Choosing to travel South America as part of our round-the-world trip was always abit of a wildcard choice - neither of us knew heaps about what it had to offer, but we'd heard amazing reviews from friends, and had a fancy for the unknown.
Infact, Argentina was the only SA country I'd previously thought about visiting, I think for three reasons: It's the steak capital of the world; its football-mad; and, unsure of how or when it started, I've had ambitions to conquer the far-flung wilderness of Patagonia .
I got to tick all three of the bucket list, and each surpassed expectations.
But, fitting with the "good things come to those who wait' saying, we certainly did our fair share of waiting - on overpriced, and often underwhelming, buses. (To be exact, more than 110 hours - or four and a half days - on the bloody things)
Sidenote - why are there no trains in South America?!
Anyway, we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, after a 17-hour overnight bus from the stunning Foz waterfalls.
As is now customary when we arrive into a capital city, we signed up for the popular 'free' walking tours (you pay the guide a tip at the end).
The first tour took us around the main architectural sites of the city, and included a fascinating insight into Argentina's turbulent, and utterly crazy, economic history (this article has a pretty comprehensive overview, if you're interested).
The second tour introduced us to the colour-splattered neighbourhood of La Boca, known as the birthplace of tango. Dancers still perform on the cobbled streets, stuffed with arty locals selling their handiwork.
But enough wandering, time to tick off the bucket list .. First up was the steak, with an amazing Argentinian BBQ at our hostel, before tucking into some of the biggest steak I've ever seen at the fancy Don Julio restaurant, a couple of days later.
It's supposed to be one of the fanciest meat restaurants in BA (and still only cost £50 for both of us), and we purposely didn't book because we heard you got free champagne and canapés while you wait for a table.
We also got seated at the bar next to the sizzling BBQ - a prime spot to see the four chefs in action.
Next off the list was attending a football match in Argentina. We managed to order some tickets off Viagogo for Riverplate versus bottom-of-the-league Chacarita Juniors.
After arriving at a noodle restaurant to pick up our tickets, we joined four others foreigners also waiting, and headed to the stadium.
After passing FIVE security checks we made it into the huge, but seen-better-days, stadium to find our tickets were, unintentionally, among the 'Ultras' (the hardcore supporters).
As kick-off neared the crumbling stands began to tremble with the raucous bawling, and jumping up-and-down, of Riverplate fans.
The row of policemen behind the goal could only look on as flares were fired into the night sky, before a huge band appeared and raised the noise up another notch. Despite a pretty poor 1-1 scoreline, the fans didn't stop singing.
It was incredible, if slightly unnerving at times - especially when the stadium erupted after Riverplate opened the scoring.
We had just enough time to learn a step or two of tango, and watch a traditional show, before we said goodbye to one of our favourite capitals so far.
Patagonia was calling.
Another overnight bus (this one 19-hours) got us to the wildlife haven of Puerto Madryn.
Although it was just out of whale-watching season (apparently you can see the mega mammals from the shore) we did get to snorkel with sea lions - waiting just metres from a huge colony, as the inquisitive animals swam up to us, some pups even getting within touching distance.
We didn't see as many close-up as we would have liked, but it was an amazing experience.
Next day we took a tour to see the huge colony of Magellanic penguins wandering down walkways and playing on the beach.
We also stopped at the Welsh town of Gaiman on the way back. (A group of Welsh people who felt their traditions were being stifled by the English settled in Patagonia back in 1865 to create a 'new Wales')
And some of the nearby towns still honour their ancestors' traditions - such as tea and cakes, and speaking the language. But after revealing her Welsh heritage, Freya found out that the Welsh mixed with Spanish is a little hard to understand.
Another 22 hour bus journey took us from the slighty-sunny, middle of the east coast, into the country's freezing cold and blustery south west, and deep Patagonia at El Calafate. (Although the arid yellow-bush scenery hardly changed for the whole way).
The main attraction, the Perito Moreno glacier, was phenomenal - think George RR Martin's 'colossus 'Wall' brought to life.
The electric-blue glacier is around 19 miles long, with an average height of over 70 metres above the water. It's also one of the only glaciers which is actually advancing, rather than retreating.
Despite this, huge chunks of ice regularly crashed into the sea with a booming crack that echoed around your ears like rumbling thunder.
(Point in case: Just a few days earlier these blocks were joined in a massive ice bridge)
Next was a day trip across the Chile border into the Torres Del Paine national park.
Lots of people do four-day walks here, but we didn't have enough time - and instead were whizzed around the main sites - sparkling blue lakes, jagged mountain peak viewpoints - via bus.
It was bloody freezing, with winds that nearly blew us over, so we were pretty pleased to hop on and off.
We then moved up the border to the hiking hotspot of El Chalten. After a short walk to a viewpoint of the tourist-fuelled town, the following day we set off on the 22km, eight-hour trek around Fitz Roy mountain.
The bulk of the walk was pretty easy going, with occasional stops to whet our appetite with stunning views of the peaks.
But the final 1 kilometre was so steep we were, at times, on all fours scrambling over huge rocks (the last kilometre scales over 400 metres). But it was worth every bead of sweat.
Trudging through the pristine white snow, the magnificent peaks rise into view - reflected in the twinkling-green Los Tres laguna. It's almost looks too perfect to be true.
Another bus journey - our longest yet at 24 hours, and the worst with water dripping onto us for 10 hours of the journey - took us to the lake district of Bariloche.
We sampled amazing panoramic views of the town after a steep walk up Cerro Campanorio, and also walked round the lush national park area of Llao Llao, with a few well-deserved cervezas (beers) at the Patagonia Brewery.
We hired a car for our final day in the pretty town to drive the famous Route of the Seven Lakes.
Having had our fill of buses, we found a budget flight to Argentina's wine capital Mendoza - and headed back to warmer climes after saying goodbye to blustery Patagonia.
The town is famed for its red wines - particularly its Malbecs - and we hired bikes to cycle around the area's many wineries.
It wasn't quite as idyllic as we imagined, having to share pretty narrow, but busy roads with smoke-vomiting lorries. But the wine stops were pretty cool - with a taster set of three wines costing about £4.
Our favourite was the Trapiche winery, one of the country's oldest winemakers.
After taking a tour through the stunning, Italian-Renaissance-like winery, we got to try its produce on the balcony overlooking the Andes.
We also bought a couple of bottles of the amazing sparkling wine for a later date.
The beauty, and sheer hugeness, of Patagonia meant we spent a little longer than planned in Argentina (and it totally blew our budget), but what an incredible country. All I hoped for, and more.
Next up, Chile!
