Our longest bus journey of our whole trip, 25 hours, wasn't as bad as we expected. It certainly wasn't perfect as the temperature fluctuated between hot and freezing and the bus was really dirty; it was by far the lowest quality we've had since leaving Bolivia. My seat belt was covered in chewing gum so I (Simon) didn't use it. The bus took us down Route 40 to the heart of Patagonia with barren but beautiful scenery - we felt very isolated especially when the paved road ran out and was replaced by a mixture of gravel and mud. We went slow at some points, really painfully slow.

We finally arrived in El Chaltén into really strong wind, grey skies and what seemed to be a dead town despite it being midday. Our hostel was located on a gravel back street and was very bare in the communal areas but the room was ok and the place was warm. We hadn't wanted to stay in dorms so we had had to spend a lot of money to get a private (it seemed a rip-off). So we planned to cook a lot in the really tiny kitchen. That afternoon we explored the town in the wind that was so strong it stopped us in our tracks. But we sought out places for treats after long days of walking (e.g. the chocolate cafe, the microbrewery etc.) and did some shopping in the sparse supermarkets. In the evening we cooked a basic pasta meal and made sandwiches for next day. We went to bed with the wind howling outside with the hope of better weather the next day.

Katy has a special connection to El Chaltén as the village was founded on the exact day she was born. It was founded to claim land in Patagonia before the Chileans got it.

We awoke to bright blue skies and no wind - everything looked better in town. Now that the clouds had gone you could clearly see the massive peaks with snow on them from town. Just after 9 we headed into the Los Glaciares national park to do the Laguna Torre and Glaciar Grande hike. (The 28km walk took us 3:35 hours up and 3:25 back, with a small 300 metre climb). There were lots of caterpillars on path and many hundreds more had been squashed underfoot by other hikers. Katy insisted we were very careful and suggested we set up a caterpillar lolly pop lady service - very sensible. As we walked through the trees we roughly followed the river which came from the lake and glacier. It was a grey colour; I would call it Glacier Grey but Katy called it dirty dish water grey. I didn't want to drink from it anyway. We ate our sandwiches by the lake with the three granite towers providing a fantastic view and then headed up, round the lake, to an even better view point. Here we could see the beautiful Glaciar Grande snaking down the mountain side with the peaks behind. I'm running out of words to describe all the beautiful things on our trip and I'm stumped here again.

We sat admiring this view for quite some time until the weather turned and then we very quickly headed back. The wind suddenly became very strong so we took a path through the trees to be more sheltered. A guy on the way up recommend this route but it took us away from the path we had used to come up. Despite this we kept following it because it was such a big path by the side of a river. But then we got a shock when the river disappeared underground and the path ran out. The river hadn't just gone down a hole it had 'soaked' into the shale river bed and vanished - scary. We decided to cut cross-country and head back to the main path so we climbed a hill in the correct direction but got another shock when we saw how far away from the trail we were. Katy was not happy to say the least particularly as the storm was coming in! We continued to cut cross-country towards the path but kept finding big paths which we thought would take us out but they kept ending in more wilderness. Eventually after heading in roughly the right direction while getting blown around by the wind (sometimes so much we had to stop moving) we made it back to the main trail and were delighted to see a crowd of people. The bad weather followed us out of the valley with us just ahead of it. For the first of our post walk treats we headed to a wine and beer bar for the evening after another basic pasta meal.

The next day started off cloudy and wet so we decided to move our rest day forward. We visited the park ranger station in the morning and after lunch did a short 1:30 hour walk to a waterfall just off the road to Chile. It seemed like everyone had the same idea as us as it was very busy but a nice walk in the sun that was eventually shining through. Despite it being a really easy walk we had a treat lined up that needed sampling so we headed to the Chocolate cafe. Here we treated ourselves to many chocolate goodies including a brilliant brownie. That evening we bought some steak from the supermarket, which was excellent value and enjoyed it with a strong homemade garlic sauce.

