El Calafate and El Chalten, Argentina - 20-25 Nov

We arrived in El Calafate after spending 23 hours on a bus and another 2 waiting for the bus at Rio Gallegos, a rather long and tiring journey! The weather was cooler than it had been in the rest of Argentina but we were here to find glaciers so it should be cold. We were staying in a lovely little hostel, Hospedaje Lautaro, where the people welcomed us very warmly and Belen was great in running us through all the options that there were to explore the many glaciers around El Calafate. She was also kind enough to assist us in the booking of the bus for the tour to the Glacier Perito Moreno the next day. We spent the afternoon cruising around the very touristy town seeing what there is in the town: loads of restaurants, outdoor and souvenir shops, but we loved this little town.

We woke the next morning ready to experience the glaciers. We got on the bus and it’s about an hour and half from El Calafate to the Perito Moreno glacier. As we rounded the corner in the Parque Nationales Los Glaciares and got our first glimpse of a “real” glacier we were both really excited and in awe.  We had seen a good number of glaciers along the way so far, but these were all mountain glaciers i.e. frozen ice at the top of snow-capped mountains instead of a river frozen in a valley, slowly moving down the valley. Perito Moreno is a massive frozen river in a valley. It’s the only glacier in the area that is not receding due to global warming. The face is 70m high above the lake, 120m below the surface, 5kms wide and 30kms long. A massive and amazing glacier!

The South Face from our boat trip

Our first good look at the glacier would be from a one hour boat trip to see the Southern face. It really was so impressive. It is so big and so white in the brilliant sunshine that we had been blessed with that day! The boat trip was ok. Tess and I have started to loathe large group tours, there are loads of people who never listen to what they are told and everything takes ages to get done.

After the boat trip the bus took us the last 7kms to experience the central and north faces. The national park has set up 4kms of walkways with numerous viewing points that make it really comfortable and easy to view the glacier. This glacier with its jagged shapes is absolutely fascinating to watch. The ice is brilliantly white with deep blue crevasses and every so often chunks of ice break off and fall into the lake. We were lucky enough to see 2 large pieces of ice crack off the glacier and fall into the water. The sound the glacier makes is so impressive, as the ice cracks off then hits the water, it makes the sound of a gunshot and this echoes around the valley. It was really a great day out and we were both so impressed by the Perito Moreno glacier.

A view over the whole glacier

The North Face of Perito Moreno Glacier. Look on the right of the picture, that is a boat carrying about 200 tourists. Puts some perspective to the sive of this amazing glacier.

The next day we headed off to El Chalten at lunch time as we had heard this town was nicer than El Calafate and there was more to do in that area. It’s a very simple little town that is nestled among the mountains and hills and is prettier than El Calafate. Most of the walks and activities start right from the town and so no need to drive anywhere. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and we arrived to persistent rain forcing us to have a quiet night in that we really didn’t mind. We hoped for better weather the next day to begin all the great activities we had heard about.

Well when we woke up it was a little brighter so our spirits were high as we headed for another long hike (about 22kms) from El Pilar, past the Piedras Blancas glacier and then we headed up a seriously steep climb straight up to Lago de los Tres to try and get a view of Fitz Roy, the highest peak in the region. The walk was tough to the top and to make it more difficult it was seriously cold, it was hailing/snowing at numerous times at the top of the mountain and blowing a gale all the time. Tess and I were tucked away in our beenies, scarves, gloves and jackets. Even so it was still freezing! Unfortunately for us we didn’t get a clear view of Fitz Roy no matter what we tried. The weather was slightly warmer as we headed back to El Chalten but not much. Just before we got the town we saw a condor flying above us, perch on its nest and then take off again into the wind. Condors are really magnificent birds! Still cold we needed to stop in the town to get a hot chocolate and a waffle to warm us up.

