The guide books don't say much about Malargue and now we know why. It's a simple town, a few blocks deep, along the Ruta 40. On New Year's day, pretty much everything was closed apart from ice cream parlours vending fizzy drinks (not Champagne). The owner of the apartments where we are staying didn't seem to understand that today we only wanted to mooch about. We found a Panaderia open and bought bread, croissants, water and beer. Back at the apartment the owner ...

We woke up in Buenos Aires to an immense thunderstorm. During breakfast, rain starting pouring through the transparent roof and the noise was so load we couldn't hear each other. After breakfast it was another fear-inducing taxi rides to Aeroparque where we caught a short flight to San Rafael. We picked up our HiLux and looked for food. All the supermarkets were shut and we know from bitter experience virtually nowhere opens on New Year's Day. We food a small cor...