, we've been getting a tad trigger happy - it's hard not to in this place. Photos taken so far on trip between us are around the 4000 mark. Check out the photo of Clare on the bus to BA, we were traveling like royalty - champagne, food, beds. It's like traveling first class BA to New York (not that i'd know what that's like). [Tom]

Brazil, Foz do Iguacu

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The Brazlian side of the Iguazu Falls - 275 waterfalls cascading through rainforest with the odd vulture flying overhead and a few coati (racoon like animals) milling around. We also spotted a tarantula, which was cool. And did a helicopter ride over the falls, which was even cooler. [Clare]

Brazil, Bonito

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After our Pantanal adventure, it was time to relax and float down stream. But first we needed some good old junk food, rice and beans can only do you for so long. The river snorkelling was fantastic with crystal clear water and currents so strong you didn't have to kick. It felt like we were flying. Except for the fish. And water. And snorkel. We then stumbled onto the set of Jurassic Park, a little lost world with scarlet and hyacinth macaws swooping overhead and a T-Rex sauntering past. Ok it was just a praying mantis, but it felt like there should have been a few dinosaurs strolling around. Our last stop was a blue lagoon at the bottom of a cave, where we spent too long trying to get good shots and nearly missed our bus. [Clare]