Grant

Bariloche - a little slice of Europe in the middle of Argentina

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel 1 Response »

Sep 122010

After spending a few days relaxing and sleeping in at El Calafate it was time to leave and head to our next destination, Bariloche. We decided to take a hit to the wallet and fly from El Calafate to Bariloche, saving about 3 days worth of bus travel in the process.

Bariloche is pretty much about two things in winter, chocolate and skiing, both of which are pretty decent quality. The main street in the city centre is lined with outdoor and chocolate shops, I’m a bit of a gear head so I was heading for the outdoor shops, Gen on the other hand wanted to have chocolate and ice cream for every meal. The chocolate shops, snow coverd mountains and the local architecture all help to give Bariloche a European feel, having never been to Europe it’s kinda what I picture the Swiss Alps to be like, some of the local restaurants even sold fondue.

Bariloche main square complete with posing St Bernard

Mmmmmm chocolate

Ice cream headache!!!!

There seemed to be a bit going on in Bariloche when we arrived, nobody could really tell us exactly what it was all about, maybe Bariloche’s birthday, none the less there was a big concert and fireworks in the main square one night and a wood chopping competition during the day. Unlike the wood chopping back home the competitors weren’t 60 year old men wearing white tracksuits and Dunlop Volleys, here they didn’t really look like wood choppers at all, addidas track pants and a t-shirt seemed to be the order of the day. It’s also the first wood chopping competition I’ve seen someone take a half time break for a rest and some water. David Foster would have torn the competition to shreds.

I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal. People know me

Our hostel in Bariloche was an definatley different to anything else we had stayed in so far, rather than a big HI hostel it was a smaller hostel with only a few dorm and double rooms. Our first night was in a pretty small double room but after that we were moved to the top level to a room with an awesome view of the lake.

Enjoying a local Cerveza on our private balcony

A wild day on the lake

El Calafate - random photos

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel No Responses »

Sep 122010

Here are a few random photos from El Calafate taken from a days walk around El Calafate. We had intended to go ice skating on a section of the lake that freezes over in winter but the warmer weather and rain meant that the lake wasn’t frozen enough for skating.

Gen being stalked by some of the local dogs....it was normally me being followed

The guys from pimp my ride have obviously had a go at this scooter, it even has a sound system.

El Calafate's no.1 night club

El Chalten, treking capital in summer, ghost town in winter

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel 5 Responses »

Aug 192010

El Chalten is about 3hrs bus ride from El Calafate, it is billed as Argentina´s treking capital…in summer anyway. Our day started in a bit of a rush with us running the streets of El Calafate in the dark to catch our 8am bus (sunrise isn´t until around 10am) after a bit of a mix up with our ATM cards. First stop for the bus arriving in El Chalten was the national park information centre, it was here we got our first sense that things might be a bit quiet inwinter. The ranger informed us that due to many places being closed for winter there would be many dogs roaming the streets, all wanting someone to take them for a walk. Thing is the dogs aren´t allowed in the national park so we were told to do whatever was nessesary to stop them following us on any walks, throw stones at them etc (bit harsh really). On arrival at the El Chalten bus station we were to be met by somebody from the cabins we were to be staying in, after waiting for over an hour and calling the place with no response we decided we had better investigate other options. As we were to find out much of El Chalten shuts down over winter as many of the popular walking trails get closed because of the snow. Fortunatley we were able to find a backpackers that was open, the view from our dorm room (which we had to ourselves) window was easily worth whatever we were paying.

Sunset from our dorm room in El Chalten (hand held with ND grads)

Due to most of the town being closed we re-evaluated how long we had planned to stay in El Chalten and decided we´d stay one night, that gave us enough time to do a couple of the walks that were still open. After we had sorted our accomodation issues we headed out to see the Chorrillo Del Salto waterfall on the outskirts of town.

Gen enjoying a bit of winter sunshine

The following day we were up in time to see the 10am sunrise, of course this meant sleeping in until 9:30am. Over night the slushy snow from the day before had re-frozen and turned the track to Laguna Capri, our destination for the day, into an ice skating track. It took me about 5 minutes to work out that my well worn shoes weren´t really up to the task of walking on ice, Gen´s new shoes weren´t that much better. Walking in the soft snow at the edge of the track and getting wet feet suddenly seemed like a much better option than doing a face plant on some icy steps.

