After all the wine tasting and then more wine in the evening I had a little bit of a fuzzy head this morning.

Despite that I got up to do the ‘off the beaten track’ walking tour around Valparaiso.

Valparaiso is a really pretty port town with loads of street art and colourful houses. The bottom part of the town is flat but the hills surrounding the town are pretty steep and my B&B is up one of the hills!

The walking tour started at Plaza Sotomayor which is one of the many squares in Valparaiso. The town was never officially founded so it doesn’t actually have a main square.

We then caught a local bus to take us up into the hills to Plaza Bismark. A lovely guy called Ollie played my bus fare as I didn’t have any small change on me.

This area shows the influence of the Germans who came to Valpo and is along a street called ‘Alemania’ street. The views from here are really good down to the port but it was a little bit foggy when we were there.

Valpo has a lot of European influence from Germany, Britain and Italy.

The next stop was the old prison which is at the top of the town. Prisoners used to be tortured here and local residents could hear them screaming. At one point a prisoner was placed in the wrong category section of the prison and was killed by other inmates. This drew media attention to the prison so prisoners were then taken out to sea and tortured at sea rather than at the actual prison. Now the old prison is a cultural centre – with the aim of bringing happiness and joy to what was once a very sad place.

Near the prison there is an old water tank which contains some original murals and street art. At one point, during the dictatorship years, many of the original murals and graffiti were painted over.

We then walked downhill to another small square called ‘the resting place’. In previous years the poorer people were buried in a couple of cemeteries at the top of the hills, whereas the richer people were buried in a cemetery in the flater part of town. So the poor people used to have the mass in the churches in the flat part of town and then have to carry the coffin up the steep hills to the cemetery. So they used to rest for a while at this square to get their breath back.

We continued downhill to another square where we caught a tram to the offices of the tour company. These offices are in a gorgeous 18th century building which still has most of the original features.

I met some other English speaking people on the tour so we all had lunch together at the fire station.

We then did our own tour to look at some of the street art and to go and see the famous piano steps.

I left the girls here and took the funnicular back to the bottom of town.

I had a browse of the shops and went to Victoria square, named after queen Victoria, and visited the cathedral.

On the way back I took more photos of the street art.

There a couple of artists who have painted four huge murals across the city depicting the four seasons. This one below is of summer.

In the evening I met up with Emily from the USA who had just arrived at the B&B, and also Jerry, for dinner. We had some delicious local dishes – mine was a type of mushroom bake.

Yesterday was spent travelling from Mendoza to Valparaiso and crossing the border again which always takes quite a long time. Some of the views from the bus were pretty impressive.

I’m staying in a great B&B in Valparaiso and when I arrived I met the other people staying there – a couple from Germany (Marcus and Carin), a couple from Portugal (Alfonzo and Carina) and Jerry from USA. The owner, Rene is a lovely guy too and quite a character.

Shortly after I arrived Rene made Pisco Sours for us all (they tasted so much better than when I tried to make them) and I went for dinner with Alfonzo, Carina and Jerry. The food was good but not great.

This morning Rene served a delicious breakfast and then Alfonzo, Carina and I went to visit Isla de Negra to see the house of Pablo Neruda. He was a poet, a diplomat and a politician and had significant influence on the history of Chile. It was thought he was poisoned by the Pinochet regime but he also had pancreatic cancer at the time he died . He won the Nobel peace prize for his poetry.

The house was amazing and his collections of various artifacts were really good to see. The location of the house right by the sea and the way it was made out of natural stone really made it blend into the surroundings.

Following the tour of the house we went to the Indomita winery in Casablanca for lunch and also to buy so.e bottles of wine for this evening’s BBQ. The views were amazing and the food and wine were delicious.

Following lunch we drove to another winery, Casas del Bosque, for wine tasting and a tour. This was classed as a medium sized winery which produces around a million bottles of wine each year. I’ve got to say, I still prefer the Malbec!

