Our first activity was to visit the Iguazu falls from the Argentinian side. There were quite a few lovely walks that afforded more close up looks of the falls and also took you above them. The power of the water was more obvious and you could get the spray in places. We were surprised how a day of rain transformed the color of the water to a rust brown as well. In the park, we saw more quatis as well as monkeys and a bucket load of tourists!
A day and a half's drive took us to Buenos Aires, aptly known as the 'Paris of South America', where we spent a busy 4 nights. We were impressed with the European style architecture, parks and relaxed feel. By night, we enjoyed steak dinners, red wine, a Tango show, a drumming show and 'Fuerte Bruta', a creative show with crazy effects like people harnessed up and running around the walls and swimming above us to music. It is hard to describe but was unlike any other performance we'd been to.
By day, we wondered around exploring the San Telmo markets, the Palermo area with its Japanese garden and La Boca with its colorful corrugated iron buildings. We also did a free walking tour which took in the Congress building, Plaza de Mayo with the pink house that Madonna say from in Evita, the Obelisk and more. One of the most interesting places we saw was Recolleta cementry which is almost like a little town where the rich and famous are buried with each tomb a small but elaborate building.
It was another day and a half to Puerto Madryn. There we hired a car to go to Peninsula Valdes for the day in search of orcas or killer whales. Josh did a great job driving all day on the right side of the road and in gravel. While we were unsuccessful in our orca sighting (apart from the stuffed toy that Alice bought) we did see sea lions, elephant seals, magellanic penguins, armadillos and guanacos (llama-like creatures).
It was another 2 days drive through dry barren pampa, reminiscent of the Nullabor Plains. The temperature continued to drop and was quite windy and cold when we crossed the Chilean border (the first of many crossings between Argentinaand Chile) and took a ferry onto Isla Tierra del Fuego, on route to Ushuaia, the world's most southerly town. On the way we stopped at a king penguin colony and bush camped in a very windy place that had incredible views of the coast. The next day we crossed back into Argentina on the way to Ushuaia. The scenery driving in was spectacular - snow capped mountains, lakes, streams, forests - much more like what we were expecting of Patagonia. We spent the next two days hiking - one at beautiful Tierra del Fuego National Park and one at Glaciar Martial. Both hikes had great views over the Beagle Channel. The town was nice as well - like a typical ski town filled with tourists.
Upon leaving Ushuaia we were back into Chile and stopped at some eery but cool abandoned estancias (ranches) on the way to Torres del Paine National Park. Our bush camp here was the coldest and windiest yet. We met our guides, Isabella (Polish) and Sergio (Chilean) in Puerto Natales then spent an idealic 5 nights camping on Lake Pehoe and hiking everyday to see the Towers, Frances Valley, icebergs broken off a glacier on Grey Lake, waterfalls and a hidden lagoon. There was also time for beers/pisco sours in fancy lodges and too many drinks at camp, which made hiking harder. Most of our food was cooked on a bbq plate over an open fire and we enjoyed some juicy cuts of meat. A friendly armadillo we named Porridge was a visitor at our campsite, as was a cara cara. We saw guanacos and condors at more of a distance and were very excited to see a family of pumas on our drive out of the park.
It should have been a short drive to our next destination but we were held up with an excruciatingly slow crossing back into Argentina. We arrived in El Calafate late afternoon and wondered the main street of the touristy town and got a nice pizza dinner. The Hostel del Glaciar was a cute place to stay and it was nice to have a real bed after 2 weeks of camping. The next day we took a day tour to Glacier Perito Moreno, where we took a boat across the lake to where we began an ice trek wearing crampons. The ice had some incredible shades of blue and some pretty holes filed with the purest water. The whiskey and chocolates they had hidden on the ice at the end were a fantastic surprise! After our ice trek we took in even more amazing views of this massive 60m high glacier from the boardwalks on the other side of the lake.
A short 2 hour drive brought us to El Chalten, where we quickly say up camp and then embarked on the 20km Fitzroy hike. There were more incredible views of snowcapped mountains, glaciers, lakes and forests and I loved that the water in the streams was clean enough to drink and extremely tasty. That made 8 out of the last 10 days trekking days, so we embraced the next travel days gladly, feeling weary but happy.
The first day's drive out of El Chalten was a long boring one through yet more pampa, all in Argentina. Our route then got more adventurous, our group having agreed to take a longer but more scenic road to Bariloche through Chile. We camped off the side of a road near a small lake with flamingos in it. The next morning we crossed into Chile yet again and enjoyed the more hilly country with forests. That night we camped by a hanging glacier and our cook group took our turn at preparing dinner for everyone, always a big job, while the other tour group members had another big night playing drinking games. The next day was another pretty drive, before getting into our campsite on the river in Futeleufu in the early arvo. We hung out in the small but picturesque town while some of our group went white water rafting.
