Bariloche & San Martín de los Andes

After much deliberation, we decided to leave Chile on Thursday morning to head to Bariloche in Argentina. As Andrew mentioned we had considered the bus-bost trip but went for the direct bus instead - although if you looked at our route on the map it wouldn't seem to be very direct at all. Between the many lakes (it isn't called the Lake District for nothing!) and the Andes, roads in this part of the Argentina-Chile border area can be winding to say the least, although this of course makes the journey much more interesting and very beautiful.

We had reservations about going to Bariloche simply because pretty much everyone we have met has been there or is heading there, and we therefore expected it to be overcrowded. However, when we arrived there, we were very glad that we had followed the hoardes as it deserves to be as popular as it is. Its location is one of the most stunning we have seen, totally surrounded by snowcapped mountains and bordering the beautiful Nahuel Haupi lake. There is a touristy feel, but as it is not absolute peak season it wasn't overwhelming (despite a full hostel) and the many chocolate shops are a definite positive consequence of its popularity!

After a quiet night (and more steak!) on Thursday, we were ready for something a bit more adventurous on Friday so we booked for a group tour to do some hiking and kayaking. Thanks to the very unhelpful guy on reception we didn't realise that our day trip also included a drive round the area, taking in most of the viewing points of the route known as the circuito chico. This was a very welcome surprise as it is a gorgeous area.

Here are some of the photos from the day:

First we went on a chair lift up one of the local mountains, a view from the top & a view on the way back down.



During our short ramble by the lake shore, a photo showing how clear and beautiful the water is.


Next was the kayaking adventure, a shot of the 'geezas' coming back to shore, and us relaxing by one of the kayaks...



Finally after all that exercise, us chilling out by the lake shore with some cervezas


As you can see it was another hard day for us! The kayaking was in fact a little bit taxing but also loads of fun, depsite some let's say "slightly enthusiastic" English guys trying their hardest to cause as much water damage to everyone else as possible. We were all very upset that they didn't manage to fall out! We did however meet some more really nice people, and also caught up with one of the guys from the boat again. This has happened a few times, predictable I guess as there are many of us heading in the same general direction.

After all that activity we had a relaxed day on Saturday, sorting out a lot of our NZ trip amongst other things, and met up with 2 of the ferry crowd for dinner on Saturday night. We had a really good evening - probably too good in Andrew's case as getting up for our 9am bus on Sunday was a little bit of a struggle! We were moving on to San Martín de los Andes, another beautiful town a few hours further north. Just to prove that we are all stalking each other, at the next town another couple from from boat also got on our bus! We were all heading to the same hostel and spent a lovely relaxed day wandering round, admiring the views and later cooking dinner together.

The only down side was that one of the reasons we had gone to San Martín in the first place was because we had planned to do another bus/ferry combo from there to get back into Chile. It was clearly not destined to happen as we found out that the only day we could do the trip was Sunday and we'd missed the departure by about an hour! Maybe we should take the hint and give up on boats? Unfortunately this was another example of the Lonely Planet´s information being out of date - the new edition is due very soon so we really should have checked ahead. Anyway, this left us with no choice but to get back on a bus. This seemed to be a common theme as we left the other guys in San Martín also debating which incredibly long bus journey to take!

We opted to head back across the border to Púcon, which by all accounts was in another lovely area, but cursed perhaps not too quietly when we found out that would mean getting a 6am bus on Monday for another 6 hour trip. But, yes, we did it anyway! The journey from San Martin to Púcon is luckily spectacular, especially as the crossing is inside a national park - well it's technically 2 parks that seem to overlap. We especially liked the views of Lanín Volcano which seems to be almost next to the Argentina boarder. This was a good thing as we ended up waiting at that point for nearly 2 hours (never did find out why). We then had all bags scanned by Chilean customs before we were finally back in Chile, where we'll now be until we fly out of Santiago in just 10 days time...

Puerto Varas & Back into Argentina

After leaving the Navimag boat instead of staying in Puerto Montt, we decided to head to Puerto Varas on a short 20min trip north (I think it was the shortest bus journey we've made so far), as the views across the lake are supposed to be very spectacular.

Unfortunately for us the weather was very grim for our 2 days there and we didn't get to see anything except clouds and rain, though luckily during one of the rare clear patches I did get a photo of the local cathedral. Weather aside, this was definitely a very nice chilled place to stay in, the hostel (Compass del Sur) had a great homely atmosphere and one of the best stocked kitchens we've seen so far (including free herbs and seasoning!)