We drove back to Valparaiso (I say we but Alfonzo did all the driving) and I took this photo from the car:

This evening we had a communal BBQ – beautifully cooked by Rene, with potatoes and tomato salad. Along with some wine from the Indomita vineyard it was a perfect evening. I tried the carmenere which is a specific Chilean wine but it was average rather than great.

It was a really good evening and we all chatted and got along really well.

So today we got up before the sun and caught the 7am bus to the visitor centre at Honcones. It’s about a 4 hour bus journey and to be honest I slept most of it, although when I was awake and looking out the window the views were amazing.

Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside Asia, at 6,960.80m (22,837 ft), and the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. We obviously were not climbing to the top of this mountain as that takes around 20 days but we decided to hike to base camp, Confluencia, which is around 8.5km each way.

These are some of the views on the way up. The trek wasn’t too hard in terms of steep inclines but it was a steady climb upwards. However the altitude made it more difficult.

It took us around two and a half hours to get to the base camp which was at 3,400m. We then climbed up a small hill by the side of the base camp and the views were unbelievable.

These photos don’t really show the colours of the mountains – they were like rainbows, it was amazing. It was pretty windy at this point too but we found a sheltered spot and ate some lunch.

The trek back down was slightly easier but we had to keep stopping to take photos as the scenery was breathtaking.

As we got closer to the end we walked around Laguna Honcones and the colour of the water was a lovely turquoise colour.

The bus back to Mendoza was at 430pm and the one after that at 8pm. As we got towards the end we realised we only had a couple of minutes left to cat h the 430pm bus so we had to jog the last bit. Anna ran ahead to let the park rangers at the visitor centre know we had made it back ok. We literally just made it in time.

On the way home we caught a glimpse of the famous sulphur bridge at Puenta del Inca.

We were all pretty tired when we got back to the hostel so we ate in and shared a bottle of wine.

These last few days with Petra and Anna have been great, hopefully we’ll stay in touch.

I was up and ready to leave for 815am and a lovely guy, Fernando, from Martin’s Bike tours came and picked me up and drove myself and another couple (Clari and Thomas) over to the start of the tour. At the start another couple also joined us (Pablo and Eileen) and we met Julia who founded the tours. Luckily Julia, who was originally from England, was there and she translated for me during the day.

So after a quick safety check and talk we cycled to the first vineyard – Alta Vista. It was only a 10 minute bike ride so nothing too strenuous.

This is quite a large vineyard and run by a corporate organisation. They were running two tours just as we arrived- one in English and one in Spanish. They took us all round the vineyard to show us how the different wines are produced. Their young wines are fermented and stored in the steel tanks before being bottled, some others are aged in barrels before being bottled – sometimes for a number of years, and some are processed in the concrete tanks.

After the tour we went to taste three of their wines. Their most expensive wine was the Alto 2011 which was around £100 a bottle. This wine is kept in the barrel for 7 years before being bottled and released to market.

The photo bottom right is of the private collection of the owner – he keeps several bottles each year of the Alto.

I liked all of the 3 wines we tried but my favourite was the 100% malbec which was made from the grapes from across all 5 of their different vineyards.

We then cycled onto the next place which was completely different. It was a family owned winery – Carmelo Patti – and they buy their grapes from other vineyards rather than grow them there. The gentleman who owns it was the one who provided the tour (in Spanish but Julie translated for me). He is the winemaker and blends the grapes to get the perfect taste.

Carmelo gave us some great tips about red wine:

1. If the cork is really stuck never push it back into the bottle. Heat up the outside of the bottle around the cork to make the glass expand and liquid the paraffin around the cork.

2. Store red wine bottles so that the cork is constantly in contact with the wine. Any air bubbles should be at the bottom of the bottle.

3. Take the metal / plastic lining off around the neck of the bottle as soon as you buy it as it is easier then to see any damage to the cork which could lead to the wine going ‘off.

4. A red wine should always be decanted from the bottle and allowed to breathe at least 1 hour before serving.

He was a great guy and his wine was really delicious. Again I preferred the malbec. Carmelo stores his wine in the bottle and ages it for at least 7 years in the bottle before releasing it to market. He stores the bottles upside down for a while and all the checking of the corks and labelling of the bottles is done by hand.