The best view we got of Fitz Roy

Lago de los Tres completely frozen over and covered in snow

Where we hiked to trying to get a view of Fitz Roy

A view down the valley on our way back to El Chalten

An iceberg floating on Lago Viedma

The next morning we were off ice trekking on the Glacier Viedma to complete our glacier experience in Patagonia. We jumped into the bus and headed an hour to Lago Viedma, another hour by boat to get to the glacier. The boat docked on what used to be glacier 20 years ago and we then climbed up the large rocks for half an hour before we got to the glacier. Glacier Viedma is receding and it’s really sad to see the effects that global warming is having on the glaciers first hand. Anyway, the guides fitted our crampons (metal spikes attached to your shoes) so that we could begin our ice trekking on the glacier. They took us to see a few cool things on the ice: rivers that form by finding a weak part in the ice and tunnel through the ice creating a drain-like effect to the bedrock and then flows towards the lake. They also showed us massive ice crevasses that are amazing shades of white and blue (the older the ice, the bluer it appears).

Crampons on and ready to go ice trekking

Proudly atop the Viedma Glacier

One of the crevasses on Glacier Viedma

Baileys with glacier ice!

The guides had a treat for us on our ice trek: the handed around some glasses and used their ice picks to get ice straight from the glacier and then passed around some Baileys! Yum!! A nice sweet end to our ice trek.

On our last evening in Patagonia we headed out for dinner to experience some of the local cuisine. We headed to El Muro, a restaurant recommended by a few people. Tess went for the Patagonian lamb, since we were in Patagonia and we had not had any lamb yet, and I stuck to the steak. It was a great evening a fitting end to our time in Patagonia. The next day we were off to Buenos Aires, and flying this time!! At last!! We were pretty sick of the long bus rides, this would make a great change.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - 17-19 Nov

We arrived in Puerto Madryn early the next morning and went in search of our hostel, La Tosca. Mario who welcomed us, was pretty much like a tour guide and took as through all the options that were available to us in Puerto Madryn. Armed with this knowledge we headed off to explore the beachfront and to find some lunch. Puerto Madryn is quite pretty and I suppose it’s a bit like Hermanus in that it is centred around the whale season, but it’s really dry and so the vegetation around the coast is very arid, more like the Karoo! And they farm sheep there too! I was feeling at home, haha!

The beachfront before lunch and the wind started

We chose a beachfront restaurant for lunch and settled down and ordered some drinks and a “seafood platter” for 2 just as the wind was picking up to gale force. Well, our “seafood platter” arrived and we were a little surprised to say the least. It was all in small little bowls and 2 larger bowls in the middle. The middle 2 were fried calamari, which was pretty good, and fried anchovies, we didn’t get through too many of these. The remaining bowls comprised of: 4 bowls pickled squid and oysters (not sure about these), 2 of empanada fish and prawns (good), one boiled prawn (not bad) and a few random others. The next problem was that as the wind got stronger the sand started blowing off the beach into our food and made our “seafood platter” all the more tasty, yummm! Tess and I agreed that it was a good experience but not one to be repeated!

The next day we had our tour to Peninsula Valdes and a boat trip to go watch the whales. We got picked up at 8am and picked the rest of our 20 strong tour group and headed for the peninsula an hour and a half away. We arrived at Puerto Piramides to get on the boat for our whale watching, a 50 man rubber dinghy that they launch straight from the beach with massive tractors and trailers. We headed 15 mins into the bay to find the whales, currently there are about 300 in the bay, at the height of whale breeding season there are about 700, so it didn’t take us too long.

When we got there the captain turned off the engines and we pretty much just floated and watched the whales. We saw loads and they come so close to the boat it is amazing. There were obviously many mothers with calves, the calves are pretty inquisitive and some come right up to the boat and go underneath the boat. We were also treated to a tail slapping display that is supposedly a form of communication for the whales and some jumping to top it all off. The hour went by so quickly watching the whales, we wished we could have spent the whole day there. It was so amazing and so surreal to be so close to these creatures that are just massive!

After we got back from the whale watching we headed off in the bus to see a penguin colony and some elephant seals lying on the beach. It’s not quite the season for the seals yet so there were not too many and we didn’t see any very large males (they get up to 4000kgs), but it was good to see. We also saw a few armadillos, cute little buggers and a first for both of us. We’d heard that orcas (killer whales) had been spotted on the coast the previous day but sadly we missed out. After the whale watching it was a pretty long afternoon in the bus and not particularly entertaining.