The wet feet and early morning start were well worth it when we arrived at the viewpoint above Laguna Capri to an awesome view which we had all to ourselves.

Mt Fitz Roy

Mt Fitz Roy from Laguna Capri

Luckily for us the nice day not only provided brilliant views, it also meant there was enough sunshine to soften the hard snow and ice so we weren´t sliding back down the track on our backsides. Amazingly we managed to do the entire walk without either of us falling over a feat worthy of a high five moment at the end of the trail. Unfortunatley the camera wasn´t fast enough for our lightening fast high five reflexes so a photo of El Chalten from the track will have to suffice.

El Chalten

Torres del Paine

Argentina, Chile, Patagonia, Travel 1 Response »

Aug 142010

Torres del Paine National Park or Parque Nacional Torres del Paine is in Chilean Patagonia, approximatley 112km Chilean Town of Puerto Natales. Fortunatley for us there were day tours avaliable from El Calafate to Torres del Paine as we hadn´t really planned on going too far into the Chilean side of Patagonia. We were originally in two minds about doing the tour as it was more expensive than other tours we had done so far ($350 AR) and we were taking a bit of a punt on the weather being good…we were so glad that we did though because it was awesome. You could easily spend a couple of days there taking photos and just chilling out looking at the view, or alternativley completing the circuit which takes you around the base of the main range and up into the moutains.

Our day started at 5:30am when the van collected us from our hostel in El Calafate, the staff at the hostel looked after us and had put breakfast out very early. The drive was not particularly comfortable as the van was almost full and we were the last pickup, this meant that I ended up in a middle seat without a head rest, the only way I could get any rest was to rest my bag on my lap and lean my head on it. We reached the Argentinean side of the border around 9:20am, the whole process went pretty quickly, we had to present our bags for inspection at the Chilean side as you aren´t allowed to take fruit, vegies, meat etc across the border. By 10am we were back on the road (in a different, more comfortable van, we changed at the border) headed for Sarmiento Lake to take in the view of Cordillera del Paine, the main mountain range within the Torres del Paine National Park.

Cordillera del Paine from Sarmiento Lake

From there it was back in the van to head to the park entry point to pay our $16 USD entry fee. Along the way we stopped to take some photos of some Guanacos grazing at the side of the road. The Guanaco is a member of the lama family and is native to much of South America.

Guanacos grazing at the side of the road

A few minutes before we reached the park entry point we stopped at Laguna Amarga to take in another view of Cordillera del Paine, this was one of our last opportunitiesto take in the view of the most famous part of the Cordillera del Paine the Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine) as these cannot be seen from the roads within the park. The day was so perfect that in the time we were at the viewpoint at Laguna Amarga the few small ripples that were on the lake dissapeared leaving a mirror like reflection of the mountains in the Laguna.

Cordillera del Paine reflected in Laguna Amarga (Torres del Paine in centre of main range)

Further into the park we stopped at a couple of other viewpoints and then we stopped for a short walk at Pudeto to check out the view across the small frozen lake. Our guide also demonstrated that skipping rocks across the frozen lake made a really cool sound that hopefully we captured on video. Our walking route also took us past the Salto Grande waterfall which got me thinking about paddling when we get to Canada, as everyone was checking out the view I was trying to get close enough to the falls to see if there was a line over them.

Gen taking in the view at Torres del Paine

Salto Grande waterfall

From here it was further into the park towards the park administration, interestingly the administration building is a former farmhouse from the days before the area was a national park. After visiting the park administration and getting a stamp in our passports it was back into the van for the long trek back to El Calafate. We left three people at the Chilean border as they were continuing to Puerto Natales, at least one of them was catching a 3 day boat up to Puerto Montt in Chile. Had we known that this was only $300 USD we probably would have done it as well but we already had flights booked to Bariloche from El Calafate….oh well we can do that when we come back to go walking.

Glaciar Perito Moreno

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel 1 Response »

Aug 132010

Glaciar Perito Moreno is located about 80km from El Calafate, we organised a tour from our hostel, I believe you can also get to the glacier via a local bus which is probably cheaper. The tour went pretty smoothly apart from an unscheduled stop at the edge of Lago Argentino while we waited for another bus because something had gone wrong with our original one.Once the new bus had arrived we headed off for the glacier stopping at a “viewpoint” as they call it along the way.