As the weather had not been brilliant we decided on not going with the highly recommended $170USD bus-boat-bus-boat tour to Bariloche, instead going with the $10,000CLP (about $18USD) bus journey, which took us through some amazing scenery all of its own!

Even though it is nearly summer here in the southern hemisphere, global warming seems to be playing tricks with both Argentina and Victoria getting dumps of fresh snow, enough for skiiers to continue their sport (a month and a half after the official end of the season)...

The journey to Chile, Puerto Natales and more horses...

We were relieved to wake up on Sunday not aching too much from the horse riding, as we were catching an early bus to Puerto Natales in Chile. This was a relatively short journey - about 4-5 hours, which incidentally in the UK I would have thought was a lifetime - and we realised soon enough why they didn't put a definite time on it. When we reached the Argentina-Chile border, we had a long wait to get our exit stamps before another short drive followed by a similar wait to get our Chilean entry stamps. It was interesting to note that Chile has Australia style restrictions on bringing certain foods etc into the country although their checks are nowhere near as thorough. It is of course completely understandable that they want to protect their country's wildlife, but hard to grasp how a country with such an extensive border could possibly be able to achieve this. Fair play to them for trying though.

Anyway, we didn't have any problems getting through, it just all took a bit of time and we finally reached Puerto Natales at around 2.30pm. It was incredibly cold and windy as we walked to our hostel, and we soon got the impression that this was pretty normal here. That said the day before had been windy even by Puerto Natales standards, so much so that the phone cables had all been knocked out! We wandered into town, and unlike many places we have been which seem to have very extensive opening hours, the town was dead on Sunday, which to be honest made quite a nice change. We tucked ourselves away in a small cafe for a late lunch and ended up staying there for ages as it was so grim outside. We got chatting to another English couple about many things including their plans to trek the "W" ie the most popular 4+ day circuit of the nearby Torres del Paine national park.

We had already decided not to do all of this, but still wanted to do more than a one day tour of the park. When we headed back to our hostel we spoke to the travel agent conveniently located next door, who suggested a trip involving a bus out to the park, a hop across the lake on the catamaran and an overnight stay at a refugio. This would mean heading out early on Tuesday, doing a full day trek on Wednesday and then getting back late on Wednesday night ready for our our 4 day trip from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt.

This left us a full day free on Tuesday and after a few glasses of red - yes, it's very good and cheap in Chile too - together with another English couple (hi Pete & Jo if you're reading, we'll check your blog to see how you get on up north!) we decided to do some more horse riding. This time the horses were a little less tranquilo, but still no great problem. We got into jeeps then went across to the peninsula opposite the main port on a barge, drove a bit futher into the estancia and off we went. The views were even better than those in Calafate as you can see from the photos - it really is a beautiful setting, with snow capped mountains all around. We even got to ride the horses through the lake itself, which was fun for us but probably not so great for them...

The only issue was that the horses often wanted to go faster than we did, so we did get thrown around a bit more and have the bruises to prove it...didn't help that the side of the saddle was digging into my leg for 2.5 hours as well. It was definitely worth it though, and quite funny that after years of not going near a horse we had managed to go riding twice in 3 days!

El Calafate horse riding

After our failed attempt to go horse riding in Bolivia, we finally got the chance in Argentina on Saturday. We were reassured that it was going to be OK for (at best) very out of practice riders - I hadn't been on a horse for nearly 7 years, and Andrew more like 15! Also, after my concerns about not having a helmet for riding in Bolivia, I was a little worried that there weren't any here either. The difference was, however, that the company running it seemed to have lots of experience and know exactly what they were doing so we decided to go for it.

The ride took place about 20km outside El Calafate so we were picked up from our hostel and driven out along the bumpy roads in a jeep (exactly a month after our last jeep trip, brought back some memories!). The ride took place in what seemed like a huge estancia (ranch), although we later found out that it was one of the smaller ones in the area; there is a massive amount of open space here. At the starting point we already had great views of the Lago Argentino and surrounding mountains, so were looking forward to seeing some more of the area. We were introduced to our guide and our horses, given a few pointers, then together with a couple from Madrid off we went.

I was initially concerned that the horse I had was much bigger than those I had ridden before - when I was a teengaer I used to go pony trekking in Wales, so quite a different matter! However, we were both fine and enjoyed a really relaxing few hours admiring the beautiful views. The guide and the other couple with us were lovely, and fortunately the horses were muy tranquilo ie very chilled out. We were also joined by the resident dog Colin who is quite possibly the luckiest - and healthiest - dog alive as he spends all days running through open countryside...



