MARISA: Another team effort this time. Seemed to work okay last time.

We woke up to brilliant sunshine for our first morning in San Carlos de Bariloche and so decided to take advantage of the clear skies to take in some amazing views. We caught a bus out to Cerro Campanario (Cerro means mountain) where we rode a chair lift to the top of the mountain. At the top we found spectacular 360 degree views of multiple mountains, lakes and islands. The view was, apparently, voted one of the top 10 best views in the world by National Geographic... and it certainly was fabulous! We spent some time enjoying the view and the sunshine before riding the chair lift back down. We then caught another bus to the end of its line where you can find some beautiful woodland walks. We did one that took us up a mountain and then down to the lake front. Again, was brilliant because of the vibrant colours of the lake. After all this we were exhausted and headed back to the hostel to cook up a delicious dinner in that fabulous kitchen.

Once again for day two we awoke to another sunny day. This time we got up early so we could do a longer hike except we some how managed to miss the bus so we got up early for nothing! We finally caught the bus out to Cerro Catedral. It dropped us at the car park of the ski field where our track up to Refugio Frey began. The info for the track said it took 4-6hrs up and 3-4hrs back down. And since we arrived there at least an hour and half later than we´d planned, we thought we´d try and do it reasonably quickly. Didn´t want a repeat of the night time walks as in Cordoba! The hike was a great day trek to choose because it provided heaps of variation in the setting and views. First we walked through scrub, and then a burnt out forest thing (that doesn´t sound pretty but it was) with views of another lake [CRAIG: Lago Guitterez], and then it turned into amazing forest full of trees in their autumnal colours, followed by rocky canyony type area where we finally found Refugio Frey in a beatiful setting with a lake and rocky mountain tops. Hopefully our photos do these areas justice because my explanations don´t. Pleasingly we arrived in 2hrs 40mins. So we had plenty of time to eat our lunch and then head back down. If any of you are in this area around this time of year, we´d both strongly recommend this hike as a great day out :)

CRAIG: The next day was cloudier, which was a shame as we had booked to do Paragliding (parapente in Spanish), and we had to wait until 9:30am to find out if the winds were okay to go. Turns out they were. So we checked out of our hostel, left our bags there and went up Cerro Otto with our instructor (if that´s the word... tandem-buddy, perhaps?).

Marisa went first as she was lighter (not sure what that had to do with it, but anyway). I stood up the top and took photos/movies. The view from the top of Cerro Otto was still amazing, despite the clouds. About an hour later my tandem-buddy was back and it was my time to jump. Just in time for the drizzle. In all, it took about 7 minutes to get down to the landing area. Much less adrenaline than you might expect for running off a mountain... More serene and chilled out. A great way to see Bariloche and the lake from above. A real once in a life time experience, and we´re both glad to have done it in such an amazing spot. Next step would have to be sky diving, but probably not on this trip!

After our paraglides, we caught the bus overnight to Puerto Madryn, which is on the Atlantic coast, at the base of Peninsula Valdes. The Peninsula is famous for it´s wildlife. Depending on the time of the year, you can see whales, orcas (those films of Orcas sliding onto the beach to nab sealions were filmed here), sea lions, sea elephants and Magellenic penguins. Unfortunately we arrived out of season for the cool stuff, but still managed to see sea lions and -elephants, guanaco (relatives of llamas), rhea (small emu-y birds), and a solitary penguin swimming in the sea (the last of his colony left the day before to float North :(

It was really, really windy most of the day, which made it uncomfortable at times, but hey, this is Patagonia!

Tonight we´re catching another overnight bus (it´s got so that now I look forward to them: chilling out, watching movies, getting served food... spoilt, I know) to Rio Gallegos, which is just a pit stop on the way to Ushuaia, the Southernmost city in the world!!!

I have my polar fleece and woolly hat at the ready.