Awoke on the bus to some beautiful scenery (lakes and mountains) ..... oh and to a sniffer dog checking our bags. Arrived in Bariloche early afternoon, local bus from the bus terminal and found a hostel. The view of the mountains on the other side of Nahuel Huapi was obscured by the ash in the air. Some people were wearing masks and there were piles of ash along the streets, the wind picking it up and planting ash in our faces - (Bariloche has been suffering for...

Despite the feeling we may have sampled one too many Mendoza reds, up early and raring to jump out of a plane. Weather very cloudy and windy, and on our way to the airstrip the instructor reckoned it was 50:50 as to whether we would be able to jump. After hanging about for a bit the clouds began to part and the sky turned blue. We went up one by one in the tiny plane, the Spanish tourist 'diving' first, then Amy, then Rob. For Rob the doing was less scary than th...

Trip to the bus station to book our ticket to the Lake District, then local bus to Maipu. Didn't have any coins or the swipe card to pay, but fortunately a brazilian traveler was at hand to help out. Took him under our wing to go see Mr Hugo to rent bikes. After plying us with a beaker of wine, Hugo and his wife kitted us out with a map and off we cycled, accompanied by the Brazilian and an American lass. Somehow tasted wine without paying for a tour at the first...

Morning run then walked the streets, parks and plazas of Mendoza. Long and boozy red wine fuelled lunch of meat followed by meat, and slightly more meat in the market. spent much of the day trying to work out our plans for the rest of our stay in Argentina and Chile, mainly how far south and hence how cold we were prepared to get (and whether we could afford the astronomically priced hiking clothing). Mate in a streetwise cafe before heading back to hostel to coo...

After a lazy lie in and breakfast, took the metro to the bus terminal. Rather than the cheap minibus we booked, we got ushered on to a somewhat swankier bus on which we were given meals. Travelled through some beautiful scenery as we negotiated the snowy peaks of the Andes on the way to Mendoza. Shorts and flip flops were not the sensible attire for the chilly Chile-Argentina border crossing high in the mountains. Arrived in Mendoza at night, with just enough tim...