Afterwards we helped to set the horses free, as they are able to roam around until they are brought back to work the next day. The only was that the Spanish woman set one free which was meant to be kept back to help round up the others the next day, much to the horror of the guys who would probably would have had an earlier than usual start on Sunday! We then had a great dinner (asado, of course) in the beautifully located dining room, and admired the multi-coloured sky as the sun set. All in all, not a bad way to spend and afternoon/evening...

Me looking slightly relieved after getting off the horse in one piece!

Woodpecker

While we were sitting down to munch on our lunch at the Moreno Glacier we had the surprising visit of 2 woodpeckers, unfortunately moving too fast for me to get out the camera and take a photo..

The head of the woodpecker was an amazingly bright red colour, we both always thought that the cartoons kind of exagerated that feature, but having now seen one in the wild, maybe not...

But for your pleasure (and as proof of this experience) to the left you should see a photo of the damage a woodpecker made to one of the tall trees. I assume it was hunting for grubs/bugs, though I always wondered, how does it know where to peck?

Andrew (& Cath)

Perito Moreno Glacier

I thought we should start with a photo - don't you just love the way I've managed to find a jacket to tone with my gorgeous hat? As you can see we were pretty close to the huge glacier at this point so it was a bit cold!



Right, back to the start...

After our relaxing day on Thursday, we were for a change quite happy to get up early on Friday morning despite having a reasonably late night on Wednesday. We went out for dinner and drinks with an English girl we had met on the whale tour, and her Aussie room mate - I may have mentioned before that red wine is very cheap here! Anyway, we got on the half full bus (it is the very start of the season here) and headed out of town along a slightly rough road which is generally not used as a new one has been built. It felt good to be the only bus on the road despite heading to a major tourist destination.

We had been promised that we would see some wildflife along the way and within a short time we stopped to look at an eagle sitting on a fence right by us. We managed to get this photo just as he took off. It also gives you the chance to see the beautiful area we were passing through. it really is one of those places that photos can't sum up, but of course we took lots anyway.



We then paused for coffee at a small lodge, and were treated to some more incredible views as well as meeting the locals...



We continued through consistently stunning area until we entered the Glacier Park itself. After a drive through the increasingly beautiful park, we finally got our first glimpse of the famous glacier. Although we were still about 6km away, it was an incredibly impressive sight, and we were lucky that our tour then took us right up close to it.



We walked for about an hour and half, down onto the shore of the turquoise lake, and every now and again could see - and definitely hear - large chunks of the glacier breaking off and falling into the lake. We were also looking at it from reasonably high up and therefore getting the full impression of its size. What is even more amazing is that it is not even close to being the biggest in the area; it is just very well known because it is easy to access.

After our lunch break (we brought our own, having to economise a fair bit here as Patagonia is far from cheap) we had some time on the viewing platforms and it was only then that we became part of the larger scale tourist crowd. It didn't feel too crowded fortunately, and we were able to spend some more time admiring the activity of the glacier.



Last and in some ways least, we had a boat trip up to the face - it was fun but not as breathtaking as some of the other views as we only got to see the wal of it. Andrew did however force down a whisky on the boat - but only because it was perfectly chilled by a tiny chunk of glacier!



All in all it was a very memorable trip, another great highlight in what was turning into a fantastic week. To bring things back vague normality, we headed back to the town, bought bus tickets for Sunday and then spent a frustrating few hours trying to get more cash - cashpoints were down and the exchanges closed! We were beginning to think that we would have to spend the following day doing not very much as everything seems to cost money and there is limited use of credit cards here. However, we got it all sorted on Saturday morning, which fortunately meant that we were able to head on to the next adventure - horse riding!

Punta Tombo & Gaiman - and the road south

Still on a high from our day on Monday, despite being exhausted we decided to go for another long day trip early on Tuesday. Tours are the way to go in this area as public transport isn't always available This time we were heading to the penguin colony at Punta Tombo, and then on to the biggest Welsh town on the area, Gaiman.

Oh, and we also got to see some dolphins along the way! We had another hour on a boat and were able to see them (a type locally called tonino) jumping around us. Although this didn't have the same wow factor as the whales, probably because they move much quicker so you don't get the same feeling of closeness to them, it was still an amazing sight. As a bonus we also saw some seals swimming past us. We ended up with lots of photos of splashes, but also some pretty decent ones as you can see.




