I thought it was about time that I let you know exactly what I`ve been up to on my very hectic travels, and I know some of you are pretty frustrated about not hearing from me, sorry. I`m really unbelievably excited about going to Brasil as I`ve heard so much about it from all the other people travelling we`ve met in the hostels. Gonna be weird travelling with just one person though after so much time in a big group. What we`re planning is to go to this big nature reserve place first after Iguazu, can`t remember the name, then on to Rio and possibly afterwards up to Salvador. This is a bit doubtful as it`s sooooooo far up the coast and don`t know if I can handle travelling the length of two countries! Anyway, about where I`ve been so far, what I`ve been up to and with who... Bariloche, all 15 of us met up for a few days in the most idyllic place in Argentina to do some hard-core skiing and tours of the lakes, along with a BIG party to celebrate 2 people`s birthdays. Had such an amazing time. The skiing was a big nightmare unfortunately because the snow cover was terrible. The whole of Argentina has had a pretty crazy winter apparently, luke warm temperatures and little snow, which is something they`ve never had before, so in some ways we`ve been lucky and in others really not. The pistes in Bariloche were just completely icy, and there were no "easy" slopes as they are always lower down the mountain, where this year there`s literally no snow! I had an embarassing time trying to ski down the blue (and red!!!) slopes for two days, but maybe "skiing" isn`t the right word! However, just being able to see lakes and forests surrounding us in the distance while skiing made it all worth it. I actually had one ski lesson the second day, which I loved, and definitely think I`ve caught the skiing bug now3 and want to learn properly, despite spending most of the 2 days on my bum!

After Bariloche, which is by the way the chocolate capital of Argentina and also a lovely little town which feels a lot like Switzerland and has a famous square where you can have your picture taken with big gorgeous St Bernard dogs, 5 of us started travelling South. First though, me Jennie and Karen had to cross over to Chile so we could renew our visas. We spent one single day there, in the pouring rain, in a town called Puerto Varas, which I know would be a great place to see in Summer, but in Winter apparently never sees the sun due to constant rain. Strangely I felt really homessick for Argentina that one day, and was desperate to get back, so we got ourselves to El Bolson. This is a lush little town in the mountains which is a bit of a hippy hangout as it is dominated by an enormous mountain that looms over the town on the East, and which is said to be one of the earth`s main energy centres. I definitely felt more relaxed and at ease while I was there, so I think the stories about the mountain are true, especially as it was pouring with rain the whole time we were there too. After that we all bused a couple of hours to Esquel, further South, where one of my students lives. It`s a bigger place but there still wasn`t a lot to do there as far as going out at night`s concerned. The best thing about the South is all the national parks, theres so much open space it feels really tranquil. I wouldn`t want to live there as you feel a bit like you`re in the middle of nowhere but I`m definitely jealous that all the people have a national park on there doorstep. Julio, my student, was back there for his winter hols from uni so he took us for a drive to his favourite spots in the park where he and his friends go in the summer: little waterfalls and woods. Really lush. He also drove us with his friends to Trevelin, one of the Welsh towns in Patagonia, which was pretty dull actually, a big tourist trap where there are few actual Welsh speakers left. We cheered ourselves up after that day by finding a bar and place to dance to Cumbia all night with Julio and his buddies!

Next we made an absolutely evil journey across the country and back so we could get to El Calafate, right down in the coldest part of the South, where you can drive for hours, whole days even, without seeing anything but flat dusty or snowy plains, not a single tree or person. We basically travelled for two days to get there as there are so few buses in the South, but it was worth it to see the Perito Moreno glacier. I`ve never seen anything so enormous and breathtaking. For anyone who doesn`t know, it`s one of the very few glaciers that`s actually still moving forward, so in the boat trip you get up really close to the glacier and if yoù`re lucky you see big chunks of ice falling off into the lake. I think I got a pretty good picture of one. I loved the South but was glad to get back to a more populated area when we went up the East coast to Puerto Madryn. It was really sunny there and less expensive, felt like a seaside town, with a great seaside promenade like in Teignmouth, and there were crowds of people there eating icecream etc by the sea. I loved it and thought doing the bike ride along the coast the first day was the best bit of our stay there. It really felt like summer the weather was so good. The second day we paid an extortionate amount to go on an excursion to the nature reserve on the mini island thingy off the coast. We saw amazing whales there which swam right up to the boat, but other than that we were there at completely the wrong time of year, so couldn`t see the sealions or anything.

We`ve now been in beautiful Buenos Aires for almost a week and there`s so much to do here I could stay here at least another week! The weather for a nice change has been fantastic, really sunny and freakishly warm. We`ve done all the sightseeing things and been able to explore more of the city in general. I'm still really shocked at how huge and fastmoving the place is, but have been getting myself about really well on the subte. We`ve also had a few really good nights out in some fancy BA nightclubs, where we`ve had to fight to get in as some of the guys we were with were`nt wearing suits! I won`t go into details now about all the sights, just say that I`m really panicked about getting everything done here in the next two days before we leave on Sunday night, eg. seeing a tango show, shopping....