..... and we thought we'd seen it all....

After the wilderness of Tierra de Fuego, the glaciers in El Calafate and the mountain peaks of Cerro del Torre in El Chalten we were almost numb with the natural beauty we had seen but forgot to brace ourselves for the next stage: volcano's.

After a 32 hour (!) bus ride in the luxurious Coche Cama we arrived in Bariloche in the Argentinian Lake District which looks like a Swiss ski resort and we basically relaxed in town for a few days in a very comfortable hostel, went out with Lindsay and Andrew who we met earlier in our trip, had a bbq in the back garden and did a few local walks. Bariloche is nice but nothing shocking to see or to report if you have been in Switzerland before. Our plan was to head further north towards the Siete Lagos (7 lakes) on the Chile/Argentine border and took the bus to San Martin de los Andes. We didn't make a reservation to sleep somewhere but no worries; we were welcomed by Mario who offered insistingly a very nice room close to the bus station. Good plan.

Mario's house was small and cozy with a fireplace and we took the mezzanine double bed to make sure we were warm. It was only late at night when we came back home from dinner that we heard Mario cough behind us. The b***** was sleeping on the floor under our mezzanine! We laughed our heads off and went to bed, drifting off on the gentle snore of Mario below us..... The alarm clock went off at 7.30 sharp, Mario scratched himself, went to the bathroom and after further sound-effects of making breakfast in the kitchen, called all guests to the breakfast table at 8.  The whole thing was bloody hilarious.

At breakfast we got talking to Fabrizio and Juliana from Torino who were on their honeymoon and decided we would go the four of us to Volcano Lanin with the car we rented the night before. Happens all the time; you meet people from all kind of nationalities, walks of life, ages and professions, you get on like fire, hang out for a few days, swap e-mail addresses and promise you will visit each other after your trip. Marvellous. We travelled with a doctor from Switzerland, another one from Germany, a marine biologist from Hungary who lives in Panama, a Canadian reality TV producer, a retired couple from San Francisco, a Quebecquois boat designer, two French girls on their gap year, a couple from Colchester, an Aussie builder who is restoring his '66 Mustang, you name it. We could arrange another world trip just by visiting the people we met during this one!

The drive was fabulous through wild west landscape with wild horses next to the road, eagles circling in the sky and the bizarre monkey puzzle trees all over the place. Volcano Lanin dominates the entire landscape, towering at 3700m over all other mountains with a blindingly white, perfectly shaped cone full of snow. It looks like a bloody giant cake with icing on top (but someone has nicked the cherry!). We walked up to the base camp for climbing Lanin and had lunch with the best views of the park. Next day we did the other side of Volcano Lanin including a boat excursion on Lakes Huechulafquen and Epulafquen (pronounced as 'Huechulafquen' and 'Epulafquen' :-)) to see two other volcano's and a lava river coming into the lake (all black lava stone from a long time ago but impressive nevertheless) overgrown with trees in again bizarre shapes and formations. The trees are all in autumn colours which make everything look like lava is dripping down the hills anyway. Yesterday we went for a rally drive through the canyon around Lago Traful which was also spectacular and you are just waiting for John Wayne to come down the hill or for an ambush by a posse in the narrow pass near Cerveza Gulch :-). Great stuff. We will upload more pictures later but can only do it when we dump another lot on a CD, so be patient.

Tomorrow is the sad day that we will leave Patagonia. This must be the most beautiful place on the planet. We'll check with David Attenborough when we get home but there is no doubt..... we'll be back!

We will head for Mendoza, wine capital of Argentina so expect Sabine to do the next blog update.

Hasta luego chicos