We then headed further south to see the Magellenic penguins, which are about half a metre tall. Punta Tombo is a breeding ground for half a million of them, and the largest colony outside Antartica. Again we were able to get very close to them, and in some cases able to get a glimpse of their eggs which they were carefully guarding. The males and females take it in turns to look after the eggs (usually 2 but only 1 will hatch) whilst the other goes out to sea for food. We therefore saw some especially fat penguins waddling back! They are fascinating little things, and I could have watched them playing around in the ocean and on the beach all day. It is incredible to see so many of them in one place, and the setting itself is also stunning. I´m very tempted to go back in a few weeks to see their newly hatched chicks...





After another rough ride in the minibus (roads were pretty rocky) we reached Gaiman, which was a totally strange experience. We left behind the acres of scrubland typical of the area, and suddenly found ourselves in a lush green valley! The Welsh settlers introduced new plants and crops to the area, and the town remains very different because of this. Interesting combinations of Welsh and Spanish names appear all over the place, and we also saw the original school building which has a motto in Welsh and Spanish above the door. Apparently this continues to confuse people no end as they don't realise that Welsh and English are just slightly different languages!

Unfortunatey we only had an hour or so in Gaiman, but luckily that was plenty of time to have tea in a very quaint "Welsh" teashop with some other English girls from our tour. We did try to explain to our guide Mauriccio (same guy as day before) that we don't generally have afternoon tea back in the UK, but he still seemed convinced that this was still typical of the south of England! Anyway, while in mini Wales it just had to be done and lots of delicious tea and cake later we jumped back on the bus ready to be dropped in the nearby city of Trelew to pick up our long distance bus to Rio Gallegos.




We weren't looking forward to another overnight trip, but it was seemingly the only way to get to where we wanted to be. Also it should be our last overnight bus as we are getting a ferry up through Chile next week (more about that later) and concentrating on a couple of places in Patagonia in the next week or so. We have decided aganst going to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, not only because it is really hard to pronounce (?!) but also because it would involve many more hours on buses. It is also a key departure point for Antartica, so we´ll see the very south when we go there at some unknown point in the future, ie when we win the lottery! We always knew that we wouldn't be able to do everything in the time we have, and wanted to leave ourselves enough time to see some of Chile. It is difficult to appreciate the distances involved until you get here, but there is a danger of travelling everywhere yet seeing nowhere.

Back in Trelew, we weren't pleased to hear that the bus was delayed by over 2 hours, mainly because this would mean that we'd be restricted on connections from Rio Gallegos (by all accounts not worth a stopover) to our ultimate destination El Calafate the following afternoon. Despite our concerns and several stops by the police to check passport details (no idea why!) we eventually arrived at Rio Gallegos at 3.30pm on Wednesday. We were therefore able to get a connection at 6pm arriving in El Calafate at 10pm. In other words we had a 24 hour journey, but as we finally got away from the seemingly endless miles of this:

into stunning countryside we knew that it was worth it.

Here in El Calafate we are staying in one of the nicest hostels so far and enjoying a quiet day strolling round the town, a nice little place which reminds us of a ski resort. It is also pretty cold and windy, so the fleeces etc are being well used again. Luckily it's not raining as yet so fingers crossed on that - anything can happen weather wise here! The biggest draw of the area is the Perito Moreno glacier, 80km away, which is where we're heading tomorrow. We're doing a very highly recommended alternative day trip which involves a hike away from where the usual tourist crowds congregate, viewing of the glacier from the land and then a boat ride to get up close to it. We're also hoping to do some horse riding before we head to Puerto Natales (Chile) and the Torres del Paine area on Sunday. It´s been an amazing week so far and lots more to come...

Puerto Madryn & Península Valdés

After a surprisingly comfortable 17 hours on the bus, we arrived in Puerto Madryn at lunchtime on Sunday and checked into the hostel we had pre booked. Although it is right at the start of the season, we had been advised to reserve in advance in Patagonia as reasonably priced double rooms in particular are hard to come by. For that reason we spent te first night in a dorm room. There is a great deal of tourism in the region - you'll see why in a minute - not just from foreign visitors but also from people from other parts of Argentina.

The hostel we stayed at was run by a lovely woman called Gladys. Yes, you have read that correctly. For those of you who don't know, there is a big connection with Wales in this part of the world as Welsh settlers came to here in mid 19th century because (in the words of a local guide) they had "a few problems" with the English. They were very successful, and the Welsh language and culture therefore remain very strong in the area, so much so that the recent Eisteddfod brought at least 200 people over from Wales. In Puerto Madryn itself this is not very obvious, but there are some signs; I'm sure John & Beryl will be pleased to hear that there is a Welsh tea shop there called Beryl! I opted to for some excellent seafood in favour of cream cakes - it would have been rude not to as we were only a block away from the mighty ocean.

