Mendoza and on... In our heads, Mendoza was going to be a bigger, slightly worldlier, more mature version of Cafayate. I expected to see debonaire Mendochinos swilling wine in sunny street bars, with the aroma of sizzling steak wafting trough the air. Their discussions of that year's Malbec grape harvest interrupted occasionally by a slurp from a Mate cup, a quick tango or perhaps a kick-about with some street kids. This day-dream was swiftly shattered when we a...

Buenos Aires If we had noticed any differences from Peru and Bolivia when we arrived in Argentina, these were fully realised upon our arrival to the capital city. The people are taller and you might see the occasional blonde. They wear similar clothes to us in Europe. They speak a slightly different form of Spanish at a faster rate. There are no obvious remains of indigenous dress and culture as in Peru and Bolivia. Dogs appear to have owners. They smoke a lot m...

Iguazu Falls It has to be said that we have encountered some frustrating bad luck during this adventure; torrential rain and snow preventing the full journey along the Inca Trail, the loss of a full days photos on that trip, protests hindering a border crossing at Puno, various bouts of illness throughout Peru and Bolivia, snow in the Atacama desert preventing a border crossing there, not to mention the ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Chile threatening our...

Argentina - Proper roads, hot water, a distinctly European cafe culture and glorious wine - we had reached civilisation! The border crossing from Bolivia to Argentina is only worth mentioning due to another horrendously cold and bumpy bus ride, an interminable wait in a mind-numbingly cold office that had neither coffee nor toilet, a frustrating language barrier, and the feeling that we had been ripped off for the next leg of the journey. My frustration at this ...

La Paz to the border We spent the last day in La Paz sightseeing what were possibly the nicest bits, Plaza Morrilo and Calle Jean, and watching most of the Copa De America football final in a cafe that had become our home away from the hostel. We had enjoyed La Paz, but as with Cusco, we had begun to get itchy feet, feeling that perhaps we had spent too much time there - or perhaps it was from the dirty streets and their acrid stench of urine.... On our many bu...