Quick stopover for coffee in the very coffee house where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid hid out for a month after robbing the Bank of London and then we pulled into El Chalten.

This place is so tiny and so in the middle of nowhere, it makes El Calafate look like a veritable modern day metropolis. Just 500 residents, no paved roads and surrounded by massive mountains on all sides.

Weather was unusually blue and non-rainy for these here parts according to a very passionate park ranger so we positively fell over each other to trek for three hours round trip to the Fitzroy viewpoint. It was freezing at the top of the mountain and there was ankle deep snow, so we played in the snow for a while and created a very dignified snowman complete with tache, shoelaces and jaunty little hat.

Witnessed some classic American baffoonery when a woman walking past saw me banging two bits of damp wood together in a limp fashion and fearing for the safety of the forest after our passionate guide's repeated fire hazard warnings said in an ever-so slightly panicked manner: "Urmmm.....are you trying to make fire?" My response: "No, I'm trying to make eyebrows." She left looking highly confused and a little scared.

Another lovely sunny day and we took a gentle stroll to the local waterfalls keeping an eagle eye out for wild pumas. According to the info boards you are "very very lucky to see a puma"....so lucky in fact that you should apparently celebrate by waving arms wildly, using clothing to appear bigger, shouting loudly and throwing rocks aggressively. We wisely spent part of our walk practising our very own defensive techniques.

Later we went for a great local meal in a micro microbrewery where we dined on a hearty stew with some Kiwi buddies in readiness for our huge two 12-hour day roadtrip up the "mystical" Ruta 40....an unpaved road travelling up the length of the Andes.

The journey was really cool...and it was the last bus of the year before the road was closed when bad weather makes it impassable....fab scenery, loads of mountains, glaciars and huge plains. Plus we espied loads of Patagonian beasts: massive condors, deer-like guanacos, wild foxes feasting on dead guanacos and best of all.....meeep meeep road runners running in front of the bus too scared to pull of the road!!!

Enjoyed a weird lunch break in a League of Gentlemen village and an overnight stop in Perito Moreno which had a town-wide electricity cut just as we arrived and lots of suped up old bangers out cruising on saturday night.....eat your heart out Chelmsford.

Onwards to civilisation and the Agie capital of chocolate.........