The next morning before we were due to head off we went for a long walk along the beach, Puerto Madryn has a really wide and long beach and we walked for about 2 hours on the beach before we headed back to our hostel for breakfast and to pack our stuff up for another mammoth bus ride.

The highlight of our time in Puerto Madryn was definitely the amazing boat trip among the whales! But now we were headed to El Calafate in the south of Patagonia to find some glaciers!

A parting shot of the amazing whales at Puerto Madryn

Bariloche, Argentina 13th-16th Nov

Switzerland of Argentina is what we heard this place was going to be like and no word of a lie!

Mountains and more mountains, reflecting in gigantic blue lakes, so ideally picturesque, with the town of Bariloche also offering about 15 different chocolate shops on its main street… pretty close to Switzerland I’d say but maybe even better! Ha-ha!

A very happy purchase at Mamuschka Chocolate shop!

For us this was the true start of Patagonia, as our bus wound its way through the Lake District to the town of Bariloche. After checking into our hostel, we sat down with a very large book on what there was to do in Bariloche – from hiking and river rafting to kayaking, cycling and boat tours – so much to choose from, so little time (only 3 days) and if you thought Derek was going to let me sit around and eat chocolate, you are mistaken.

Our selected piece of steak...

We thought the best way to begin this action filled town was a good Argentine steak and vino – we’d been recommended by most to go to El Boliche de Alberto– an amazing parilla (grill house) where the steaks are so big you can share them and so affordable too! It’s great because the waiter is also the guy who cuts your steak from a huge pile of meat on a table and cooks it to perfection! Well, needless to say we loved this place so much, we came back here again on our last night! Topped off with a Jauja ice-cream of course… too delicious!

The first day we launched into a 20km hike up to the Frey Refuge – all helped by great weather and no ash ( that we heard occasionally blew over from one of the active Chilean volcanoes). The hike was tiring but great.

We got some incredible views of snow covered peaks reflecting into Lago Gutierrez (one of the lakes) – so tranquil!

 We then walked through an amazing forest of really old trees alongside this gushing river that was working its way down to the lake. Finally we headed up a fairly steep section to the refuge  at the base of the glacier – where we managed to trudge through about 20 metres of snow – where we settled into a picnic whilst watching some rock climbers scale one of the faces’. All in all about 6 and a half hours of hiking and when we got back home we were absolutely knackered!

Last bit in snow up to the refuge.

We opted for a slightly less active second day and chose a full day tour on a boat through a couple of the lakes. First impressions were not ideal, as we noticed the average age was about 60 and we were by far the youngest people on the tour. A real “tour group” – the ones Derek and I had successfully avoided up until now! Once the boat got going we soon forgot about it and enjoyed the most incredibly beautiful sights. The water was the most amazing blue colour, the waterfalls streaming off the edges of these snow-capped mountains, all surrounded by incredibly green protected reserve forests – wow, wow, wow!

The pace was generally slow going once we got off at Puerto Blest where some opted for the restaurant option, us another picnic as we waited in the sunshine until the boat got going again.



The size of these tree's are just enormous!

We then stopped off at a part of the reserve that is cleverly decked so that you can walk and admire hundreds of years old trees, an impressive waterfall and a spectacular lake - perhaps the prettiest we’d seen. This last stop was so worthwhile and totally made the day!

Breath-taking and just unreal!

A great view on way home from our boat tour.

After getting off the boat, where the port was, was quite close to the famous 5 star hotel called LLAO LLAO which the Argentinians pronounce “sjhow sjhow”.

LLAO LLAO

We’d heard great reports from Lou and Simo that this is where we needed to make a stop. Together with a little “gift” money Pauline had given us to treat ourselves, we knew we would do well here.  At about 6.30pm that eve, with the sun still beating down, we ordered a very civilized tea, coffee, scones and apple cake, all served on the veranda overlooking the lake. It was so much fun to go somewhere like this for a treat!



