On Friday we took the bus from Mendoza to Valparaiso, a famously scenic route over the Andes. Despite taking the daytime bus to take full advantage of the view and trying reeaaally hard not to fall asleep, the tranquiliser effect of the bus somehow won over and we were unconscious for at least 70% of it. The parts we saw were very attractive though and we had plenty of time to appreciate the mountains during the 2 hours we spent at customs on the Chilean border. ...

We splashed out on a flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia since the bus option takes something like 60 hours. This resulted in the first (and hopefully last*) theft of the trip with Gerard's binoculars being spirited away at some point during the journey. However, after speaking to other travellers we met who'd taken to the skies in South America, we realised binoculars were a small price to pay for a flight that left on time (one couple we met were delayed 30 hou...