On the 25th August we checked into the top floor of a 10 storey skyscraper at 'Hostel Penthouse 1004', in Bariloche, Argentina, a city situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi Lake. The city is known for its Swiss alpine architecture and its chocolate, which has become an icon of Bariloche since Austrians and Germans looking for a better life settled the area in the late 1800's. It's also a popular base for hiking and skiing the nearby mountains, mountain-biking down the hills and exploring the surrounding Lakes District. That evening we decided to try Argentinean steak at our first opportunity; 'bife de chorizo', a thick sirloin cut cooked on a charcoal grill...it lived up to all the hype we had heard about the legendary Argentinean steak! Sean strolled into our hostel at midnight that evening, after finally battling his way out of Chile!

Next day we dedicated ourselves to sampling the local chocolate shops and cafes, and to admire the stunning views of the vast lake and mountains looming over the city. We also spotted a few very cute giant St Bernards dogs around town, which are still used for mountain rescue in the area (but mainly now for photo's with tourists). Our other, rather more dodgy task for the day, was to trade American dollars on the black market to get a good rate for Argentinean pesos. After 2012, the Argentinean government restricted the ability for ordinary Argentines to purchase dollars, which was a very common practice as no one wanted to save in pesos and lose 30% per year to inflation. For this reason the black market for dollars called the 'blue dollar' or 'blue rate' has emerged, offering a far higher exchange rate for dollars to pesos than if you paid by card or withdrew from a cash machine in the country at the official rate. Having entered Argentina with a big wad of dollars we had withdrawn from Chile, we were keen to get it changed, and thus headed to a renowned street for this dodgy activity in Bariloche, where we were immediately drowned in calls of "cambio! cambio!" ( change! change!). After asking a few 'Delboy' type guys on the street who would take us to dark room at the back of shops to show us their exchange rate on their prized possession of a Casio calculator, we found the best rate to be in an exchange house or 'casa de cambio' and after sidling up to the counter behind a blacked out screen and asking in a hushed voice for the 'blue rate', we walked out pleased with our deal and money belt stuffed with pesos! With our new found wealth we couldn't resist having steak for the second night with Shaun, and hiring some ski clothes for the following day to try our luck on the slopes!

Next morning we were both up early, wrapped up in our ski wear, and caught a busy bus up to the nearby ski resort of 'Cerro Catedral', one of the largest ski centres in South America, with fantastic views over the Nahuel Huapi Lake below. On arrival at the resort, we were quickly approached by a guy asking if we wanted to hire boots and skis, and take lessons. With Sophie having skied once before, albeit 9 years ago, and Trevor assuming it couldn't be that hard, and in an attempt to save money as usual, we decided to hire the gear and go out on the mountain to give it a go by ourselves. After getting fitted into the massively uncomfortable boots that forced your legs forwards into an unnatural position and the staff at the shop wishing us luck with worried looks on their faces, we waddled off to buy our lift passes, and miraculously managed to get on the first ski lift successfully, awkwardly holding our skis and poles in our gloved hands and trying not to hit each other, drop them, or get them tangled in the chair mechanisms! Jumping off at the other end, with staff grabbing our arms quickly and shoving us to the side out of the way of oncoming chairs, we had successfully made it up to the 'beginners' slope; a wide 250m run with a slight gradient to it. Donning our skis we shuffled to the start of the slope, amongst the crowd of people, and with Sophie giving Trevor a few basic instructions we set off. Somehow Sophie managed to remember everything from her previous trip and got down the slope with no mishaps and even included some parallel turns. Trevor, meanwhile, had forgotten the vital tip of snow-ploughing the whole way down and how to stop, and crashed about halfway down when he tried to use the poles like hiking poles and dug them straight down into the snow to slow himself down. This resulted in about 5 minutes of him standing in the middle of the run trying to reattach his skis which had flown off, without him sliding down the slope each time he tried to step into them! This was nowhere near as bad as at one point in the day when a screaming girl came flailing past us, arms waving in the air, and seeming to pick up increasing speed until she fell to the floor in a laughing heap halfway down whilst everyone else looked on in amazement! After a while we had both got the hang of it though and were managing to catch the chair lift and two T-Bar lifts up to the top of the slope to race back down again, and enjoyed a change of scenery amongst the snow, whilst having a lot of fun trying a new activity. Unfortunately, because of a lack of snow the easy green slopes were shut, and the other beginner slopes higher up were also shut off because of high winds that day, which meant we had to remain on the one slope all day. After around 5 hours, we called it a day and caught the chair lift back down to the resort, admiring the amazing views of the small ski town, the blue lake and the mountains covered in snow. After the relief of taking our ski boots off and putting our hiking ones back on, which comparably felt like the comfiest slippers in the world, we caught a bus back to Bariloche and met up with Shaun to end the day with a few beers.