On Monday we had an early start for our day trip out to the nearby Península Valdés wildflife sanctuary. Well, nearby by Argentina´s standards, ie 400km in a day! It was however, worth every minute in the minibus, and we were really lucky to have a great guide, Mauriccio, who really knew his stuff and kept us informed all the way. After a brief stop in the museum at the peninsula's entrance, we went on to see elephant seals, sealions, a few penguins, the local type of llama called Guanacos - and last and best of all whales.

It was an absolutely amazing day, especially seeing the whales get right up to our boat, as neither of us had seen them up close before. At one point there were five of them swimming around as well as under the boat. Suffice to say, it was one of the big highlights of the trip so far - I'll let the photos say the rest...

Argentinean BBQ (Asado)

Just a couple of quick photos to describe the wonderful Argentinean institution of Asado (more commonly known to us english speakers as a BBQ!), first though you should see to your left a lovely photo of myself doing some posing with a Tango dancer in La Boca (as promised in an earlier post).. :-)

Before I go to far into this post I should warn you that some of the photos below are of a serious amount of raw cow (just for you Ryan).. So if you don't like that you might want to just move on and read about our time in Puerto Madryn...






A huge thanks to the wonderful Nancy and Pancho for inviting us to their family Asado where we got to try some wonderful slow cooked (an hour to cook that real big hunk of cow) meat, was delicious! I do have to say that we have only had one bad bit of steak here in Argentina, which is great for the taste-buds but not so great for the waistline...

Oh and I do have to add that I have now found the type of BBQ that we are going to build into our backyard (well, when we eventually get one), love the fact its also on a winch so you can easily control the heat being applied. :-)

Anyways without to much more random stuff, here's the photos, enjoy!

Clases de Español

Well after completing 10 hours of spanish lessons (paid for a class, ended up I was the only one in it! Bargain at 300ish pesos), I can now say that I am not fluent in spanish. However I can say that my understanding of spoken & written spanish has improved a hell of a lot (me speaking spanish still leaves a lot to be desired though). The best part is that I'm more comfortable in picking up new words, particularly as I've got a basic understanding of sentence structure and link words (I still stuff it up when I try and put a sentence together, but I mostly understand when I hear it)

One of the best things about having done these lessons, is that when a native speaker finds out that I don't speak spanish but am trying to learn, I now get more out of their improptu lessons :-) Though that said I have noticed an interesting aspect of learning another language, I'm not sure if its just me, but I don't think so..

In essence it is that when people have long conversations or there is a reasonably long bit of text (say in a museum or newspaper article) that I actually have the most understanding, when a short sentence is used (in conversation or on a display) I need to know 1 specific key word being used to understand the whole sentence... Whereas in a long conversation there is usually a running theme where the topic is usually repeated multiple times, but in different ways. Meaning that I, with my limited spanish vocabulary am more likely to understand 1 of those 3 ways that you used, I can then put into context the other words and hopefully recognise them the next time they are used.

It's just something I've noticed in trying to learn more spanish, that I want people to do the opposite of what you (and I include myself in this) do when you meet someone who doesn't speak your language, you use shorter sentences, this only helps when the person knows that specific key word. If you use a longer sentence I seem to have a better chance...

Of course this only helps when I understand at least one or two of the words in that longer sentence, if I don't know any of them I'm still stuffed. For that I've got my lonely planet phrase book (which I'm studying during these long bus journeys!) and of course the fluent Cath (who I keep bugging with "¿Como se dice ...?", "¿Qué significa ...?")

Ok, I didn't really know what to say about learning Spanish, but I guess there was something... Hopefully it made sense, if not I'll try and use fewer words :-)

Where are we?

Just a quick follow on, we're currently in Puerto Madryn (about 17hrs South of Buenos Aires) have been out to see the whales and off to see the half a million penguins tomorrow. Should have some spectacular pictures to upload in a couple of days!

Take care,
Andrew (& Cath)

Buenos Aires photos part 1

Some of the many Plaza San Martin hearts :-)


Evitas´ tomb & the ornate cemetery



At the fútbol :-D


Casa Rosada

Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

La Boca - el caminito

Cath with Nancy and Pancho 's brilliantly named dog - Lennon!

Us with the family (and delicious ice cream!)