El Norte Argentino

Well, it’s been a couple of days again since my last update and it feels like we have become bus experts in the meantime… 20 hours from Mendoza to Salta, 20 hours from Salta to Buenos Aires and another 20 hours from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu. We are now able to tell you which bus company has the most comfortable seats, which one shows the best movies, which one serves the best food etc. Unfortunately, we have not found the perfect combination yet… In all honesty though, the bus trips in Argentina are unbelievably comfortable when you book “cama” seats (equivalent to business class seats in the plane). We have been sleeping like babies on our overnight trips…

Anyway, we spent about 4 days around Salta in the Northwest of Argentina. Salta is one of the oldest cities in Argentina and has retained a lot of its architectural beauty. It was an important trading post for Argentina long before Buenos Aires had any significance and today it is the main hub for tourists travelling around the Northwestern part of the country. We proudly managed to rent a car despite not having a driver’s license with us (mine is in Switzerland, and Patrick’s was mugged in Mendoza). During the 4 days and 1200km we also gained a better understanding of why Argentina was chosen as a back-up location for the Paris-Dakar Rally… Gee, some of these roads were in pretty bad shape – a lot of sand, gravel, dust but very few houses out there. The scenery though was amazing and we felt it was changing dramatically every two hours or so. Particulary day one struck us as fantastic and at times beyond belief. We left Salta and were driving towards the mountain village of Cachi at 3000m. On the way to get there the landscape was first dominated by agriculture and forests but then we started climbing up a dramatic mountain road (culminating at over 3200m) and witnessed beautiful rivers, valleys, hills and mountains of changing colours (from pure red/brown to pure olive green and with all the combinations you can imagine). The closer we got to the peak of the mountain road the paltrier the landscape and really looked like semi-desert dominated by little bushes and cacti. When we arrived in the beautiful little village of Cachi, we were exhausted from so many wonderful impressions. We felt we had been driving through Zion Natl Park, Mojave Desert and some wonderful hills in just half a day. Little did we know that a landscape resembling Bryce Canyon and Death Valley was just waiting around the corner. So, it was a continued “Oh” and “Ah” for the rest of the day until the sun decided to give us a rest and our cameras ran out of battery. This was definitely one of the most impressive days of our trip and we highly recommend the Valles Calchaquies to everyone travelling to Argentina (just don’t ask how to pronounce it…)

Iglesia San Francisco in Salta

Cuesta del Obispo, on the way to Cachi

Quebrada de las Flechas

Cardones National Park

We stayed overnight in a place called Cafayate which is also a beautiful little oasis at about 1600m Interestingly, this place is also turning into a major hub for wine producers and the vineyards are at some of the highest altitudes worldwide (up to 3000m!). The region has been predominantly known for a white grape called “Torrontes” but is now also growing Malbec, Cabernet and other red grapes. Again, (thanks to Gustavo’s excellent instincts) we found a nice boutique winery that is producing organic wines of very good quality (http://www.bodegananni.com/).

Anyway, after some winetasting we were eager to continue our trip since we were expecting to see a lot more beautiful gorges and rock formations. This part is called Quebrada de Cafayate and is also beautiful – it’s just that we had been spoiled a lot on the day before… Also, we encountered a little problem along the way – Gustavo had locked the keys in the car…  You feel pretty helpless in the middle of nowhere with all your belongings and essential things like water locked away. However, we did not have to wait for long and Fortuna came to the rescue. The first guy who pulled over was a neuro surgeon from Cordoba and about the 4th car who stopped was able to provide us a piece of wire. So we had the perfect tool and the perfect skills and sure enough after about 45 minutes the door to the car was open (thank god he did not charge us for this surgery!).

Quebrada de Cafayate

Neuro Surgeon Hero from Cordoba

We continued our trip to San Salvador de Jujuy and from there straight to Purmamarca. Again we learnt an important lesson, a straight line on a basic map does not necessarily mean there will be a straight road. Gosh, not even the most dramatic mountain roads in Switzerland have that many curves. I was sure my driver Gustavo would have blisters on his hands that night… The next 2 days we continued to put the pedal to the metall and witnessed more valleys, hills, gorges, rockformations, altiplanos and little colonial pueblos (Quebrada de Humahuace, Quebrada del Toro etc). However, the one thing that fascinated us most was the Salinas Grandes, a very large salt flat that was amazing to see under the wonderful blue sky.

