The hassle of sitting in the nasty Retiro bus station for 5 hours was worth it to get to the estancia, wow, what a fantastic place! Met off the bus at Olavarria by Maria and Jorge, the owners, and then a 20 minute drive into the pampas to their home. A superb 1920´s Anglo-French style building in the heart of their 500 hectar ranch. The 5 star treatment started immediately as we were greeted with a glass of fine red wine by the house staff, and the energetic...

Travelling over night on our first cama suite (bed bus) we arrived in Buenos Aires and headed for the barrio of San Telmo. It was a Sunday and Election Day to boot and apart from the bustling little craft market on Plaza Dorrego, the city was fairly quiet. We wandered downtown and saw the Plaze de Mayo and Evitas balcony on the Casa Rosada and took a walk up Florida street, one of the main shopping thoroughfare. We took an early evening stroll along the renovat...

The bus broke down about half an hour out of town, we sat on the side of the road in the climbing heat until our driver managed to flag down a passing coach (from a rival company) which we clambered onto. If Mendoza was hot then Salta was sticky. We were hoping for a town of the same ilk as the likes of Sucre with a large indigenous population and grand Colonial architecture, given its proximity to Bolivia. What we found was a shabby mix of contrete blocks and ...

Now we're getting to the heart of it, Mendoza and the Maipu Valley, it's all about the vino! We arrived in Mendoza after a bit of a nightmare bus journey. Our first bus had no air con, so we switched buses at a depot to a seriously posh one, leather seats and everything, things were looking up only for the fan belt on this one to go. So back to the depot to swap again. Emma had a bit of a shock when we swapped buses again as an Irish lad came up behind her grabbi...

A picturesque bus journey through the mountainous lake district we arrived on the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi and Bariloche town. We'd made a reservation in what we'd heard was a good hostel, which had the most fantastic panoramic views from the 10th Floor Penthouse of an apartment block. The sun was shining, so for the rest of the afternoon we sat on the balcony soaking up the stunning views. We spent the next day getting our bearings around the Alpine style t...