La Payunia is a national reserve about 190 km south of Malargue. It has only opened up to the public in the last ten years, partly because of its inaccessibility issues. The only allowed way to visit the park is to either take a tour or hire a guide, which we did via Karen Travel who own the apartments we are staying in. According to the guide books, it is the world's most concentrated area of volcanic cones, numbering over 800. (We have previous visited el Valle...

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...

This morning we woke up and it was raining quite hard. Having already spent quite a lot of time in Ushuaia, we were in no rush to get wet. The hotel was very good and said we could use their facilities all day. The main room was stocked with beautiful books of photos of Argentina and Patagonia. For the whole time we had the company of a heat loving ginger tom described as "El dueno del comedor" (the dining room boss). We had an unremarkable flight to Buenos Aires...

Today was a travel day again. We stayed at the Hotel Navegantes which was very plush and convenient for the bus departure point on Colon. In all the bus journey was uneventful. Kevin made the mistake of accepting the free coffee that they handed out - thick, black and Diabetic coma-inducingly sweet. The biscuits they gave us were called Bimbo and came in bear shapes! At Punta Delgado where the ferry crosses from the mainland to the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego...