So then, We have spent the last few days walking and mooching around the streets of Buenos Aires. Then we have spent the last few nights experiencing Buenos Aires by night: The city is beautiful with a huge mix of architecture and great style about the place: We visited the most incredible cemitary too, with elaborate crypts. Mam, you would have loved it:It also had very life like statues!! xxx R & N

Look who I found in a gun museum... My friend Nicki. She arrived safe and sound in Buenos Aires. Plenty more photos to come. Here´s Nicki´s blog too Nicki´s blog clicky

I´ve been staying in Bariloche in Argentina, near the Chilian border, which is the beginning of Patagonia and it´s beautiful. I was staying in the penthouse of the tallest building which gave incredible views with incredible sun sets (still a hostel):

One of the days, I found someone to go biking with, so we picked a good rental place and off we went on a 65km Circuito Chico. The route was great and you would be forgiven for thinking you were in the Swiss Alps with all the wooden houses, fondu restaurants, chocolate shops and Saint Bernard dogs.

Here´s Ralf and me:

Unfortunitly at about 50km Ralf´s bike broke, randomly as we were cycling along:

So we spent about 8 km alternating between running, and one sitting on the broken bike while the held on and got pulled by the person on the good bike. Then we got to the main road and managed (eventually) to flag down a van to bring the broken bike and me back into town, while Ralf cycled the good bike back. It was a great adventure.

To finish it we went for steak. (I love Argentina!!) I easily managed to eat a juicy 17oz fillet. I´m going to have to go for more long rides if I continue at this rate!

xxx R

So after waiting around, we got the go ahead to climb the volcano. The morning was beautiful and the forcast was good. We. got some transport to the foot and started hiking. You can see the clear skies and the ski lift that will be used in another few weeks:

You can also see how steep it is and the haze at the top is the smoke from the crater:

Here is the end of a chair lift that was destroyed in an eruption in 1971. That wasn´t the last eruption but it was a big one: But the time we reached the snow line the clouds had started to come in. Our guide said we could put on our crampons and pick up our iceaxes, but he wasn´t confident we would get far:

And he was right, the visibility changed drastically and we had to turn back:

But I enjoyed it anyway. It was a great experience hiking on ice and snow:

....and we all went for a drink afterwards which always makes things better:

Well now I´m in my 11th country, Argentina. And after getting some currency changed and a bed found for the night, the very next thing I did was find some of the famous Argentinian steak, yum yum yum:

xxx R

map again

Well... It´s been two days and I still haven´t climbed it yet! I wake at 6 and go to the tour agency and they tell me the weather conditions aren´t good enough, so I go back to bed for a few hours and get back up and try and fill the day. It´s like being at base camp, waiting for the perfect weather to reach the big summit, only this base camp has central heating and duck down duvets and stone oven pizza restaurants! The first day it was raining heavily, so there wasn´t much to do that would be enjoyable getting wet... except kayaking (thanks for the suggestion Ramage x). So I got in contact with a guy, Dominique from France (where else) who kitted me out, gave me a big creaker (river kayak), and brought me down some rivers, the Rio Liucura (II-III) which flowed into the Rio Trancura (III-IV).Unfortunitly this is the only photo I have from the day, as my camera does not like water, in rain or river form. But it was great to get on a river after so long, and a great run too. Like Cormac would say "it´s like the Annamoe, only faster, with more volume, and big wave trains, with syphons...."

But today, it was too cloudy and windy for the volcano, but good enough to rent a bike and go mountain biking. I did a big circut of 48km, and got some photos of the rivers I was on the day before:I cycled up to the source of the Rio Liucura and saw beautiful bubbling springs and pools:I also cycled to a lake, average enough, but I think someone pulled the plug:Me and my bike (and a lot of ground due to taking it myself on 10second delay!)When I cycled back into town, the volcano looked clear again and ever bit as beckoning as before. I´m giving it two more days... maybe three, then I´m out of here:Oh, and one for Mickle, I quite like the local fire department sign:xxx r

Map, click here.

