The wheels on the bus go round and round

Firstly thanks to everyone who has emailed us .. its great to get your replies x

V and A

So 2 days following in Che Guevara's motorcycle ruts along the lonely and

desolute ruta 40 road .. With the same view (nothing) on a dirt track

(feels like air turbulence ... Continuously ) no air con (delightful

aroma .. especilly with the kind soul providing the flatulance) no tv (boring) and the itouch power only lasts for so long..... Oh and if I walk into one more toilet with another man who doesn't understand what a toilet lock is for then I think I will scream !

The highlight on the journey though was seeing a Nandu 'roadrunner from the cartoon' , its indigenous to Argentina, see travelling is an education.

So we arrived safe and sound into El Calafate, the bus only broke down once and only one change of tyre ! it is the southern most town in  Argentina that we are travelling to.  On the second day we were booked on a trip to Torres del Paine , 7 hours south in chile ! It was an amazing national park although we had some cloud cover which hung over the main peaks on the mountain range . We did get to see the 'horns' mountain range , some waterfalls and some lakes . You could  spend days in the park but with only a few hours , we only got to touch the surface. We had an enjoyable day but found it difficult to understand our guide (popeye's arch enemy ), we needed a translater to translate his English translation ! It took us a while to figure out a ' gater ' was actually a 'glacier' !! Back to El Calafate We got  ourselves booked onto a trip to the perito moreno glacier, which is part of the worlds third largest ice mass. Its something like 380km in  length and 70km wide which is hard to get your head around until we

saw it . Our boat was dwarfed by it's size as we approached it . 60m above water level and that's only a tenth of it's size ! When we got to the otherside of the lake , we were met by our treking guides .... On with the crampons .... We were about to trek on this glacier monster. Walk up like a penguin and down like you are sat ok a chair, so we are instructed. It was fantastic , the blue colour in the ice was so striking and we got to drink the water straight from the ice pools . After 1.30 hours of  treking we arrived at a picnic table ok the glacier, and our guide pick axed some ice from the glacier wall , poored it into some glasses

and we were each given a glass of famous grouse over crushed ice to

enjoy !

After our lunch , we were walking back to our boat when we heard this almighty roar ... We ran and were fortunate enough to see a huge chunk of ice fall off the glacier and crash into the water !!!!  Our highlight . We had been hoping for nice weather and ice to fall  and now both had happened.  The evidence is in our sunburnt faces and panda eyes ! Our next stop was El chalten which is 3 hours northwest of el calafate. It's a tiny place which is pretty much a base for the fitzroy mountain range treks and other treks around the area . We only wanted to see the famous fitzroy mountain peaks with the hope of seeing them at sunrise when the peaks are lit up like flames by the sunlight. Unfortunately the cloud cover at dawn was over the mountains so we didnt see it but by 10am we had an amazing view of the Fitz Roy from our bedroom window. We decided to do the 8km walk up the mountain to the Mirador viewpoint to get a closer view of it. It was a hard climb but we made it ......... and there before us was the fitz roy ... we think, we dont know as it was covered in clouds. We had spent 2hours climing the mountain and the best view of it had been from our bedroom window!! .. oh well it burnt off breakfast. Actualy I would like to mention that we stayed in a bed and breakfast... But if you wanted breakfast then you had to pay extra !!

Off to Chile now ... via Ruta 40 again ... 2 more days travelling yawnnnnnnnnnnn

......ps. One lesson we have learned is that if you are ever invited

out for dinner by two charming French men, then refuse.....they will

take you to an expensive restaurant .... Order the most expensive

mixed grill.... And then split the bill equally !!!!!!! How

ungentlemanly is that ??...... They then had the cheek to invite us

out again for dinner !