Thankfully the weather for our last two days was perfect as we wanted to complete two more walks. The first of these was to Laguna de Los Tres (the 25km walk took us 3:10 hours each way with a 750 metre climb). The trail climbed up through the forest for the first hour bringing us to Lake Capri where we got a great view of the most famous peak in the park and the peak we were heading for, Fitz Roy. We continued on flat ground until the last 45 minutes where the mountain went almost straight up. This bit was tough but actually the coming down was harder on our legs. Katy was really pleased that even with her little legs we overtook many people and no-one overtook us. Going down, the opposite was true. When we reached the top we had a beautiful view of the lake with many granite peaks behind, Fitz Roy being just the tallest.

After having our lunch we walked to another ridge nearby and here got a view of the two lakes, the new one being lower than the first and was overhung by a glacier. As we sat there we heard the ice cracking and saw one big chunk fall down the cliff and into the lake. The crowd around us cheered at this. We also spotted a condor flying around and tried to get a picture of his ugly head. We actually saw three condors while in Chaltén so don't feel so bad about missing them in Peru now. The Fitz Roy peak seems to come out smaller in our photos than it really is. In reality it's massive. We were viewing it from a height of about 1,200m but it's 2,200m taller than this! It was also amazing to think that behind these peaks is a humongous ice sheet, which very tough hikers can trek and camp on.

We eventually dragged ourselves away from the amazing sights and headed back to town where our next treat was waiting for us: the waffle cafe! Here I went for local choices of the town's home made beer and a waffle covered in Calafate jam, ice cream and berries. The next town in our trip is named after the berries and once you eat them you're apparently guaranteed to return to Patagonia. While I was being cultured Katy went for the chocolate option; solid chocolate, with chocolate ice cream with melted chocolate poured over the top! I secretly didn't want her to finish it and luckily she couldn't so after I finished mine I finished hers but it took a big effort - it was so rich. That evening we didn't feel like cooking or even eating but eventually went out late to share half a pizza. Not a particularly healthy food day.

Most other hikers we passed and met during our time in El Chaltén were very friendly but a small number just seemed to be rude. We worked out that the more expensive the gear a person had the more unfriendly they were likely to be and this seemed to hold true. But generally hikers are a very friendly bunch.

On our last day we did a trek called Lomo del Pliegue Tumbado (the 24km walk took us 3:20 hours up and 2:55 back with a 1000 metre climb). On the way up we had beautiful views of the mountain range with all the peaks visible with not a single cloud in the sky. After leaving the trees and crossing meadows the ground became bare and rocky and then got very steep for the last climb to the top and the 360 degree view. We could see the turquoise Lago Viedma to the south and our previous walks to the north: the perfect view to finish on.

The steep path down wasn't as bad as we had feared and we had a strange sight to keep us entertained. Coming up the path towards us was a topless guys with white hair playing rock music out of his phone with a stick over his shoulder with a canvas shopping bag hanging off the end. Katy tried very hard and failed not to laugh as he passed us. Back in town our treat was a visit to the great microbrewery with a plate of potato wedges and a friendly chat to an English guy to go with the bock beer. Our cooking efforts took another hit when we realised that we had to try the Patagonia specialty; lamb stew - delicious. So we ended up spending more than planned that day but overall as trekking was free we didn't do too badly despite all the treats.

We concluded that our training for Torres del Paine had gone really well. Although Katy was shattered on the morning we left but this was probably due to not sleeping well because she was worried about bed bugs. Another example of our place (or Patagonia?) being massively over priced. We had never experienced bed bugs before so weren't sure that Katy's bites were from them (I didn't have any) but her bites were in a line; apparently called breakfast, lunch and dinner in bed bug terminology.

I do hope that the El Calafate berry thing is true - we loved our first taste of Patagonia (still more to come) and would love to come back one day.

Simon