Firstly, we've mentioned all these amazing photos in this blog but can only get one to upload as we're in the middle of nowhere, so please check again in a few days!

We've just left El Chalten in Argentinian Patagonia! Since the last blog we did a trip to Magdallen Island (near Puntas Arenas) in the south to see the penguins. There were thousands of them on this tiny island and they looked really strange as they were shedding their fur so had random patches of grey fur stuck to their bodies (they looked like they had undergone the same transformation as the guy in Team America)!! From Puntas Arenas we headed down to Puerto Natales for a couple of days, where we did a 7 hour trek through the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. We were short on time, so decided we would only do one day of trekking here. Most people camp in the park over night to break up the treks but we were so glad we didn't do that as it was FREEZING... literally. The trek was long and difficult in places, but worth it. The three towers along with Laguna Torres at the top were stunning (see photos- more to come soon)! The trek down was hard, we stupidly didn't stretch on the way up so by the time we got to the bottom we were all in agony! Good job we had a 5 hour bus journey the next day across the border to El Calafate in Argentina. 

The border crossing was the easiest south American crossing I've ever had. There was a massive sign at the Argentinian crossing saying "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" / "The Falklands are Argentina's" - we thought they might stamp this in our passports too, luckily they just spat in them and we were on our way.

El Calafate was a really nice (expensive) little town full of tourists. We nearly didn't get accommodation here as the town was holding its annual 15 day music festival, which was free to get into. Unfortunately the music was... not to our taste, and there was no alcohol on sale so we left promptly. From El Calafate, we did a trip to the Perito Mereno glacier, which was brilliant. I did the Franz Joseph glacier walk in NZ, but this was so much better. The glacier is hundreds of kilometres long and about 70 metres high. We got on a boat and got right up to the edge of it. Massive chunks of ice (weighing hundreds of tonnes, we were told) would fall into the water making a mini tsunami. Because it was a really sunny day, we saw loads of this and it really was incredible (again, see photos). The only downside was that somehow we acquired the most annoying French-Canadian guy (who spoke like Mr Garrison from South Park, m'kay) who prattled on about his camera for 5 hours straight!! 

Then we headed 5 hours up to El Chalten, where we have just left. This town is tiny! One ATM that sometimes works, one little supermarket selling rotten vegetables and then tons of restaurants. We did an 8 hour trek into the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares up to the Fitz Roy Massif. The weather was incredible, really hot and not a cloud in the sky. This trek was really steep at the top, but again, worth it for the amazing views (see photos). We were told that we might see pumas (or "poomas" as our Californian friend Dave tried to correct us) but sadly they were otherwise engaged. This was our favourite trek so far and as a bonus, my 7,000 chilean peso (10 quid) shoes are holding up well! 

We really like Argentina so far but generally the Argentinian's attitude to tourists is even worse than the Chilean's, even when we speak to them in Spanish. Thankfully, we have experience of Malaysian service, so waiting 45 minutes for a drink here is a breeze. The food is better, but that's not hard given that Chilean cuisine consists of such delights as hotdogs smothered in a kilo of mayonnaise, dodgy 'dentist mouthwash tasting sweetcorn' salads and maggoty chicken (that's a whole different story which I may be ready to talk about in 6 months)! 

As I write this on a 10 hour bus journey, where the bus driver is playing the mission impossible theme tune very loudly, through the most barren landscape ever, I really do feel like I'm at the end of the world. Patagonia is awesome!