Sorry I haven´t written in a while, it´s a combination of being away from a good internet connection and spending a good few days not doing much that would be of interest. Chile is growing on me, but I´ve had to curb my activities to stay in budget in this expensive country, so I´ve done a lot of chilen´ (get it!) out on beaches and in country lodges. When visiting a town I have to pick one museum to go see, rather than hitting them all. Eating (and drinking) from the supermarket, that sort of thing.

Gone are the colourful traditionally clad women and children, gone are the busy local markets. The towns in Chile are equal to, if not betting Irish towns for modernism = La Serena shopping mall:From La Serena, I headed inland into Pisco country(this is a sweet liquor made from grapes). I spent a few days in Vicuña and visited a Pisco distillary:I popped up to the Pisco Elqui valley, to see where my boyfriend Simon, spent a few months working and camping (pisco grape vineyards):Also new to my travels is the presence of fashion and modern art, especially in the town of Valparaiso, which is like one big Temple Bar:Valparaiso is also the biggest Navy port in Chile, and with a coastline of over 4300km, they need a big Navy:Then I spent a few days in Viña del Mar, a beach resort for Santiago, but luckily it was off season, so I had the beaches to myself. There were plenty of cute little coves to explore, but here is another example of developed Chile: (how high´s the tallest building in Dublin?)From there, I skipped passed Santiago and headed south and inland again to Talca, well to a country lodge in a townland called Lircay close to Talca. I had only planned to stay here one night to break up my journey south, but I fell in love with the place. A cosy family run guesthouse, with swimming pool, climbing wall, bunny rabbits, hammocks, acers of land to explore and so much more.Surrounded by vinewards (wine this time):There was also a cute little puppy about the place, who could type very well it seems:Around the communal dinner table I made plans with other travellers to go hiking one day. The national park we chose was like hiking in the Alpes:But also a bit like home, with the deciduous trees, which were just starting to turn colour (Autumn here!!!) making the hillside gorgeous:The next day I went horse riding with some great real cowboys. Again the countryside was beautiful, but the highlight (for me) was crossing rivers on horseback:Our cowboy guide invited us into his house afterwards for a drink, and he had an interesting collection on his wall:That more or less brings me up to date. I arrived last night in Pucon and have spent the morning getting geared up for a hike tomorrow, grampons, icepicks, the works. Check it out, I´ll be on the top of that soon, weather and Roz permitting... I´m so excited. Wish me luck!xxx R

It´s been a while since I wrote last but after the Salt Lakes, I thought the things I was doing weren´t blog worthy. But I´ve a little collection of photos now to fill you all in on. After Bolivia, my group from the desert, who got on really well together, rented a car and had a really cool day driving ourselves around in the north of Chile and stopping whenever we wanted where ever we wanted to take photos. We even stopped to pick-up and give a lift to a couple and their three dogs, who were llama herders:One of our stops included the nicest hot springs I´d been to. They had a very expensive exclusive feel;The day after we all went (by bus) to the next town, Calama, and saw a copper mine. Copper pretty much runs the Chilian economy and production it HUGE. The open mine pit is huge, the machines and trucks are huge. I try and put the best photos up on my blog so sorry that this next one is fuzzy (it´s actually from the dust in the air!) but I wanted to try and show the hugeness. In the photo you´ll see two normal pickup trucks driving behind the ore extracting trucks. Can you see their size? After that, the salf flat group split up and went our seperate ways. I went south and got to the Pacific coast for the first time in a good few weeks of being inland. The beautiful beach of Bahia Inglesa:Further along the coast and now I´m in La Serena. I´m sharing a room with a really nice Canadian girl called Clare and today we went on a tour to Isla Damas and saw wonderful sea life including penguins, boobies, pelicans, cormorants, sea lions, and dolphins. Male sea lion having a good auld itch:xxx r