Iguazu Falls

Final Map!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But one more update of the trip to come...

Hello again. Now I have a lot of catching up to do. So we left you at Rosario, a city that outshone our expectations. The city looks inland on maps but it was once a bigger port than Buenos Aires due to the massive Pirana river that flows past all the way to Paraguay and beyond.

Mendoza had a lovely warm climate especially after coming up from the south but Rosario was scorching! We found it so strange how the locals were wearing woolen jumpers and legwarmers when we were down to our bikinis!! Nicki and pal on a river beach with delta island in the background:

The city is also home to the very first Argentinian flag and a massive monument was build to house it:

View from the top:From there we headed north to Corrientes and if we thought Rosario was scorching then Corrientes was a furnace.

The same river was flowing past the town, even though we travelled over 1000km north. Not too much to say about the town only that we loved the small town tranquillo pace of life and the more tropical feel to the place. I got in a twist:

...and Nicki had an encounter with a ceiling fan:xxx R & N

Bets on... did it fall on Nicki´s turn?

Now we are doing a whirlwind tour of Argentina, trying to fit in all the top spots but unfortunately the tops spots are all over 1000km appart. Luckily the buses here are incredable, spacious, reclining padded seats, breakfast lunch and dinner served, movies and even Bingo to keep us entertained.

Anyway, Mendoza , where at last the weather felt warmer and we got to chill out in parks and resurrected our summer clothes from the depths of the rucsacs:

Then our wine tour. We hopped on a local bus and got out into the countryside where the bus driver left us off at Mr. Hugo´s bike rentals. We got kitted out with perfect touring bikes, talked through a route to the best winaries with Mr. Hugo and pedaled of on our happy giddey way:

We visited different types of winaries, from museums, old, modern, family run and enjoyed each one for what they had to offer (wine!):

Out with the old....

... and in with the new:

Autumn coloured vines:

No grapes this time of year, but oranges instead:

It reminds me of factories that went on behing Bosco´s magic door:

Sampling:

Along the way, we met a British couple, Jenny and Ian, who are not only doing a cycling tour of Mendoza but of South America:

Nicki going professional:

Then the municiple tourist police started rounding up the merry cyclists so we wobbled our way back to Mr. Hugo´s, enjoying the fantastic coloured avenues on the way:

I´m a town behing with this blog. Now we are in Rosario just north of Buenos Aires and will be heading on to Corrientes. As always, photos to come!

xxx R & N

Well things have slowed down considerably over the last week, after snow/trekking/pumas we have spent the last few days flying/drinking/eating chocolate and collecting freckles.

We took a bus from Puerto Natales to Puerto Arenas expecting a boring day and a half before our flight north over the Chilean Fjords... But! It was Dia del Mama and the local Navy marched around the town for a few hours, serenading the mothers and grannys and delighted to have a few Gringos to take part. Free Hot chocolate too, helped keep the mood bouyant and it wasnt long before we found ourselves mid air to Puerto Montt.

Not much to say about Puerto Montt except that dancing poodles in skirts is NOT a good idea....

Next Stop : Bariloche, Chocolate city.. Yum! We filled our noses with Ash (?) from the volcano, it covered the cars, the flowers, our feet

The best plan was to stay indoors, learn about the Italians that came over from Naples a few decades ago and started the chocolate tradition and of course try some for ourselves.. we really need to go for a jog!But No.... We went to the local Irish Bar... ... and ... Steak (hobbit) house.....
We have travelled so many miles since the last update and seen so much but it all seems so random to report on. We spent a lot of that time on buses and flights! Today we got to experience Mendoza´s Winaries, but photos of that still to come.

Thank´s to Nicki for writing this update. She is usefull for some things!!!

xxx R & N

Map with Nicki´s route in purple pins

I know.. I know I haven´t updated this in a long time but when one is in Patagonia with no broadband, it´s not the easiest thing to do! Well myself and Nicki left Buenos Aires far behind us and flew south to El Calafate, a quiet little town with not much to do except organise a bus to the neighbouring national park of Los Glaciers. It´s winter in the southern hemisphere at the moment and as far south as we are it´s very cold, cold enough for a glacier to still advance at an astounding rate. Well we visited Glacier Perion Moreno and were awed by it´s beauty and size. It´s really hard to decide which photos to put up from the many we took. I hope these do it justice, if not, you´ll just have to go there yourself some day! After El Calafate, we crossed over into Chile, second time for me but first for Nicki. We stopped at another sleepy town called Puerta Natales. I say sleepy but walking around and seeing all the closed hostels and restaurants, it must be a hugely lively place in summer. We decided to go hiking for a few days in the renowned park of Torres Del Paines. Well we were there in the off season which meant very very few tourists and cheaper accommodation but it also meant that all but one refugio in the park was closed, the transport to the park was very limited and the weather was antartically cold. This meant we needed to go self sufficient. We spent one stressful evening renting a tent, cooking gear, random bits and bobs and trying to figure out and buy the food we´d need for four days in the wilderness in Patagonia. It was a great learning experience for both of us and when the day arrived we hitched up our heavy packs and hiked off with high spirits.

Day one:

What was to come:

The weather:

Our first night in the opened kitchen for campers:

Day two:

Promising skies:

The "Horns" in the background. I´m standing sideways to try and avoid being toppled by the wind!

Our water supply:

Misty glaciers:

Heart for our Justin and Simon:

Our kitchen night two:

Day three:

Filling up for the day... icy!

Clear skies at last, but still the ever present wind. The gusts would pick up sheets of water and slam them down on top of us, knocking us over if we were standing. I´ll never forget hearing Nicki shouting "look out, there is another one coming" at which point I´d run to the nearest tree or boulder, crouch and hang on for dear life!:

Beautiful!!

Us!

The last valley!

For Simon:

Kitchen night three: Day four:

Our trusty (wet) tent:

The refugios were closed but that didn´t mean we couldn´t sit in their porches:

Us again:

Winter peaks:

One last look back:

Guanaco:

Condor:

Fox:

Puma:

Our reward!!!!!

I could write so much more about our experiences but all that photo uploading took a long time and I´m going to bed. I´ll tell anyone whose interested when I get back.

xx R & N