Cerro de los Siete Colores, Purmamarca

Salinas Grandes

After our return to Salta we continued our trip to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately we had to make this detour, so Gustavo could collect his temporary passport at the Swiss embassy. Of course it was also a good opportunity to enjoy the good food and wine again in the capital. That night we had a wonderful meal at a restaurant called “Manolo” in San Telmo. Oh my God, the bife de lomo was to die for and thanks to Gustavo we also enjoyed some more bottles of good wine.

It was good to get out of Buenos Aires soon because the shopping there is just too tempting (also thanks to a continuously depreciating currency). We restricted ourselves to a few CDs (of course we had to buy Gustavo Cordera) and books and then caught the bus to Puerto Iguazu.

The arrival in Puerto Iguazu felt like a coming home. For the first time on this trip we had real tropical climate with lots of humidity, so it really reminded me of Singapore. Otherwise it is interesting that the town of Puerto Iguazu is actually quite small despite the Iguazu Falls being one of the major tourist attractions in South America. Well, we found out that most tourists stay in the fancy hotels between town and the falls and only the backpackers stay in town, that’s why it is so quiet around here. We spent one day walking around the different trails of the Iguazu Falls. And yes, they are truly spectacular even though the water levels are relatively low right now. I guess it’s the magnitude that is truly impressive – I have never seen so many waterfalls in one spot and the setting is just splendid! Was also positively surprised that we could actually take a swim in the river, not to far from the Falls. The water was nice and warm and I felt like in the Fish Spa in Singapore because as soon as you held still in the water there were dozens of little fish picking your skin…

After travelling around Argentina for exactly 2 months it is now time to say goodbye as we will be heading to Brazil tonight. Argentina is a wonderful place with lovely people (except for the sucker who robbed Gustavo in Mendoza), great food/wine and an unbelievable diversity of landscapes. I do not regret a single day spent here and highly recommend it to anyone planning to travel to South America!

Hasta la proxima

Adrian

Land of Milk and Honey

It’s been a little more than a week since my last update and I have spent all those days in and around Mendoza. About one week ago I was joined by my friend Patrick who travelled here via Buenos Aires. After travelling alone for a couple of weeks, it’s great to have a good friend around to share all those memorable experiences with. Also, in the little time Patrick has spent in Argentina he has already produced a couple of good stories (more on that later)…

 

Patrick (Gustavo) happily arriving in Mendoza

 

Mendoza really comes across as a heavenly place… In fact, this place reminds me of Italy in many ways. The climate is fantastic with blue skies and plenty of sunshine every day, the city itself is relatively small (and almost exclusively low rise) but still big enough to offer plenty of choices, there are trees and parks everywhere to offer an escape from the heat (thanks to a comprehensive irrigation system fed with water from the Andes), on every corner you find little street cafes where locals meet for a cafecito and some chitchat, from noon to 4pm businesses shut down for a siesta (and I guess to recharge their batteries for the late night parties) and finally all those culinary temptations on every corner – pizza, pasta, beef, ice cream, wine, whatever your desires, be guaranteed that there is plenty of it around here!

Street Cafes in Calle Sarmiento

Needless to say, we chose to stay in Mendoza to take advantage of this. We spent quite a bit of time going around to visit different bodegas (wineries). As a novice in the world of wine, I found these visits extremely helpful to get a better understanding. Argentina currently ranks as world number five in terms of wine production (behind France, Italy, Spain and US but ahead of Australia) and the region of Mendoza accounts for about 90% of the production. Mendoza is best known for the Malbec grape but over the last 10 years or so producers have also started to grow other grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah etc. This may have to do with the increasing foreign influence over the wine territories here. We were told that only 3-4 of the larger wineries are still owned by Argentines whereas the rest has been snapped up by foreigners. A good example of this is the Carinae winery we visited last week (www.carinaevinos.com). It’s a boutique winery that was bought by a French couple in 2003 and with the help of Michel Rolland (I was told he is one of the major wine guru’s) is now producing some fine wines. So while the quality of wines here has been going up thanks to foreign expertise, the prices are still very competitive (at least for the local market). It is possible to buy a good quality wine from one of the top producers for less than USD10 at the supermarket. While this is a little fortune in a backpacker’s budget, we figured if world governments are throwing around with money we could afford to do the same for a week or so….

