We´ve been rather lucky with the weather on our whole trip, but Patagonia´s treated us to a heatwave. These things are relative of course, but trotting round national parks, glaciers and lakes in t-shirt and shorts has been awesome. I feel this blog isn´t going to sit well with our northern hemisphere readers.

Hi All, it´s our last full day in Argentina (don´t worry a steak of truly epic proportions is planned) and so we thought we should update you on our time down south before we embark on nailing the rest of Chile in a week - easy.

Some of the Perito Moreno glacier photos made it online last time (that owed more to Claire´s patience than the internet connection), so hopefully you´ll have seen our first Patagonian stop and of course sunset over the hostel we were slumming it in. Photo captions will follow, but a lot of the pictures should tell their own story. It was the first of many cracking days we had. The locals made a point of repeatedly telling us sun and blue skies like that happen maybe 15 days a year. You almost feel guilty that we´ve stolen 7 of their quota in just over a week. Almost.

As I say, the glacier was phenomenal. We didn´t splash out on walking on it and listening to people´s reports, didn´t regret that for a moment. Ok, it would have been cool (no pun intended, well maybe a little) to sup a whisky over ice you´d just broken off from the ground your walking on, but we covered that off later. Otherwise, we reckon being on the ice you´d miss the main event which was the glacier´s light & sound effect show round the front - giant chunks of ice crashing into the turquoise lake accompanied by a soundtrack that made some of the unexplained fireworks elsewhere in Latin America feel a bit quiet. The glacier rising 60m out the water and being 2.5km across distorted your perspective of how big the soon-to-be-icebergs were. The bow wave and when the boat ´nudged´ a couple, didn´t.

Next up was Torres del Paine national park in Chile. They and Argentina share Tierra del Fuego, so we needed to hop over the border, but it was only 100km or so from El Calafate - no worries. Well, until we realised the mountains kinda in the way meant we needed a slight detour over the Patagonian plateau. But hey, 14 hours on a bus isn´t that long (distorted perspectives might be this week´s theme...). Was it worth it? Oh hell yes. Whilst the Kiwis amongst us get to see a lot of the sort of scenery that hides down below the 51st parallel in the southern hemisphere, the poms don´t and so I´ll put my hand up and say TDP (to us seasoned travellers / lazy of keyboard) is ridiculously good. Standing atop glacier carved valleys, lakes either side of you but completely different blues, gazing up at the mixed granite and sedimentary massifs (different meaning here to the mean streets of Pimilco) dusted in snow whilst the sun beats down out the sky offering yet another azure shade is something that I didn´t tire of in a hurry. Why the geology geekery? Well, have a closer look at the photos when we get chance to upload them - you get some very impressive effects in the mountains where tectonics have spun the earth than was flat into a variety of angles, resulting in hundreds of metres of rock poking out the lake which look like a cake - the layers change colour completely. See kids, geography can be interesting.

We followed that with a trip to El Chalten, Argentina´s trekking capital to do well, some walking. No buses needed, just a few hundred metres and some mighty clean air between your hostel door and the national park. No entry fees, no guides needed, no one else´s schedule to keep - perfect. And the weather stayed good. And the food was served in toasty fire-heated lodges when it did get cold. The water was already that way - you can drink it straight out the river where it´s just rolled off the glacier. After too much time on 4 wheels, fresh air and that tired feeling that you normally only get after a heavy day´s skiing was heavenly.

We´re now in Bariloche, just a short Aerolinas Argentinas flight from El Calafate. They´re still the worst airline I believe I´ve come across, but let´s not go there now or, I´d strongly advise, in future. Same old same old really (suspect that won´t sit well with anyone, regardless of hemisphere). Another stunning lake which our hostel looks out across, more great food, more great weather, etc. Have we jumped on all the recommended tours? Err, no, not really. They´ve got waterfalls, but it won´t be Iguazu. They´ve got a hell of a lake, but it won´t be Titicaca. They´ve got some lovely forest but it won´t be, well, a lot of places we´ve walked, but let´s pick Monteverde for the sake of argument. Are we complaining though? Too much of a good thing? Not a bit of it, we´ve been loving just doing well, not a lot. Leisurely breakfasts, good books and the hill we´re on top of to justify the beef.

Ah yes, my return match with the Argentinian beef industry. The big fight takes place in a couple of hours, or whenever we can be bothered to stroll into town. I´ve been working hard. Focused sprints through lesser meats, cross training on pasta and ice cream and interval conditioning (pausing between slices of pizza). And I´m gonna play fair - no skimping on beer so as not to fill up, no elastic waist in my trousers and no dodging the ´garnishes´ / kilo of mashed potato. I´m ready. I´ve tucked 6 quid in my back pocket, hell, I´ve even stared down a couple of live cows at roadside - just bring it.

Fingers crossed I´ll excise the demons from Salta. Either way it´s been quite a month in Argentina. Has it topped Guatemala? Not quite, but it´s really snuck into our affections. I would say our hearts, but perhaps our stomachs would be more appropriate.

Next up is Chile. Or going back to Chile - we´ve managed to spend two days there already, one at the very top in the desert and one very nearly at the bottom, now it´s time for the middle. Santiago´s our destination by the end of week before we fly for pastures new on Tuesday and Christmas in New Zealand, but we´ll do our best to be in touch before then!