A zig and zag though Argentina, 26th Sept - 3rd October

I only spent 1 night in San Martin, the next day heading south again, to Bariloche. I had always planned to go there, but also I knew that I could meet up with Robbie and Paul, two Irish guys I had met on the boat. I arrived quite late in the evening on Friday, so there as little t do apart from have a ´quiet drink´ with R&P and also another couple of Irish guys in the hostel. Things didnt end up quite so quite and I woke up feeling a little worse for wear on Saturday...Bariloche is a very scenic town in the Argentine lake district sitting on the shores of Lago Nahuel Huapi and also backing on to the parque national Nahuel Huapi (Argentina´s first national park). This means pretty great views across lakes to snow caped mountains etc. On Saturday I rented a mountain bike and spent a very pleasant afternoon cycling around ´el circito chico´, on road to Llao llao wets of Bariloche. Quite a hilly route, but there were lots of places to stop and various detours to little lakes and beaches. Also the best part was about 30 mins from home there was a cervizeria (micro brewery), so it was very nice t stop and enjoy a decent beer in the sunshine. On Sunday I took an organised tour (very little public transport unfortunately) into the national park. It involved several little treks to scenic waterfalls and the ´black glacier´. It is black because all of the mountains around Bariloche are Volcanoes, and this glacier easily picks up the black ash, therefore giving it its colour. I´m sure if i hadn´t already been in southern Patagonia this would have been quite impressive, but to be honest once you´ve seen ones like glacier Grey/Francais/Perito Moreno, its pretty hard to beat.On Monday I didn{t do anything too exiting apart from walk to a viewpoint just outside of town. In the evening I took an overnight bus to Puerto Madryn over on the Atlantic coast. It ended up being a very comfortable ride as I splashed out and went ´coche cama´ class, which meant a nice big individual seat and wine with dinner etc.I arrived in Puerto Madryn at about 7 in the morning and managed to get myself into a hostel and onto a tour of the Valdes Peninsular by half past 8. The sea around Puerto Madryn and the the Valdes Peninsular itself are completely packed with wildlife, and it this time of year it is particularly amazing. This is because the Southern Right Whale migrates here in the spring to mate and give birth. There are literally hundreds of them and they come right up to the shore, so you can stand on the beach and be literally a few metres away from these huge whales! From the peninsular I took a boat out into the gulf for whale watching. You end up just floating around for a while, but in the end we ended up seeing quite a lot and they even came right up and swan next to and under the boat. In the afternoon we carried on round the peninsular visiting both sea elephant and Magellanic penguin colonies (as well as spotting an Amadillo). The penguins have nly recently formed their colony and for some reason decided to make it right next to the road so you could literally walk to within a few feet of the penguins. On Wednesday it was time to take my longest bus so far, 24hours to Mendoza (with only semi-cama seats left..!). I managed to get a seat at the front on the top deck which made the ride a little more interesting. The view as you approach Mendoza is pretty amazing. The flat plains stretch for miles in front of you, then green mountains rise above the horizon, capped with clouds, then above them protrude the Andes proper with their huge snow capped peaks, stretching 1000m above the clouds. Once in Mendoza I set of to try and find the hostel I had stayed in when I was there last year. It is run by a really nice guy called Raul and his family, which consists of an undetermined number of children of various ages. I knew roughly where it was, but how I actually found it was that I saw his 1942 jeep parked outside (very unique!). He is a paragliding fanatic and uses the jeep to get around the mountains near Mendoza. Unfortunately when I asked his daughter if they had any space, she said they were full. I said that was a shame, as i had really enjoyed staying there a year earlier, at which point Raul emerged from the hostel and announced that he could make space in his room! so I ended up sharing a room with Raul and two of his sons. It was really nice to be welcomed into his home like that. In the afternoon I went tandem paragliding with Raul and his son Christian came too. Christian is really into acrobatic stuff so spent a lot of the time doing all sorts of crazy loops and twirls. Raul and I however had a rather more sedate time (apart from an aborted takeoff...), gliding above the ridge overlooking Mendoza. We even managed to share a thermal with 4 eagles, soaring to several hundred metres above the ridge. We stayed up for maybe 40-50 mins, and it was a perfect sunny day, so a very good remedy to my 24hr bus.This morning I took the bus across the Andes to Viña del Mar (near Santiago). However I had the most amazing coincidence when I was on my way to the bus in Mendoza bus station. As I was walking I looked across to a bench where a guy was sitting with a load of bags. I didn´t quite recognise him straight away as he didn´t have a beard, but then I realised it was Xavi one of the Spaniards I had met while trekking in the Torres del Paine. We managed to have a brief 5 minute reunion, before I had to get my bus. Pretty amazing we met each other as neither of us originally planned to come to Mendoza, also as it is several thousand miles from the Torres and 3 weeks since I last saw him.The bus ride over to Chile is pretty amazing. The mountains are incredible and once you cross into Chile the road descends very quickly with about 20 switch backs. From to top you can see all the lorries zig zagging their way down the mountain. So now i´m in Viña del Mar where I am kindly being put up for a couple of nights by Claudio Sacks and his wife. Very nice to be back in a home again after leaving Ushuaia 4 weeks ago.
O