The next vineyard we went to was around 15km away which was a really nice cycle ride through some lovely streets.

At this vineyard, Clos de Chacras, we also had dinner which was so nice. They paired each of the dishes with a specific wine.

The dining area and surroundings around the vineyard were also really beautiful. This vineyard had some grapes but it also has other vineyards in the region and all the grapes are transported to where we were and then made into wine.

The cellars at the vineyard are really old and what were massive tanks for wine have also been converted into cellars for storage. This vineyard also ages it’s wines in the barrel. My favourite this time was the Merlot.

I did feel a little drunk after all that wine but luckily the cycle back to the starting point was only around 15 mins.

When I got back to the hostel I had a shower and then a little sleep in the hammock on the rooftop terrace.

In the evening Petra, Anna and I decided to go to a couple of Irish bars as it was St Patrick’s day. The first one was pretty busy but the second one was a little quieter. It was busy out on the streets though ad everyone seemed to be celebrating Irish style!

Yesterday I got the overnight bus from Bariloche to Mendoza- an 18 hour journey. The bus was not as good as the one from Iguazu to BA as the seats did not fully recline but the food was better. And I watched all of the first series of breaking bad!

This is the sunrise from the bus.

I arrived into Mendoza around 8am and walked to my hostel as it was only a few blocks from the bus terminal.

Almost as soon as I got there I met a lovely girl, Petra from Switzerland, and we decided to go to General San Martin Parque which is the other side of town. The park is huge – it’s kind of a mixture of Regents park and Hyde park in London.

We walked all through the park, the weather was gorgeous and around 30 degrees.

We climbed up Cerro de la Gloria to see the monumento al ejercito de los andes. As we relaxed with a coffee a group of guys on Harley Davidson’s showed up and posed for some photos.

The views from the top were ok but there was a bit of a haze or fog/smog over the city so they weren’t amazing.

We walked back a different way and stopped off for some salad and chips for lunch.

When I got back to the hostel I checked in and met another girl Anna from France. The three of us went for a few drinks and we tried a variety of different craft beers which seem to be all the rage here at the moment. Anna and I headed home and I went to bed to catch up on some sleep.

It’s nice to be back in the sunshine for a few days!

I had a lovely lie in this morning and didn’t get up until around 9am. I chilled a bit at the hostel after having a leisurely breakfast.

Caro and I spent the day together. We were going to get the number 10 bus to the Patagonia brewery but it was full when it got to our bus stop so it drove straight past. We got on the next bus that took us some of the way but we were still around 5km away so we started to walk. On the way we went past a hotel that had been burnt and was now abandoned. Its such a shame as the views from the hotel were gorgeous.

As we were walking along the road a bus came so we flagged it down – luckily it stopped even though we weren’t at an official bus stop.

We got off at the brewery and again the views were stunning. It was a bit of a sunshine and showers day so some of the photos don’t show how beautiful it looks in the sun. We ate lunch at the brewery, a typical picada dish of cheese and meat (lamb, chorizo and blood sausage) with homemade fresh bread. The beer is brewed on site and we had the original craft beer which was delicious.

After lunch we started to walk towards Colonia Suiza which is a small Swiss village with market stalls. As we walked we tried to hitchhike and a guy stopped to pick us up and dropped us a short distance from the village.

It was a really cute area and mainly sold arts and crafts and food. I bought a mate tea mug with a straw.

We wandered around for a bit and then made our way to another brewery – Berlina where we tried a couple of variety each of their craft beers. Again, it was all very tasty.

Tonight I just chatted with some of the people at the hostel and had an earlyish night.

Yesterday was a travelling day from Ushuaia to Bariloche. This is Ushuaia from the plane.

The plane flew to El Calafate where half the passengers got off and those flying on to Bariloche on Bueonas Aires were told to stay on the plane. In the end though we had to also disembark for 20 minutes before getting back on the plane and flying to Bariloche.

