Right well once again it has been too long since we did this, so sorry everyone. We will try and do shorter but more frequent entries from now on, which should be easier as we will be in New Zealand!!

We leave Argentina tomorrow...we will be sad to go. Emma and I are splitting this blog between us now and here I go;

From El Calafate we got a bus to El Chalten. The road was just dirt track the whole way, and the bus driver as usual just drove as fast as he would on tarmac meaning the rear fish tailed all over the place the whole way. I am looking forward to driving myself again in NZ and not having to rely on crazy latino bus drivers!

Anyway, we didn´t know that much about El Chalten before we got there, all we knew was that we had had enough of El Calafate as it just felt like a tourist trap in the end. It was very expensive and once you´d seen the Perito Moreno glacier (which was amazing don´t get me wrong) there is not much you can do without paying a fortune to do boat tours, 4X4 tours and horse riding.

El Chalten was nothing like this though. It is so underdeveloped still. It is basically the place serious hikers and climbers go to walk around the Fitz Roy range of mountains.

We had 4 nights, 5 days there and we loved it. Partly because we discovered a small Microbrewery, and an english, nearly 60 year old, motorbiking grandad!! I´ll come back to that...

We did a couple of fantastic hikes, one 4 hour, one 6 hour hike that took you up to lakes up in the mountains and to view points to see the mountains and glaciers from much closer. The days we did our walks we were so lucky with the weather. We were able to sit at the lakes and have lunch and read in the sunshine. Emma even managed a little sleep.

We found we were not as unfit as feared and didn´t ache too much the next day. The downside to El Chalten was our hostel. There was nothing wrong with it as such, the toilet didn´t flush very often and the water was cold, the real problem was the position of it. The wind coming down from the mountains and through the valley where El Chalten is situated is ridiculous and they had plonked our dorm shack length ways, facing into the wind. This made us feel that we were about to be lifted up and carried down the valley every night which doesn´t make for a good nights sleep. It was so loud, not even ear plugs helped.

It was partly this reason that Mick, the guy we met in the microbrewery managed to get us drinking Tia Maria´s. He swore they would help us sleep, and as he was camping in a tent in these winds and managing to sleep like a baby, we believed him! We ended up going to the Microbrewery at 6pm and staying til late into the night nearly every night! The food there was really nice too so why go anywhere else. We tried one night and had an awful meal so headed straight back there the next night.

Mick is an ex-employee of the Royal mail and is now living off his pension. He got the boat from the UK to Ushuaia (Southern most tip of Argentina), which took 5 weeks, and was meant to be driving all over south america. He has however, made an aquaintance (the waitress) at the microbrewery that he has taken a liking to, and so is staying there until he is no longer welcome. He was a really nice guy, we had lots of deep and meaningfuls about families, jobs and life in general until the early hours, while drinking Tia Maria´s. The odd thing is, that after we left, Emma and I both admitted to not really liking Tia Maria, so God knows why we were drinking it all the time.

It did really feel like we were completely in charge day to day though which we hadn´t really felt before as we were staying with people, or doing set tours most of the time. It has given us confidence in our ability to meet people and survive on our own.

It was in our hostel in El Chalten that we first met Eva, a Hungarian girl that had been living in London and working in Dorking for a few years. It turned out that she was doing a very similar route through Argentina and we planned to meet up again in Bariloche, which leads perfectly into Emma´s entry:

From El Chalten we got on a bus at 9am with sore feet, and a sore head from the night before...Mick was a very bad influence with the Tia Marias (which I don´t even like!). A 2 day bus journey with a hangover is not fun at all....but apparently I did not learn my lesson (see next bus journey!) We sat on the bus for 12 hours each day, with an overnight stay in a hostel, arriving in Bariloche at 10pm 2 days later. Our Hostel was one recommended by Deyna, called Hostel 41 below, run by a New Zealander and was the best one we have stayed in so far...no more dorms for a week as we had a double room. Bariloche is described as a bit of a backpacker haven, and in the winter it is a ski resort, with swiss style chalets, lots of chocolate, fondues, hot chocolate (just melted chocolate in a glass) and ice cream...oh and steak! It was really nice to stay put for a whole week.