Hmmm..I think the bus might be about to catch fire

Passing time while waiting for the new bus

The glacier is special because it is advancing at a rate of around 2 meters a day, this means that you can watch and listen to chunks of ice falling off the front of the front of the glacier into Lago Argentina below. There is a network of walkways and lookouts around the front of the glacier to allow you to view it from various different angles.

The glacier is huge, the front is around 5km wide and 74m high

As part of the tour we were given the option of taking short boat ride to the front of the glacier to get a view of it from a different angle. We didn´t really get as close up as I thought we might but it was still good to see, I guess it was due to the risk of a chunk of ice falling off and hitting the boat or sinking it with the tidal wave it creates.

View from lake level

El Calafate

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel No Responses »

Aug 132010

After all the wildlife action in Puerto Madryn it was time to head further south into Patagonia, first stop El Calafate.

To get to El Calafate we took an 18hr bus from Puerto Madryn to Rio Gallegos, from there we caught another smaller bus to El Calafate. Waiting for the bus in Puerto Madryn (it was 2hrs late) in itself provided a bit of excitement. While we were sitting outside one of the loaded coaches at the bus station started driving forward even though it didn’t have a driver. Something had malfunctioned on the bus and it drove itself into a pillar about 2 meters away from where we were sitting, showering us and our stuff in glass as the windscreen imploded.

Glad we weren´t catching this bus

Next thing the police arrived and started taking statements off people, the local ambulance even showed up even though nobody was injured. A local who’s camera phone wasn’t working must have seen me taking a picture because he came and gave me a piece of paper with his name and email address so I could send him the photos. A short time after all the excitement our bus finally showed up, this time we were travelling Semi Cama…or poverty class, much less comfortable than the Cama class we had been traveling

El Calafate is a town of approximatley 20 000 people, its grown to this number from about 5 000 a few years ago due to increased tourism. The town is central to a number of glaciers but the main attraction is Glaciar Perito Moreno. On arrival we decided we´d throw our packs on our back and walk to our hostel which was only a short distance from the centre of the town. What should have been reasonable length walk became a bit painful when we showed up at the hostel we had booked and they informed us that they were closing for a few days and that our booking had been moved to their other hostel. No problem we could see the new hostel, it didn´t look that far away…except we couldn´t walk in a direct line, we had to walk back down the hill we had just come up and up another street. In the end the new hostel was an upgrade over the one we had originally booked so the walking was worth it.

Gen crossing the main bridge in El Calafate

Photos...or lack there of

Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Aug 052010

Unfortunately one of the downsides of opting to travel through South America without a laptop of some form is the need to use the desktops in the hostels where we are staying, not wifi. This doesn´t really give enough time in front of a pc to upload photos, especially when the connection is slow. So for now most posts are text only, will add photos to them when we get somewhere with a faster internet connection. For now here is one taken at Torres del Paine.

Gen taking in the view at Torres del Paine

Peninsula Valdes

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel No Responses »

Aug 052010

The day after we arrived in Puerto Madryn we joined another backpacker from the hostel for a tour to Peninsula Valdes where we would be able to go out on a boat to get up close to the whales. Our tour guide Fernando somehow managed to navigate his way around in what looked more like a small high roof delivery van than a tour bus. Large cracks in the window of your car or bus seem to be accepted practice around here, even if the crack extends from one side of the car to the other. Fernando had pretty reasonable english, a good knowledge of the local area and a keen eye for spotting different animals as we were driving between our main stops which helped to keep us awake during the drive back to Puerto Madryn.

Peninsula Valdes is a bit of a wildlife hub with numerous different species of land and sealife calling it home at different times of the year. Our first stop on the way to Peninsula Valdes was a gravel beach 16km out of town where the beach drops away pretty quickly making it nice and safe for mothers to nurse their calves without risk of beaching, the whales are only 15 to 20 meters off shore here, you can hear them clearing their blowhole from the shore as they come up for air.

A further 115km and we´d arrived in the town of Punta Piramides on Peninsula Valdes, the town is given its name from the pyramid shaped rock on the south western side of the bay. Punta Piramides is the base for the whale watching boats on Peninsula Valdes. There are a number of operators here but they are restricted to having one boat on the water at a time, only six boats may be out at any one time, private boats aren´t allowed in this area so the only way you can see the whales is with one of the licenced operators. The system of getting into your boat then into the water involved elaborate trailers extended draw bars, stairs and platforms to allow you to climb into the boat. Once everyone is on board they back the trailer into the water with a big tractor.