The hostel I’m staying in is really lovely – they have a communal dinner every night and last night was risotto and tonight was tacos.

The people staying here are really friendly too and my roommate, Belen, invited me to join some of them on their trek to Frey. It sounded like a good plan.

Frey is one of the peaks of Catedral which is part of Nahuel Huapi national park. Its a 1700m climb and around 26km. It took us (Julian, Caro, Belen and I) around 4 hours to walk up. The trek was through a beautiful forest and the views were amazing.

We were lucky with the weather as it was pretty sunny, although a bit cold when you stopped walking. When we stopped for lunch I noticed that several bits were falling out of a tree in front of me – it was three woodpeckers. You can just see the red head of one of them in this photo.

At the top we had a hot chocolate and left Julian behind as he was camping overnight and then trekking to another area tomorrow.

It took us around 3 hours to walk down and when we got to the entrance the next bus back to the town wasn’t for another 25 minutes. Luckily a very kind truck driver offered us a lift which we accepted.

It was a really good day but I think my legs may be a bit sore tomorrow. This evening I had some more Mate tea with Caro – delicious.

Bariloche developed from a shop established by Carlos Wiederhold. The German immigrant had first settled in the area of lake llanquihue in Chile but crossed the Andes and established a little shop called la alemana. A small settlement developed around the shop, and its former site is the city center.

These photos are from right by my hostel which is by the beach – Playa Bonita. Unfortunately it’s a little bit too cold to go sunbathing.

The park is part of the Tierra del Fuego region. The name Tierra del Fuego comes from the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan who was the first European to come to this area. He saw the many fires (fuego in Spanish) of the Yaghan natives, which were visible from the sea.

The park itself is 63,000 hectares and belongs to both Argentina and Chile. It became a national park in 1960.

I met a girl, Ainhoa from Madrid but living in Canada, on the bus from Ushuaia to the park. We chatted and found out that we were both intending to do the same hikes so we decided to hike together.

Initially we went to the very end of route 3 which goes all the way from Alaska to the park.

We then did a small hike around Lapataia lake through a beech forest. The lake was really calm and you could see the reflections of the mountains and sky in the lake.

We then hiked up to the visitor centre past Laguna Negro which is a peat bog and also passed Laguna Verde.

At the visitor centre we stopped for a coffee and a sandwich before setting out on the Hito trail. This trail was a great hike through the forest around the perimeter of Laguna Acigami, to the border between Argentina and Chile. On the way we met another girl, Yana from New York but living in Santiago, who I met yesterday on the penguin trip.

It was around a 4km hike to the border and when we got to the border there was just a little sign.

You could actually pick up the sign and we did think of moving it a bit further up or down the path but thought it was probably best not to!

It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to take a little rest in the sunshine on the shore of the lake before heading back to the visitor centre. On the trek back we heard a woodpecker but we couldn’t actually see it.

During the hike we saw a couple of chimangos, which are from the falcon family, and what looked like a wild goose.

We also saw a herd of wild mustang on the drive back out of the park.

As we were leaving the weather started to get windier and colder.

When I got back home, the couple I was staying with (Laura and Dani) had some friends over so we all sat around chatting and I tried some mate tea. It’s really bitter but I actually quite liked it.

A little later the girl staying in the apartment came home. She had just been on a 10 day trip to Antartica and the photos were amazing – another trip to add to my list.

Laura and Dani have a gorgeous dog, Morita, who is really friendly and so well-behaved.

This morning I woke up and everything was frosty, it felt like being back home as it was only around 5 degrees.

Yesterday I travelled from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia which took around 12 hours, mainly in a bus but also a quick ferry ride and two stops at borders to exit Chilli and enter Argentina again. I sat next to a girl called Laura from Switzerland and we chatted quite a bit inbetween snoozing.

Today I went to see the penguins as part of an organised tour with PiraTour. We left the port at 8am and went by bus to Harberton Ranch. On the way we stopped to see the famous flag trees which have been bent into the flag shape by the strong winds.

It was then just a short drive to the ranch where we took a motorboat over to Isla Martillo.