We actually had a "little group" to hang out with by the end of Bariloche, Eva who we had met in El Chalten, her friend Melinda, Mike who was also in their hostel, and Martin, who was in ours. After quite a lot of red wine one evening, Eva texted me to ask if we wanted to join them on a "small trek" to laguna Negra (Black Lagoon) (4hrs each way!) and it seemed a good idea at the time so we said yes.... the next day we woke up at 9am, with a hang over, and craig saying "what have you done?!" but it was a bit too late to back out by then. 5 of us crammed into a tiny taxi to take us to the edge of the national park, me having to sit on craig for 40mins (poor craig). The taxi driver dropped us in the wrong place, so we had to walk 2km just to get to the start of the trail!! Eva had been told by the tourist office that the last hr of this trail was a "little steep", up until then, the trek was ok, lots of ups and downs, and apart from Mike (who was slipping all over the place as he only had converse shoes on!) no one found it too bad... Then came the "slightly steep part"...we had walked up to the base of pretty much a mountain, so the only way was over... for half an hour it was an extrememly steep walk, the other half an hour was climbing, or scrambling over rocks, Eva and I were so far behind, craig and the others were dots on the horizon, we got the giggles every few steps as it was so bizarre, exhausting, and pretty scary at points. we didnt know whether to laugh or cry. At one point I swear we had gone off roading, as there was no path, just rocks to climb and a drop behind us (nice of craig to wait for us girlsl!!) Anyway, enough rambling, the view from the top was beautiful when we finally got up there,(10 minutes behind the others) the Laguna was black as promised (phew!) and apart from one other group we were the only ones there. We all wanted to jump in, but when you couldn´t even keep your feet in the water for more than a few seconds it was so cold (we were above the snow line) Sensible people stay the night in the refugio at the top, but we hadnt been that organised, and had to walk 4 hours back (down was pretty scary too!) which was a very depressing thought...a thunderstorm started just as we were coming down just to make life a little more difficult for us. No one spoke that much in the last 2 hours, no one was very happy...especially Mike in his converse, which he had to throw away afterwards. We walked 9 hours and 18miles in total, and didnt get back til around 10pm, when we still had to walk to the nearest village to catch an unreliable bus back to Bariloche. We got to a restaurant at midnight, which is pretty normal in Argentina.

That was the most eventful day in Bariloche, on top of that we did do some Kayaking, which was fun, and Craig and I didnt argue very much surprisingly (I have been known to be extremely bossy in a kayak!) although he did have a little difficulty, as the waves and wind kept shifting us right, so instead of just using the rudder to steer, we had to use the paddles as well, I was pulling with all my might on the right hand side of the Kayak to move us left (I have ridiculously weak arms) and couldnt work out why we werent moving left, I looked behind me and Craig was pulling with all his might on the left side of the kayak...no wonder we were going right... I´ll stop being mean now...We also did a cheating sort-of-trek, where the minibus drives you up to nice sites and you get out, walk for an hour, then get back in to the next place. We got to see one of the only 2 Black Glaciers in the world, which was really beautiful, and slightly eerie, and i doubt we would have seen it if we hadnt paid for the tour, so we felt less bad after that. We had the most ginormous steak i have ever seen that evening at Don Albertos, which is famous in Bariloche, 500 g of steak, it was ridiculous. The in between time spent in Bariloche was spent chilling out, and being lazy, reading in the park etc (I swapped my book for Wicked! which I was probably too excited about!)

Our last evening was...eventful, it started of fairly civilised in a pasta restaurant with Mike and Martin, followed by an Irish pub..Irish pubs are everywhere in the world and you hardly ever come out sober. A few glasses of wine later (they didnt have guiness!!!) and we realised the bar had turned into a club(to Craigs dismay!) and we were kind of shoved off our table, and ended up dancing, and drinking more and more.. I was a disgrace and totally embarassed myself as usual, and to put it nicely, wasnt too well that night....and the next day....an 18hr bus journey to Mendoza!! (I havent been so hungover since uni....must be the altitude....or something!) I was hungover for 2 days, which was a shame since mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina, and drinking wine is the main activity, so I had to jump back on the horse as soon as possible, which I did of course!!

Mendoza is where Changing Worlds have their Argentina placements, which meant I had to do some work. This involved meeting up with the rep Jose, his brother Ali and Cordelia who is just starting her placement out here.

Jose had booked us a hotel which turned out to be amazing. It was a junior suite and included cable tv, a fully functional bathroom, a double bed, wardrobes, a dining table, a varied breakfast (not just stale croissants and tasteless coffee like most places) and a kitchen in our room!

Now for this reason, and that I needed to recharge my batteries before driving the length of New Zealand, we haven´t done a huge amount in Mendoza except lie on the bed and watch films, shows like E.R, House and Desperate Housewives, and I even got to watch the Arsenal v AC Milan game!! We are going to win the Champions League now by the way!

That´s not quite all we have done though, we have met up with Jose, Ali and Cordelia, seen the main sites of the city, "power walked" round a park with 20 American students, eaten lots of steak and drunk lots of wine! We even went on a winery tour and learnt about the process of making wine which we didn´t know before, as well as tasting a fair amount.

It´s given me an insight into where Changing Worlds volunteers will be staying and what´s involved, and has given me some ideas about advertising the placements so it has been worth it. It has taken a while to get used to City life again though, it´s all been very crowded and noisy after Patagonia and the Lake District but we have had fun, and Mendoza has grown on me.

It´s been nice to live in luxury for a while and sort some bits and pieces out before living out of a converted people carrier/camper van for 34 days in NZ. We have hired a car called a Spaceship for the whole time we´re there. The seats have been converted in the back to allow a double bed with a tent attachment to give more space. There is a cooker, fridge, cd/dvd player! and ipod attachment so I think it´s going to be pretty cool!!

We leave Mendoza tomorrow afternoon on a bus to Santiago, Chile where we spend one night before flying out on Friday evening at 8pm or so. We arrive in NZ at 4.30am local time, so if you work it out it´s about a 21 hour flight!!!! Not good, but hopefully we can sleep and watch some more films.

We´ll let you know how we cope once we get to NZ.

Until then it´s TTFN (ta-ta-for-now for those who aren´t Winnie the Pooh fans!).

Be in touch soon. Lots of love, Craig and Emma xxx