Posh interior!

The actual hotel, very well known for receiving politicians and celebs, has an upmarket wooden cabin feel, deerskin covered chairs, huge big fireplaces – I guess something so well suited for winter, when Bariloche becomes Argentina’s prime skiing destination! We came back to reality with a bump when we had to ask the guard at the guardhouse where the local bus stop was and proceeded to wait for the bus back to our hostel!

Our final day we rented bikes and did a 25km circuit – it had some steep hills which made it hard for me, Derek cruised usual style – around a couple of the lakes, with a couple great viewpoints! The map we’d been given had detours off the usual route which although time was tight as we had to catch a bus early that eve, we decided worth doing.





The first detour took us here - beautiful!

First detour was to this beautiful blue lake, fantastic view and almost a mini beach that although warm that day, knowing the water would be ice-cold, couldn’t quite tempt us. Not sure I quite appreciated what we saw as all that kept going through my mind was how was I going to get up the really long hill we’d just come whizzing down!









Derek swimming in the Secret Lake

A little further on, bikes parked, we did a short walk into a forest area and came across the Secret Lake – a bit brown, but were told warmer and warm enough to swim in… This big lake was so quiet and peaceful - almost in the middle of nowhere. Derek did jump in and have a quick swim and in no time we were back on our bikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cycling trip was a fantastic way to see some of this area, sadly just after halfway we got to experience a little of what the folk here in Bariloche have to deal with, ash! The ash spoilt the view - giving the mountains and lakes a hazy look, but other than that it didn’t really bother us (no face masks required!) 


Absolutely exhausted, over looking a great yet hazy view- with Llao Llao in the background.

I know I’ve repeated myself countless times, but we could just not get over how vast these lakes spread and just how blue they were. These dramatic peaks were just amazing. Perhaps not used to seeing snow... we just couldn’t stop staring at these snow covered mountains that seemed to surround us.

Bariloche is just one of the most beautiful and scenic places I have ever been too. I just couldn’t believe we were seeing what we saw! I think this place would be a hiker’s paradise! There were so many hikes and walks we could have done and more and yet our time here was up and before we knew it, we were packed up and heading for that bus station.

Great memories in a place where every thought recalls an amazing picture in your head! Bariloche, we love you!

Mendoza, Argentina - 8-12 Nov

We arrived in Mendoza from Salta after another long trip and made our way to Hostel Lao. We were staying in a dorm, but the hostel had a great outside area with a pool and a lovely living room good for socialising or relaxing. The staff were really great and we started enjoying our time in Mendoza already.

We spent the afternoon going round the town orientating ourselves and organising the wine tour we wanted to do two days later. Just as the wind was starting to pick up, we got back to the hostel. The wind just grew in strength and eventually was blowing a gale! In the area it is called a Zonda. It did a massive amount of damage, blowing over trees and we actually heard that 2 people had died. Pretty hectic stuff!

In true Argentinian fashion, we headed out that evening to find ourselves a steak and some local wine. We were still getting used to eating dinner at 11pm so we went for a beer beforehand to use up some time. We found a lovely restaurant called La Lucia and we had some good wine to start off our wine tasting in Mendoza.

In the morning we headed off to go do Mr Hugo’s Bicycle Wine Tasting tour. We caught the local bus and when we got there, Mr Hugo told us that the road was closed due to fallen trees and that we would only access a few of the farms in the north end of town. This was not great news to us as Lou and Simo had recommended the wine farm at the end of the road, Carinae. We decided to give it a go anyway and after paying our money Mr Hugo offered us a plastic glass of wine that had a reputation of making vinegar taste good. This was not far from the truth!

