In the last month, we’ve quit our jobs, put everything into storage and bid our families a bittersweet goodbye. We’ve visited Christ the Redeemer, stumbled through old cobblestone streets and biked the Uruguayan coast. We’ve met people from all over the world, danced tango in a BA nightclub till 6am and we’ve attempted to learn Spanish. After hiking in the Andes and spending a week in a tiny, cute cabin, we’re ready to move on yet again. Tomorrow we’ll be leaving the tiny chocolate box town of La Cumbrecita in search of the delicious wine tasting, snow-capped mountains and gold bearing rivers on offer further south. That’s right, I said gold-bearing rivers – Joel’s a river panning expert these days, inspired by the collection of tiny garnets he found while we were hiking in the foothills of the Andes.

We returned from the mountains on Monday, renting a cabin on the river’s edge for the week so we could sit still, catch up on work and relax. Hiking and camping was incredible – we came across a group of local Argentinians who we became fast friends with, bonding over our love of the wilderness and a good steak. We camped with them in a tiny valley bordered by huge, boulder-strewn cliffs and a pretty river. Over the ridge behind the valley was one of the most stunning waterfalls we’ve ever seen – 3 tiers and about 200metres of rushing water sandwiched between several sheer rock faces. Shrouded in mist most days and with the odd eagle circling overhead, it was made all the more magical by how difficult it was to reach and how we had it all to ourselves.

Our days in the mountains passed in a blur of panning for garnets (Joel), reading (me) and practicing our Spanish with our new Argentinian friends. Our resident camp dog, Floyd, was a real character; bounding up and down rock faces on every hike we went on, he was the fittest dog I’ve ever seen. Floyd was made all the cuter by the doggy pack he wore during the hike in & out – packed full of his biscuits & rug, he seemed to enjoy having the little backpack strapped to him. We indulged in huge barbeques of Argentinian beef, Malbec and dulce de leche every night with our new friends; but the challenging hikes we went on every day made up for it. After not washing properly for days, the first hot shower I had when we arrived at the cabin was pure bliss.

Here’s an overview of our first month on the road – our favourite memories, places and people; as well as the things we weren’t so impressed with.

Best place: La Cumbrecita, hands down. The autumn colours, high mountains and friendly locals had us from day one; as did the locally made sausages, log cabins and delicious German cheese. We’ve spent two weeks here and could easily stay for months.

Favourite memories: Hiking in to the wilderness of the Andes with new local friends in La Cumbrecita, standing atop Sugarloaf mountain and watching the sun set over Rio de Janeiro (Joel). Watching the crazy Fuerza Bruta show in Buenos Aires, staying in a 300-year old mansion in Paraty, lying in bed in our Cumbrecita cabin eating Dulce de Leche while watching shooting stars (Alli).

Favourite people: Mauricio, a local Argentinian we hiked into the mountains with. Orlando, who took us on an awesome tour of Rio de Janeiro.  Tania from Canada, who we met in BA and who has the best dance moves I’ve ever seen.

Food: Argentinian BBQ’s, hands down. Cooked slowly over hot coals they make meat amazingly smoky, tender and delicious. We’re also (quite obviously) obsessed with Dulce de Leche.

Worst place: Probably Uruguay. Although we loved our little house there and the day we spent cycling to the fort, we found it to be a bit of a *blah* place to visit.

 Worst memory: Easy – when we went without sleep for 44 hours after an overnight bus and then the airline messing up our flight in Brazil. 2^nd place goes to the prices in Brazil; we would dread going out for dinner because it was just so darn hard to find anything in our budget worth eating.

Worst meal: Most of Uruguay, except for when we were cooking for ourselves. Joel’s pigeon meal was horrific.

In the next month we’ll be finishing our time in Argentina, heading north to Peru to meet mum in Cuzco (yippee!) We’re planning on hiking to the base of Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Americas, before heading north to the vineyards of Cafayate and on to the deserts of Salta and San Pedro de Atacama (Chile). The past month has helped us to realise that we’d rather see less places but spend more time in them, so we’ll try to travel slow.

It’s our last night in La Cumbrecita (sob), so we’re off to buy meat and wine for a final Argentinian BBQ outside our cabin. We’re definitely going to miss this place.