This island is a nature reserve so only groups of a max of 25 people can visit at any one time. The island has a colony of around 12,000 Mallagenic penguins and a small colony of 80-100 Gentoo penguins. The Mallagenic penguins come to the island every year between the end of September for around 6 months to mate, raise their young and then malt before heading back to warmer climates. The young mature quickly – only taking 2 months to become independent and all the chicks have already left the island. The adults are monogamous and they dig a hole in the earth as their nest which they line with feathers and grass etc and they return to the same nest each year. You could get really close to the penguins – obviously you weren’t allowed to touch them, but they seemed perfectly happy to have people around.

We also saw the Gentoo penguins and these are slightly larger with orange beaks and feet. They seemed slightly more wary of people. These penguins stay on the island the whole time and make nests out of rocks. We were also really lucky as we got to see a pair of king penguins – these were much bigger with the distinctive colours on their chests and heads.

The island is quite large and everywhere you looked there were penguins. There were also quite a few Cormorants which are easily mistaken for penguins but can fly. We also saw albotros from the boat.

When we got back to land we went to visit the museum at the ranch which had numerous bones from a variety of marine life – it was really interesting to see the size of some of the animals and also to discover that killer whales actually have more in common with dolphins than whales.

The skull below is from a sperm whale. Up until the 1980s these whales were hunted for the oil they had in the top of their heads that enables echo location. This is now banned.

We then caught a larger boat to navigate through the beagle channel named after the HMS Beagle captained by Robert Fitzroy with Charles Darwin on board.

We stopped to have a look at the ‘end of the world’s” lighthouse on the way through. The photo on the bottom left shows were the two oceans come together.

We also stopped at a sea lion colony – the majority of the sealions were the south American variety but there were some fur sealions too.

A couple of the males had a bit of a fight over terroritory – the males have a mane, a bit like a lion.

It was an amazing trip and I’m so lucky to get so close to these animals in their natural habitat.

On the way home I wandered around Ushuaia- it’s a pretty town.

This evening I met up with Laura and we went for dinner, some delicious grilled trout, and a couple of drinks in the local Irish pub.

Today I didn’t have to get up quite so early – around 7am! I got the bus from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas which was around 4 hours.

After checking in at the hostel I decided to go and explore the town as I’m only here one day.

I walked to the town square passing several churches (Maria Auxiliadora Don Bosco, Catedral de Punta Arena) and some lovely buildings, mainly old palaces, private clubs and military buildings.

I then went to have a look at the historical clock.This is a meteorological clock that is equipped with a barometer and hygrometer (an instrument used to measure moisture content in the atmosphere) to provide meteorological information, as well as to tell the time.

I then decided to take a walk along the coast as it was nice weather- pretty windy though as seems to be the norm in Patagonia.

It was quite nice walking along the beach as there was hardly anyone else around.

I walked around 4km to the shipwreck of the Lord Lonsdale (and back again. This was an English frigate and nobody knows quite how it ended up here in Punta Arena. There is a plaque in Spanish that says: A tribute to seafarers of all nationalities who crossed the Magellanic sea and made possible the best knowledge and settlement of this region.

I walked back along the beach into town and all the way up Independence Avenue taking pictures of the monuments on the way.

In order to get a good view of the town I went to the Mirador at Cerro de la Cruz which provided a great outlook over the whole town.

I did then walk to another viewpoint but the outlook wasn’t quite so good.

I then walked back to the main square. This is a photo of another monument honoring Hernando Magellan. Apparently if you rub the bronze foot hanging down from the monument you are destined to one day return to Punta Arenas, have good luck and safe voyages!

After all that walking around I decided it was time for afternoon tea – well hot chocolate and lemon pie! It was delicious.

I chatted to a few people in the hostel, a lot of people here are from Germany so I practised a bit of German too.

In the evening I went to a lovely restaurant called La Marmita.

They had guanaco on the menu and although they are really cute I had to try it as I might never get the opportunity again. I’ve got to say it was delicious. I had a berry pisco to accompany it made with calfate berries.