Saturday 24th November. Awoke to find power restored to the town after last nights blackout! Another blue sky day in El Chalten. Plan today is an 8 hr hike to Laguna Torre. Another classical Argentinian breakfast of coffee, fruit, scrambled eggs, sweet pastries and biscuits. The hotel supplied a comprehensive packed lunch and we set out for the mountains at just before 8am. We anticipated it being busy as there are only 6 trails leading from town, but in fact...

Friday 23rd November Up early today, and again, there was bright sunshine streaming through the gaps around our shutters. After a ridiculously brief taxi ride to the bus station we boarded the smart double decker coach to El Chalten. This was something of a revelation with huge comfy reclining seats with leg rests and stunning views from the windows. Beats an internal flight every time!! Sinking back into our seats we dozed in the sunshine for the three hour ...

This morning we opened the shutters to brilliant sunshine! Our bus to the glacier is not until 9am so plenty of time for breakfast in the eclectic ranch-style dining room - so different from yesterday’s sophisticated city grandeur, and yet full of character with its creaky floors and rattling windows. Breakfast was pretty much as expected with addition of water melon and pink grapefruit and seeds and grains of all shapes and sizes, accompanied by plates full of...

Wednesday 21st November. An early start and off to the airport for our three hour flight south to El Calafate. All went smoothly and we arrived to bright sunshine and wonderful views over the steppes, bisected by a bright blue river of glacial meltwater. The landscape here was very striking, and so reminiscent of the coloured stripes used on the cover of the book ‘In Patagonia’ by Bruce Chatwin. Vast flat plains of pale green, yellow and silver scrub, dark...

Tuesday 20th November Luckily, despite our exhaustion last night, we remembered to set an alarm and awoke at 7 feeling refreshed after a well earned and much needed sleep. We had planned to go for a run, but a review of our aching feet and legs changed our minds! We enjoyed another sunny breakfast in the ornate dining room. Our food was served by a small and serious senora wearing what looked like theatre scrubs. She quietly delivered our coffee before returni...