Our skipping over the Argentinean/Chilean border came to an end with our bus ride to El Calafate and now it was Argentina all the way.The unseasonably superb weather we'd been having, followed.Sunshine suited El Calafate and we lazed in outdoor cafes or with beers in the park.El Calafate is all about Perito Moreno glacier and this time we didn't just want to see the glacier, we wanted to hike on it.Delaying subjecting our poor battered feet to anything more restrictive than thongs we gave ourselves a full day of respite and booked on the hikes for the following day.A day without an early start definitely called for a night out and with the sun incredibly not setting until close to midnight that meant heading out late, dining, in our case at 1am and boogying until 7am.

Ice hiking - According to the company's leaflets seemed a very strenuous and taxing activity.Indeed the Big Ice (4 hours of walking on the glacier) had a maximum age limit of 45!!!45, really, they couldn't be serious.We're in our 30's and have taken on early 20's for that they're worth, maybe on the eve of our 45th birthday's we'll lose all strength, bone density, balance and flexibility, and that'll be it.There was only one spot on the Big Ice anyway, and we decided Ms Sporty Hazlett should take that one.Anne joked that at 37 she might be on the cusp and my blisters had got even worse so it was the Mini - trekking with the "ancient" 45-60 year olds for us.It was another glorious day(apparently they only 2 days of clear weather a month and we'd just had 3 in a row) and the glacier really couldn't have had a better backdrop to set it off.We spent the morning on the balconies in front of he glacier in awe of the 60 metre high ice (which was only 1/3 of it as 2/3 was under water).Every so often without warning the glacier would calve and a large block would break off with a boom and fall into the water.It was incredible.A boat ride then took us over to the hike area, then it was on with the crampons and onto the ice.Truly fabulous, the glacier was a constantly changing landscape of 100m crevices, crevasses, crystal blue seracs (pools) and pinnacles of ice.They kept a tight rein on us (Anne and I were like naughty children and kept trying to wander off and explore, maybe they should have had a lower age limit!) so we were stopped from going off to places too exciting or dangerous but it was amazing to be on the ice and we finished the short, tame and not remotely tiring stroll with a glass of scotch cooled of course with chunks of ice from the glacier.Shortly afterwards we met up with JA, she was similarly incredulous about the ridiculous age limit for the Big Ice, but we'd all enjoyed our day and got up close and personal glacier piccies (which of course put our hard earned ones of Glacier Grey to shame).

With only 2 weeks left on our trip, our travelling shifted a gear.We were going to fly everywhere.Oh the decadence, the luxury, which can only be appreciated after so many mammoth bus trips,arriving at destinations shattered, and having to limit my backpack to the bare essentials, because of having to drag it around.Planes and taxis and shopping were now in play.

Our first flight was to the end of the world - Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego (Land of fire). Sunny again!We were getting used to everywhere we went people commenting "It's not normally weather like this", apparently Ushuaia only has 40 days of sun a year!Cold Patagonia, pah, thank goodness I hadn't bothered to bring any warm, waterproof, or windproof clothes (to be honest I'd booked the trip in such a hurry, I'd actually had no idea we were going to visit anywhere cold).One thing had stood out to me in Patagonia, the wolf whistling had increased again.It seems like Northern and Southern South America were the most popular places for "piropos", it didn't seem to matter what we were wearing, what time of day or night it was,the men felt obliged to comment, whistle, or do whatever took their fancy.There were plenty of boy racers, with zooped up cars.On the flip side Ushuaia, being the end of the world is where everyone finishes their road trips and the amount of banged up cars around was certainly testament to that.I have never seen so many wrecks.The locals obviously had salvaged and tried to run some of them, but others were just abandoned on the roadside with their tyres melting into the asphalt.The town itself, was full of the now common sight of millions of chocolate shops, and fur shops.I guess I hadn't even thought that people would buy fur anymore, but apparently it's big business here.

We decided to hire bikes and go to the National Park.As we rode out of town we could hear the Latin tunes coming through the open windows and unlike the rest of Patagonia that seems to pride itself on rose gardens, most of the gardens had beautiful hyacinth like flowers in different colours.The road in the park was dusty to say the least and I was glad to get to the start of the path to start our hike and away from the road.We started up the path, in the woods, some places the path was so overgrown it looked like it hadn't been walked in months.It was a nice easy walk and we arrived at the Mirador of the Beagle Channel to a field of daisies.Lots of fresh air, and the beauty of nature had a liberating effect on Anne as she decided to get even closer to nature and strip off to get a cheeky nude shot.It was obviously infectious, as next JA was getting her kit off, and then me.Well the path had been completely deserted!Frolicking in the daisies and doing our own version of calendar girls we were in hysterics. Especially as all the photos showed our spectacularly white bits, almost glow in the dark and looking like white bikinis. I was only half dressed when we heard voices and as I tried to hide myself behind a tree whilst hastily pulling my top over my head, up the path came a couple, and then some more people.As we smirked and headed down the track we couldn't decide whether it was sheer coincidence that they'd only come up at the end of 20 minutes of us being starkers, or they'd felt they'd had to hide themselves until we got some clothes back on!We'll always remember the End of the world!!

My bike ride back seemed to attract every dog in town, and they weren't the small yappy kind (although I'm not keen on those either) these were big strays who surrounded the bike and growled aggressively.I slowed, they held their ground.I stopped, not really sure how to deal with the situation.I certainly was more scared of the dogs that they were of me, I was worried that if I started riding off they'd start chasing and be on top of me like a pack of wolves (drama queen - moi?)They weren't looking like they were going to get bored of terrorising me anytime soon, so I tentatively shuffled forward on the bike and got the guts up to start riding.They had obviously decided I would be not enough of a challenge, so they let me go, just ominously barking in my wake.

One more day in Ushuaia and we wanted a fun activity.The problem was, between the lot of us, we'd pretty much covered all the common activities on our trip so far (kayaking, rafting, canyoning, abseiling, horse riding, zip lining, hiking, sailing… you get the picture) so it wasn't easy to find something new to do, but we eventually decided on off-roading, tempted by the Land rovers in the posters at 40 degrees, and me specifically by the Argentine bbq for lunch, and so it was a day great banter from our driver Bismark (who gets a special mention for not only his jokes, but also allowing us to ride on the roof down some especially treacherous bits), our education about the quantity of beavers in the area ("More than they knew" we sniggered) and great Argentinean steak and red wine.

Our last glimpse of spectacular Patagonia was from the window of the plane on our way to Buenos Aires, and truly beautiful it was.