So fuelled up on Mr Hugo’s vinegar we headed off to Trapiche only to get told that the next tour didn’t start for the next 2 hours, we headed down the road to see what we could do. We came across a lovely police woman and she told us that we could go down the road until we found a gravel road that we could link up to Ruta 60 and then we could get to Carinae. So we headed off that way not really knowing where we were going or how far this was going to be. After an hour and a half of riding on gravel roads and then back onto the tar we finally made it to Carinae, thinking this wine tasting had better be worth it. It was! It’s a really small estate and the French owner showed us around himself and did our wine tasting so it was a great start! We then visited the oldest winery in Mendoza, Familia Di Tommasso, and finally we headed back to Trapiche, Argentina’s biggest winery, who did a great tour of the winery and we got to taste some great wines as well.

I was starting to get pretty broken at this stage because Tess was not feeling that great so I was “tasting” the rest of her wines. We needed some food so we finished our afternoon off with a beer and a pizza at the Beer Garden and upon return of the bikes to Mr Hugo enjoyed another glass of his vinegar J (it was free after all).

The Asado at Hostel Lao

That evening we decided to cook in and bought ourselves a nice piece of steak, salad and more red wine. Hostel Lao had a braai area and we made good use of it braaing our steaks. (we braaied more than once!) It was a lekker evening and we got a fairly early night so as to be ready for our special wine tasting the next day. We had booked an exclusive wine tasting tour to Valley de Uco.

Wine Tasting at Andeluna

We got picked up very promptly by Charles, our guide for the day, in the Tout and Wine tour bus. There was a Dutch couple and an American couple on honeymoon as our co-tasters for the day. They were both great and Charles had a lot of great information about the area and the wine business in Argentina and Chile which he shared with us on the hour and a half it took us to get to Valley de Uco. Our wine tour started at Andeluna (American owned) which was stunning. The green vineyards with the snow-capped Andes in the  background was just incredible .The vineyard manager’s wife did the tour and we learned a lot about growing grapes and the different wine making processes they use before getting stuck into tasting the good stuff. The wines were great , the whole tasting experience was great and it felt really special to be able do something like this.

On the lawn outside Andeluna, the view just breathtaking!!!

Tasting straight from the barrel at Azul

Next we headed to Azul, the smallest winery either of us had been to, they only bottle 40, 000 bottles a year, but the winemaker took us for the tour (it’s all just in 1 room) and the tasting. The cool thing about the tasting was that we got to taste straight from the stainless steel vats and we also got to taste wine straight from the oak barrels that was half way through its maturation. Azul was great because we got a very different experience than we’d got anywhere else.

Lastly and by certainly no means least, we visited Salentine, which is Dutch owned and is clearly someone who has more money than he knows what to do with. The farm is 72,000 hectares of which only 700 is under vines. We got given another private cellar tour which was really amazing and then settled down to a 4 course lunch paired with different wines. Earlier in the bus Charles had told us that we had to finish the wine and order a 2^nd glass of each and we tried our best to adhere to his “instruction”. The food and the wine were excellent.



One of the most famous pictures in the wine industry in Mendoza, the winery at Salentine

We got back to Mendoza in the evening after one of the best days we had had on our trip so far. It was just such a special day and we were made to feel pretty special everywhere we went that day.

Later we went to go try book our bus trip to Bariloche, but the buses for the next day were booked out so we were going to have to spend another day in Mendoza, which we really didn’t mind.

The lake in the park in Mendoza

On the third day in Mendoza we decided to check out the massive park they have in the town. We were living a couple of kilometres away but decided after all the steak and wine the walk was going to be good for us. We wandered around the park, around the lake and around a couple of other things before deciding to head up the hill to the Cerro de Gloria, a monument to the victory over the Spanish. It was some fair mountain climbing and scrambling to get up the hill. Without having a clue how to catch public transport to get back to the hostel we just walked, but that made it about a 12km walk in the end, a lot more than we had bargained for when we set out on the walk.

Our extra day in Mendoza was very chilled and caught up with loads of mailing and chatting to people on Skype. We did venture out for a short while only to come across a Saturday morning parade in the town. The ladies were not wearing very much at all, seems like the further south we have headed the less clothing the ladies wear in the parades.

When we eventually did leave that evening there was a massive thunderstorm and as it turns out it was a good time to head onto the next place as we heard there were power outages the day after the storm.