The flight to Buenos Aires was difficult and emotional for Callanan. Unfortunately he forgot to take out his trusty penknife from his hand luggage, so was forced to say goodbye to it. This is definitely stating the obvious, but the only benefit to flying is speed as far as I can see it. South America has an amazing bus network, which is cheaper, provides more entertainment and food, is more comfortable, has less queuing and waiting and there's no bag checking. W...

The journey to Ushuaia was two buses and a ferry, over 12 hours. The ferry had us crossing the Straits of Magellan and being escorted by black and white dolphins. I thought they were porpoises but we later learned its the wrong area for those. Ushuaia is on an island, Tierra del Fuego, or Land of Fire, called so because when Magellan passed through on his way to finding the Spice Islands he could see the smoke of the fires that the natives had lit. The island is...

We arrived at the appropriately named Hostal al Fin del Mundo in Punta Arenas. I say appropriately named because it looked like a bomb hit it - breakfast stuff was everywhere and it was 230PM. It took a while for the guy there to get our room ready and it had the district smell of Haze when he was finished. Punta Arenas is not very big and it doesn't have a lot to do on a regular day, so you can imagine how dead it was on a Sunday. It mostly exists, for tourists...

Our luck with buses ran dry when we got back to El Calafate town after the glacier. We hoped to get a bus out of there for the following morning, Thursday, but there was nothing available. So Thursday became an admin day; a day for Skyping home, writing journals, chilling out and eating giant Argentinian chocolate flakes. Puerto Natales is only five hours south of El Calafate, but it's in Chile, so another border crossing. Chile is the strictest of countries to ...

Back in El Chalten, we were earlier than expected, but not early enough to get a different bus, which meant a few hours getting to know the bus station. The only consolation was that Cerro Torre never cleared that day. That night we were back in El Calafate, in a new hostel this time. As usual with trips it was an up-at-the-crack-of-dawn start, piling into a coach full of tourists. There is only one company that actually allows you to walk on the glacier, Hielo ...