The next day we crossed back into Argentina to go to Bariloche. We got into town late afternoon and spent an hour wandering around the German resort town which is famous for its chocolate. On our full day in Bariloche we hired bikes and cycled a scenic but challenging 40km circuit through the hills and around the lakes district. The town was on high alert because Barack Obama was staying there on a golf vacation with his family. After our ride, Josh enjoyed a beer tasting at a nearby German pub while I relaxed with a cider.
All too soon it was time to hit the road again for a half day's drive back into Chile to Pucon, another ski resort town, this time at the base of a volcano. I loved this small town, with its views over a lake and volcano, it's many cafes and gelati shops and nearby hot springs. The canyoning I did there was awesome and involved making our way through a canyon, picking our way over rocks, through the stream, jumping off high rocks, sliding down waterfalls and even a zip line. Fun, fun, fun! What a nice place to spend Easter weekend.
It took a full day of driving to reach Santiago. That evening we went out to a lovely restaurant in Bella Vista and Brodie went out partying all night while I went to bed. The next day Brodie slept off a hangover while Karen did a free walking tour of the city with Spicy Chile then went up the funicular to check up the views over the city and did some shopping. Santiago was quite a nice city - like B.A it was clean, had a European feeling but it didn't seem to have quite as much charm and character. I enjoyed a local seafood soup (congrio) for dinner. The next day Brodie finally got to see Santiago as we went to the palace and adjoining cultural centre to see a photo exhibition on the people of Chile. Next we hiked up the Santa Lucia Hill for views over the city then went for a seafood lunch at the Central Market (I tried the marioscas but was a bit disappointed). We popped next door to the local bar, La Piojera, where we tried a Chilean cocktail, terramoto, or an earthquake. It was mix of wine and ice cream but I didn't really rate it as it tasted a bit like cough syrup.
The following day we exited Chile for the last time and arrived in Mendoza large afternoon. Mendoza is similar to Adelaide in some ways (climate, size, surrounded by hills and wineries) but I don't think it has as much character. The first full day there we did a wine tour and particularly enjoyed the organic wines at Familia Cecchin. The malbecs were nice but I find it hard to go past a good syrah (shiraz) or cab sav. They weren't quite as generous with their tastings as back home but the lunch at Cavo de Cano was pretty incredible with the tables loaded full of antipasto platters, followed by a main of tasty, tender meat stew with a dessert of ice cream and Dolce De Leche. Accompanied by Red Wine of course!
Our second day in Mendoza we visited the Parque General San Martin and went to the nice zoo ($4!) and the scenic Cerro Gloria lookout, with views over the city and Andes.
Our next stop was the big city of Córdoba but since we were there on a Sunday, there wasn't much to see. The Jesuit Block was interesting though and they had the oldest church in Argentina. An evening spent bowling was good fun.
We then headed to Cafayate via some Quilmes ruins. The Quilmes people fought off the Spanish for a hundred years but were eventually beaten by them and captured as slaves. 2000 were forced to walk to Buenos Aires but only a couple of hundred made it. Sad times.
Cafayate was one of my favorite towns. Small, quaint, surrounded by beautiful mountains and vineyards and filled with bodegas (wineries). Unfortunately we only had a morning there but made the most of our time, visiting the wine museum and the bodegas where we tried their local white, Torrontes.
Our final stop in Argentina was in Salta. We stayed at a fun hostel called Loki. It was half an hour or of town but had cheap drinks (2 for $3 spirits during happy hour), a huge common area and plenty of games. Our first day in Salta we just relaxed at the hostel and the second we went into town and visited the archealogical museum where we saw mummies from child sacrifices in the Incan period. Very wrong!
One of the funniest moments of the trip happened at this hostel. I was trying to wake a roommate up after a big night so he didn't miss his horseriding, but he refused to stir so his wife climbed up onto the top bunk with him to try to get him up. However, the beds obviously weren't made for 2 and the whole top bed fell through to the bottom bunk, with her still straddling him with a shocked look on her face. And he responds deadpan, "Ok, I'm up, I'm up!"
Just when we thought we had made it through the bottom half of South America safely, we somehow managed to get gastro on the last day, which made travel into Bolivia the next day less fun. Thank God for Imodium!
So overall impressions of Argentina and Chile were 2 developed countries, where life is better for the rich than for the poor, since prices are similar to Oz but they earn a lot less. We loved the healthy, friendly stay dogs that roamed around everywhere and there was spectacular scenery (interspersed with extremely boring scenery). The local people were helpful and fun and the alcohol was way too plentiful.