Alta Vista winery with views of the Andes mountains

Sipping wine and having a good time at Cavas de Weinert

There are many choices to be made in Mendoza…

In my first report about Argentina I mentioned how safe I felt travelling around the country. Well, when we arrived in Mendoza we were warned a couple of times that it was more dangerous here than in the rest of the country because of the many tourists. The friendly hostel owner advised us to leave our valuables in the hostel because it was too dangerous to carry them around town. We followed his advice and did not encounter any problems in the city. Then one night (naturally it was on Friday the 13th!) when we were getting ready for the Aconcagua trekking, Patrick discovered that a small bag with his valuables was missing. We could not believe it since our hostel room was always locked and we could not find any evidence that someone had entered the room forcibly. We searched the room and all his luggage several times but sure enough the valuables would not appear again. So we had to cancel our trekking and instead spend pretty much all of Saturday at the police and making phone calls to block credit cards, talk to the insurance company, organize another passport with the Swiss embassy, get the DMV to issue another driving licence etc. I guess this is all part of the experience but it was just unfortunate that Patrick had been in Argentina for less than one week. Also I could not believe that none of my things were touched (or maybe I just did not notice yet!) even though they were much closer to the door.

On top of all the attractive features I mentioned at the beginning, Mendoza is also a hub for adventure tourism with the Andes mountains less than 2 hours from the city centre. After all the good food and wine, we were quite eager to work off some of the calories and decided to do some trekking around Aconcagua mountain.  Peaking at 6,959 meters above sea level, Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America and an increasingly popular destination for professional and non-professional climbers. We took a bus from Mendoza to Puente de Inca (at 2800m) and it was amazing to see how the landscape changed during our 4 hour bus ride. When we got off the bus we were surrounded by a number of mountains, all of them between 4000m and 7000m high and many of them more colourful (red, brown, green) than the mountains in Switzerland. After some excitement at the entrance of Aconcagua National Park (the employees thought Patrick looks very similar to Gustavo Cordera, a famous Argentine singer, which prompted me to change his nickname to Gustavo! check out http://www.rock.com.ar/artistas/bersuit-vergarabat) we started our trek towards Confluencia (3400m), the first base camp for Aconcagua climbers and trekkers. During the peak season about 200-300 people are camping here every night but since March is already late season there was no more than a dozen people. After a chilly night in the tent, we spent the second day walking up to Plaza Francia at 4000m from where we had spectacular views of Aconcagua’s South face. It was really amazing to see this humongous, intimidating mountain and we could only imagine how tough it must be to get to the top (and how many chilly nights you have to spend in a tent!). Anyway, we were happy enough to make it to the South face and were running down the trail, eager to make it back to Mendoza for a decent Saint Patrick’s Day (and Aconcagua) celebration.

On the way to the Andes moutains

The South face of majestic Aconcagua (6959m)

Happy Trekkers!

Colourful mountains in the Andes

Tonight, we will be leaving for Salta in the North of Argentina. This is another 19 hour bus ride, but luckily we have  gotten used to the (quite comfortable) buses in Argentina.

Hasta la proxima!

World Peace in Chile

Since my last update I have made a lot of progress travelling a couple of thousand kilometers north and just arrived in Mendoza (33º South), the wine capital of Argentina. Luckily, I am now firmly back in T-shirt territory after spending 3 weeks in a climate zone where the temperature never really exceeded 15º.

Anyway, to get here I actually spent a lot of time travelling through Chile. This was not my original plan, but it’s great to have the flexibility. I decided to travel north via Chile mainly because I wanted to try out a different mean of transport after all the hours on the bus. So I bought a ticket for the Navimag, a ferry that runs from Puerto Natales in the very South of Chile to Puerto Montt, 1500 km further north (amazingly on this whole stretch there are only 100,000 inhabitants!) It’s a journey of 4 days and was quite uneventful expect for the beautiful fjords, the volcanoes we saw along the way (including Chaiten who had just become active again a couple of weeks ago), the wonderful sunsets, rainbows and starry skies and of course the bingo we played on the last night.

