So we had our passports back, but we were still on a huge low due to losing all the photos and other things. We decided that we needed cheering up. And although we had grown to hate the majority of Argentina in the last few days (mainly the police, the thieves and the embassies), it still frustratingly had the most wonderful, juicy, mouth watering steaks ever. Which is why we drove across the entire width of Argentina in just one day. We needed to get our meat fix. We needed to return to Bariloche. Plus it was kind of on our way back now as we had to stay in Argentina for as long as possible whilst we still had the van. Fuel is a lot cheaper in the country thanks to the black market and the good old 'dolar blue'. Plus Bariloche was only 6 hours drive on the right road.
Unfortunately we took the wrong road though and ended up doing most of the journey on gravel which added to the already cracked windscreen and arrived us back into the town of Bariloche at about midnight after 14 hours worth of horrible driving. This added to our already wonderful moods.

The next day we went to the town and ate at the at the same steak house we visited last time, Alberto's. The waiter even recognised us and didn't give us the standard 'Seriously???' look when we ordered this time. He knew we meant business!It might sound daft thinking that we would feel better after eating our body weight in fresh rare bloody steak but it worked! With only a touch of indigestion we even managed to sample the supposedly best ice cream in Argentina and as we can't really offer a balanced opinion on this as it was our only ice cream in Argentina, it was still very nice. Thanks to our love of incredibly unhealthy foods we were back in good moods (hey that rhymes!) and ready to carry on our journey.

We were staying at the same lovely campsite as last time. This time we got chatting to some of the workers who, in return for us translating the Scottish teacher's sentances at the beginning of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall, translated the words of Spanish classic Hey Macarena for us.

So after our fleeting return to Bariloche and clogging up our arterys a little more we headed further north back along Ruta 40. We made a very brief stopover in the town of Malargue where we met a young Korean cyclist who we made a cup of coffee for. It wasn't long until we reached our last destination, Mendoza. We were here just before our roadtrip (of doom) and liked it that much we decided to return for Christmas.

We spent the first couple of nights at a campsite getting into the festive mood by doing the usual pre Christmas traditions - sunbathing, complaining about the heat, eating delicious barbeques and drinking lots of cold beers. It was nice but also very uneventful and we heard a story of a family getting held up at gunpoint just 5 minutes up the road from us when they left for a small walk, so we didnt bother with too much exploring. One robbery a year is quite enough for us.

On Christmas Eve we moved to the same hostel we stayed at when we visited a couple of months before (free wine!). We had also planned to meet Will and Louise who we met back in Puerto Madryn and were with us on the night we were robbed. When we turned up we noticed that Will was using a new iPad that he didn't have last time we saw him, and Louise had a fancy new Sony camera that was the same model as the one we had lost. What are the odds?

The big Christmas celebration in Latin America tends to be held on Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas day so we booked tickets to a party being held between three different hostels. It was a big party and a little expensive but most importantly they had free wine, which as mentioned before is very important to us. Obviously, as we were all English we soon decided that the best way to recuperate the expensive ticket cost would be to drink our body weight in wine. This of course made the party even better! And though we don't remember the majority of it we are sure that we had a good time. We all have the same flashback of walking back through the streets of Mendoza shouting out Christmas songs at the top of our voices. We imagine it was about as close to spending Christmas Eve in Burnley as we could get.

Christmas Day

Apart from the familiar feeling of alcohol-induced tiredness, headaches and nausea there was little else that made waking up on Christmas day in Argentina feel like Christmas. But due to our silly jobs back home, we haven't actually spent a Christmas day together for the past five years! So we were determined to make a go of it. We spent the whole day with Will, Louise and 2 Swiss lads from the hostel and despite our terrible hangovers we made a pretty good go of it.

Christmas day for us...

Weather - The bright hot sunshine was made to feel colder by the addition of homemade snowflakes placed in the trees.

Music - Throughout the day we had 'Now Christmas' playing on repeat. Several times people from non English countries asked if this was all we listened too at Christmas (especially as it repeated ALL day long). Of course we said yes and explained that any other music aside from Michael Buble would be blasphemous.

Food - No oven and not a turkey in sight prevented the usual meal however Will cooked a delicious barbecue of steak and chicken. We attempted some Yorkshire puddings and in fact made what can only be described as a Yorkshire pizza, but the taste was there. We had veggies, crispy roast potatoes and Claire showed the Southerners (Will and Louise are from London) what a proper onion gravy tastes like.

Crackers - David, using only an old magazine and things found in a garden managed to make Blue Peter style crackers for everyone which included a terrible Christmas joke, a paper hat and a gift. The gifts were nativity themed including gold (1peso), *francensense (a leaf) and *myrhh (a small pebble).*Spellcheck not working

Fun - Before dinner we all sat down to watch Home Alone 1 and 2. If that wouldn't get us into the festive spirit nothing would! Follwing the meal we all had a game of charades. Now if you think charades is hard normally, try it with several drunk French, Swiss and Belgian people.

We made a really good day of Christmas we all managed to speak to drunken relatives at home at some point during the day. So all in all Christmas was a different experience for us and felt a little strange being away from home but with a few good friends, plenty of nice food and lots of alcohol it was still a great day. So, even though its probably way after Christmas - MERRY CHRISTMAS!


And so, after a great time in Mendoza it was time to get back in the van. We had one last drive to make, we had to drive the short but spectacular route through the Andes, over the border to Chile and then on to the Wicked offices in Santiago. The drive was delayed for five hours at the stupidly busy border but we didn't care because we knew it was our last time going through the process and it was still a lot easier than what could have been had we never found our passports.

We spent our very last night in the campervan parked in a service station carpark, in between both sides of a busy motorway eating chicken nuggets and complaining about the noise.

Things we have learned.

1.Koreans bow in gratitude when they accept a coffee

2.The spirit of Christmas can be found anywhere in the world. Even crime filled, bag robbing, corrupt policing, economy drowning, ******* filled Argentina.

3. You dont need turkey to have a good Christmas dinner


Transport Stats
Planes used - 11
Buses/coaches used - 82
Trains used - 25
Metros/subways used - 41
Cars used - 11
Minivans - 10
Russian Campervans used -1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 20
Cable cars used - 1
Bicycles used- 3
Tuk tuks/autorickshaw used - 31
Scooters used - 6
Elephants used - 0
Ferrys used - 7
CycleRickshaw - 1
Bamboo HouseBoat - 1
Tour Boat - 2
Combi Van - 2
Huge 4x4 Truck Thingys- 2
Catamarans - 1
Kms travelled in campervan - 12074