Brona comes to play in BA

Hooray, so amazing to see Brona as we met in the wee hours of the morning in Buenos Aires airport. We spent 2 days exploring BA, seeing the sights of Boca, centro, the japanese gardens, some girly time etc etc was great craic. Unfortunately Brona and I were spring upon by some horrible theifs when boarding the metro, it turns out we're both 'fight' not 'fright' girls! The next day we headed off to Colonial in Uruguay, a beautiful little oldy oldy town, highlights include cycling to wee village with bull ring, mousey mousey :), dining along the cobbled streets and having the craic!

Was amazing to see you Brona, you is a legend! Photos are here

Tierra del Fuego

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego - D'end of D'World in all and anyways. Having left Ireland just over 9 months ago, we have made it to the most southerly landmass in the world before Antartica.

A trip out on the Beagle Channel brought us face-to-face with South American sealions, emperor cormorants, turkey vultures an albatross and a bird called the 'Snowy Shitbill', no joke. Its white and apparently it feeds on whatever the other animals 'leave behind'... lovely.

On the boat trip to the "End of the World Lighthouse", the sealion cubs jumped and frollicked in the wake of the boat. Even the photos don't capture the craic they seemed to be having!

Quite a sense of achievement and finality about getting here. Fiona had a notion about getting to Cape Horn, but apparently its a 7-day trip on a tanker/ice breaker.... maybe next time. From here, its back to Buenos Aires and then onto New Zealand. An end to the Latin American adventure... for now.

Patagonia

Tough as it was to leave the warm breakfast scones in the Irish hostel in Bariloche, we had been really looking forward to taming Patagonia. The photos are the only way to appreciate the beauty of this wild region, which spreads across southern Chile and Argentina. An epic 32hour bus journey to El Calafate at a 10degree drop in temperature - made worthwhile by the unbelievable Perito Moreno glacier trek. Crevasses, rivers, 300 meter high caves and icey-blue lagoons - truly spectacular.

Our next stop was El Chalten "Hiking Capital of Argentina". A beautiful drive along Ruta 23 & 40 revealed the stunning Cerro Torre and Cerro FitzRoy. 4 days here, hiking to hidden lakes, floating icebergs and watching the Heineken Cup on ESPN en Español. A Leinster-Munster semi-final in Croker may mean very pricey flights home. "Anyone buyin' or sellin' tickets?!"

Torres del Paine (Chile's world-famous national park) was washed out due to a whinjury (Rob) and the horrendous weather. We managed to get one day of hiking here, but left feeling that El Chalten is the winner of this Argentina-Chile faction.

From here, the only thing left to conquer was the "End of the Line... Tierra del Fuego". Our destination was Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city. On a ferry crossing the Strait of Magellan, I bought a burger and mashed potatoes, served with Kerrygold butter no less! Jackie Healy-Rae you can sleep easy!

Photos of our Patagonian adventures are here.

Argentinian Lake District - Mendoza and Bariloche

After a mammoth 24 hour bus from Montevideo to Mendoza it took us a day to feel normal again. The city is gorgeous, it has a very relaxed pace with lots of plazas where the locals hang out (not in a knacekrish way). We took in the city for 2 days and then went on a bike tour around the wineries, vineyards and olive farms, an amazing day in the sun! I saw my first olive tree and battled with my bike - the front brakes were clamped on the wheel, great craic! A great build up to 'my day'!

For the BIG 26 Rob took me paragliding, I was very thankful afterwards but was questioning why anyone would pay for such a thing when I was being kitted out. It was amazing, alot of screaming was heard on take off, cheesy as it sounds as I settled in I actually felt quite like a giant bird. We did some acrobatics in the air (jaysus never again) and landed with Rob close behind after around 20mins - fantastic!

Next stop Bariloche in the lake district (after another epic 17hr bus). Beautiful town on a lake in the heart of the Lake district, called the gateway to Patagonia. The weather wasn't great the whole time, we met some great people and managed to see gorgeous vistas, dance to the wee hours and do a bike ride around the national park. Next stop Patagonia, woop woop!

Photos