We got into El Calafate well rested and looking for exercise. The bus hadn't broken us. We had one major job - book our glacier trip. The Perito Moreno glacier is the major attraction of the area, which is saying a lot considering we are in the heart of Patagonia surrounded by endless acres of national park. Trips onto the glacier go from El Calafate and book up quickly so the very first thing we did in town, even before finding a hostel, was book our trip. With...

Leaving Chile we returned to Argentina, the two Peter's third visit and Sean's fourth. The bus to Bariloche was relatively painless and we arrived in the afternoon. The weather was glorious, the skies were clear snd the sun was shining, but there were telltale signs of the bad weather piled up at the sides of the roads and paths - the ash. Volcan Puyehue is on the opposite side of Lago Nahuel Huapi from Bariloche, about 90km away. This is the one that has been e...

We couldn't leave Valdivia without visiting the fish and vegetable market. The story goes that 20 years ago a sea lion stopped by the pier and was fed by the fishermen. Needless to say he never left and now there are many sea lions that appear at the market, along with lots of pelicans and gulls. They have become a bit of a nuisance too, so there is a large fence protecting the market. We got to see a couple, then we were back on the road. A few hours later we w...

The night after finishing the volcano our clever guide thought it would be good after all our exercise to have a soak in the hot springs. She was right. She was wrong about being able to sneak in some alcohol - after settling at the pool furthest away from the office, an old lady came along, looked in our bags, then walked away with them all! Sunday was the day we realised that there was a downside to travelling with Pachamama By Bus. Pucon is one of the adventu...

We arrived into Pucon late, but not too late to book something for Sunday at the tour agency, Aguaventura. Everyone in our group booked some sort of trip, but five of us booked the main attraction - climbing Villarrica Volcano. It was an early start the next day. The weather was perfectly clear and there were plenty of other climbers assembled at the 1400m volcano base. Its a five hour climb to the 2847m high summit, but at the start we took a optional chairlift...