Gen and stunning orange fashion accessory

Within about 10 minutes the boat had found a whale just around the point from the town, we watched this one for a few minutes then the driver decided to go and find one that was more interested in the boat. Southern Right whales are very inquisitive, one of the reasons they were so easy for the whalers to hunt back in the day. One of the guides on the boat had excellent english and was able to tell us facts like the Southern Right whale has the biggest testicles of all mammals. While looking for another whale we spotted one broaching in the distance, unfortunately it had stopped by the time we got there but was still happy to hand around the boat for a while. The next two whales we saw were very interested in the boat, coming close enough that the spray from their blowhole blew into the boat. Before we knew it an hour and a half had passed and it was time to return to shore.

From Punta Piramides Fernando drove us around the peninsula to stop at an elephant seal colony and to have a look at some of the other wildlife, including an armadillo in one of the car parks. Then it was the long drive back to Puerto Madryn.

Puerto Madryn

Argentina, Patagonia, Travel No Responses »

Jul 302010

Following on in this series of catch up posts about our journey so far, after taking in the sights of Iguazu and taking a day to chill out and book some of our onward journey we headed to Puerto Madryn our first stop in Patagonia.

To get to Puerto Madryn we needed to take another 19 hour overnight bus back to Buenos Aires, this we had already booked as an BA-Iguazu-BA journey from our first hostel. From BA we then had a 5hr wait before we boarded the 18 hour overnight bus to Puerto Madryn. Hours spent on bus so far – 56. Now of all places to start getting what I´ll term TD (look it up traveler´s d….) a eighteen hour bus ride isn´t the place, especially when there is a sign above the toilet saying reserved for liquids only. I blame the buffet at the Iguazu hostel. It was on this journey I developed a dislike for overnight bus travel, fortunately Gen was still in perfect health and as with the other bus rides managed to get a few hours sleep.

There's a whale there...can't you see it?

Puerto Madryn´s main draw card at this time of year is whales, Southern Right whales to be exact. When we checked in at the hostel the guy behind the desk told us if we went to the main pier we would see whales, if we went to a particular beach we would also see whales. Walking into town we were a little skeptical that he could make such a guarantee as you´d struggle to find even commercial whale watching operations in Australia that would make such a promise. As we found out the hostel guy was telling the truth and we didn´t even have to walk out on the pier to see our first whale out in the bay, they could be easily spotted from the main promenade.

Gen scanning the bay for whales

After a stroll on the main pier we headed 3km around the bay to the southern point to check out the Ecocentre which had some information about the southern oceans, a small token pool with some live weeds, grasses, slugs and crabs and plenty of information about the local sea life.

Playa Hotel - Puerto Madryn...clearly it's where all the playa's is at

Iguazu

Argentina, Travel 1 Response »

Jul 272010

After our short stay in Buenos Aires we were pretty keen to get out of the city and see some of the natural scenery Argentina has to offer, first stop Iguazu Falls or Cataratas del Iguazú in Spanish.

The Iguazu Falls are located in the north eastern corner of Argentina, near the town of Puerto Iguazú, a nineteen hour overnight bus ride from Buenos Aires (I´ll post about these buses later). They are shared between Brazil and Argentina, Argentina gets the up close views of the falls and Brazil gets the panoramic view of all the falls. Iguazu consists of some 275 waterfalls cascading from a plateau into the one valley.

Most of the falls are somewhere between 60 and 80 meters high. They are accessed via a small train and system of paths and walkways that allow you to see the falls from above and below.

The main attraction is the Devil’s Throat a large u shaped section of the falls approximately 7oo meters long and 150 meters wide descending 82 meters into the river valley below. The Devil´s Throat is accessed via a long walkway that crosses over the Iguazu River to bring you right to the Devil´s Throat so you can feel the awesomeness up close, it is perhaps more awesome if you refer to it via the Spanish name of Garganta del Diablo.

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Grant

Bariloche - a little slice of Europe in the middle of Argentina

El Calafate - random photos

El Chalten, treking capital in summer, ghost town in winter

Torres del Paine

Glaciar Perito Moreno

El Calafate

Photos...or lack there of

Peninsula Valdes

Puerto Madryn

Iguazu

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