Next morning the three of us walked 45 minutes in the rain to book another long bus journey down to El Calafate, a city in Patagonia which acts as the hub to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the most important natural phenomenon's in South America. The day was spent buying chocolate gifts for people back home (we were now close enough to the end of our trip that we could start thinking about packing gifts), changing some more dollars, and generally eating our way around the town, including trying amazing ice-cream from 'Helados Jauja'; That evening we got out the playing cards in the hostel and wiled away the night playing various games, eating pizza, and sampling the Argentinean red Malbec wines. The bus journey the next day took 28 hours to travel from Bariloche down to El Calafate in Patagonia, although it went a lot faster than others, with a copious amounts of food brought to us, regular stops to stretch our legs, big comfy seats, amazing and vast snowy mountain scenery to watch out the window, and the exciting news that Sophie's sister, Becky, had given birth to baby Thea, Sophie's new niece! We arrived in El Calafate at 1:30pm on the 30th August, and checked in to the large, modern 'America Del Sur' hostel, in a triple room with Sean. After heading out for some more steak we looked into trips to the glacier, and after a lot of confused and late decision making, we both booked a trip to the glacier minus transport with 'Hielo & Aventura' tour company. However, despite Trevor puffing himself out running to various car rental shops, we were unfortunately unable to hire our own car as everything was shutting for the day...disaster! Up at 6:30am, we'd been told that we may be able to jump into the pre-arranged transport that was picking others up from our hotel that morning, and pay after. We tucked into a massive breakfast of cereals, toast, juice, coffee, yoghurt and two slices of cake each, and waited for the bus. After a while, we questioned the location of it with reception, who called the tour company, and they told us the bus had already gone and we wouldn't be picked up. The two of us ran off into town to confront the tour agency, and ask if we could change our tour to another day, but they refused to speak to us, and just kept bluntly saying they couldn't do anything. As our tour started at 10am that morning, we had no option but to pay a horrendous amount of money to hire a taxi for the whole day, so furiously handed the money to them and jumped in for the hour ride to the glacier. On the up-side of the whole mess up, it would mean that after we had used the tour we'd booked for a boat ride and walk on the glacier, we would have however long we wanted to see the rest of the glacier from various viewing balconies, rather than be rushed to catch a bus back...every cloud!

The drive to the glacier was extremely pretty as the morning sun rose, with a pink glow illuminating the white mountains far across large areas of grassy wetland. After entering the 'Parque Nacional Los Glaciares', the taxi driver even pulled over for us to take a picture at the first viewpoint for a glimpse of the glacier, and it already looked enormous from such a distance. The 250km2 ice formation is 30km long (about the size of Buenos Aires), and the world's third largest reserve of fresh water, fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in the Andes. It is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that is growing, with its terminus at 5km wide, and standing at a height of 74m above the surface of the water of Argentino Lake, and 170m in total ice depth! After arriving at the port we had a short wait before boarding our boat to make the 20 minute crossing over the lake to the glacier, where we enjoyed spectacular views of the enormous glacier up close, whilst being blown with icy winds on the top deck. After reaching the opposite shore we were met by our guide for the 'English' speakers, and our group of around 15 made our way along the lake's shore towards the edge of the glacier, where we were all strapped into a pair of crampons and told the best way to walk in them to avoid stacking it! Our 'mini-trek' consisted of trekking around the ice for 1 hour 40 minutes, up and over rolling slopes, and steps carved out of the ice, being shown interesting landscape features in the glacier including streams, small deep frozen-over lagoons which we would smash and try the freezing cold water from, gullies, long narrow crevasses which the guide quickly pointed out to ensure our group didn't diminish, and remarkable oxygenated sections of the ice that shone a brilliant bright blue colour. We were lucky to have an amazingly clear sunny day, and shimmering like a giant Fox's Mint, the glacier really did look stunning, reflecting the light of the sun as far as the eye could see, off the whimsical forms, folds and hues of rolling ice around us, which were rumbling every few minutes as we stood upon the glacier, where far off areas were moving and groaning as parts continually melted and readjusted. Before leaving the ice we were all given some whisky served on glacial ice; probably one of the best settings for a bar!

After eating our lunch with one of the best views imaginable in front of us, we caught the boat back and jumped into our awaiting taxi, as if we were rich enough to have a personal chauffeur and laughed at those having to get on the bus...in a small attempt at making ourselves feel better about the whole transport situation! Our driver took us to the next stop; 3km's of balconies to walk along for amazing overall views of the glacier. We spent the next 2 hours wandering the balconies, ogling in amazement at both the massive height of the ice, and the great depth, disappearing far away into the mist blanketing the distant mountains. We regularly stopped to watch the glacier for a while in silence, as large pieces of ice broke off the sides with enormous force, and a deafening 'canon fire' sound echoed from km's away, slid and tumbled down the front of the glacier, and slammed with great force into the lake below, sending waves charging towards the shore. We learnt how the glacier advances between 1-2metres per day and every 4-5 years the glacier will reach the shoreline of the lake, creating an ice dam. This can cause the lake to rise by as much as 30m on the dammed side, and with the increasing pressure the ice will eventually rapture, causing a huge block of ice to tumble down into the lake; a beautiful and dramatic sight if you're lucky enough to catch it!

After enjoying the awe-inspiring natural phenomenon of the glacier for a while, which you could easily sit and watch for hours, we returned to our taxi satisfied. Yes we had spent far more than we'd wanted to, but the glacier had lived up to all the hype surrounding it, and was one of the most amazing natural sights we'd seen...we returned to El Calafate exhausted but content.