After 4 days on the ferry with nowhere to go except upstairs/downstairs and round the boat I was feeling kind of antsy and eager to get back on land and move. I decided to join Christoph, Steven and Claudia who were heading to Pucon, a resort village in the Lake District of Chile. I had read that the Lake District was very similar to Switzerland and indeed it felt kind of like coming home: beautfil resort villages, blue lakes, green forests and hills, nice chalets and plenty of chocolate stores. The only thing that does not fit in the “Suiza” picture are the plentiful volcanos.

Villarica Volcano

After resting our legs on the ferry, we were all ready for the next challenge and decided to climb Villarica volcano, an active one, peaking at 2800m. It was kind of hard to get up at 3.30am but luckily we were rewarded with a sunny day and great views from the top. However, to get to the top we had to walk uphill for approx. 5 hours. Volcanos may look pretty from a distance but when you try to clim up it’s actually quite nasty because the volcanic terrain consists of all kinds of loose rocks, gravel, sand and hence for every 2 steps forward you make one backward. Fortunately, a big chunk of Villarica is covered by snow/ice and walking with crampons made things a lot easier. Once we got to the top I wanted to take a deep breath of mountain air but oh la la my nose and eyes did not like the toxic volcano gases… Thanks to the early rise we were back in the village at 1pm and had plenty of time to spend on the beach (of course with black sand).  To top things off,  the friendly owner of our hostel gave us a ride to the hot springs that night and we went to bed rejuvenated.

Yes, we made it!

This definitely smelled like a volcano!

Beautiful views and sunshine while descending Villarica volcano

Well, after the wonderful climb it was time to say goodbye to Steven, Christoph and Claudia. We had a lot of fun, especially with our Dutch friend Steven who kept promoting World Peace the whole time and was convinced “Schmick Schmack Schmeckel” means bon appetit in German.

World Peace Steven taking his campaign to the beach

I was heading back across the border to Argentina, more precisely to Junin de Los Andes, close to the Lanin National Park. During the bus ride we had spectacular views of Lanin (3775m), another volcano (but a passive one). For a while I was contemplating to climb Lanin as well (which is substantially more difficult than Villarica) but then decided I still had enough black sand in my trekking boots and should save my energy for some other mountain. So I just did some easy hiking instead and spent some time in the picturesque resort town of San Martin de Los Andes that lies at the Northern end of the 7 Lake Route (and hence quite touristy).

Lanin volcano

Modern church in Junin de los Andes

Lago Lacar, San Martin de los Andes

Meanwhile my friend Patrick has arrived in Buenos Aires and we have made arrangements to meet up in Mendoza in the next couple of days. Will keep you posted about our adventures in and around the city of sunshine and wine.

Notes from 55º South

It has been almost one month since I started travelling and I have made it all the way to the southern tip of the South American continent in Ushuaia (the latitude here is 55º South). Hence this is a good time to reflect on the past couple of weeks…

I was pleasantly surprised about the safety and infrastructure when I arrived in Buenos Aires (even though the locals would probably disagree on this). Compared to the other South American countries I visited 10 years ago, this looks very civilized and relatively well organized (I was shocked to find out that buses actually depart on time!). Buenos Aires comes across as a cosmopolitan city but mostly so because its citizens have roots from all over the world. I was amazed to see the whole spectrum of hair and eye colours and it’s actually quite helpful because I do not stand out as the obvious gringo. “The Argentine is an Italian that speaks Spanish but would love to be English” as one of my fellow travellers explained. Another pleasant surprise was that my Spanish still quite useful despite 10 years without practice. One point I noticed immediately is that the rhythm of life down here is upside down. People go for dinner after 10pm, the bars and clubs are only frequented from around 2-3am and of course no one goes home before 6am.  So, if you feel like unleashing the party animal slumbering inside of you, come down here!! The city of Buenos Aires comes across as a mix of New York and Paris. There is a lot of history down here, lots of beautiful buildings, lovely cafes and restaurants but also lots of trees and parks. All the neighborhoods are quite different and my favorite ones are Palermo (which reminds me of the Upper West Side in NYC) and San Telmo (a mix of Soho/Meatpacking District) where all the cool bars and restaurants are. The food is heavily dominated by Pizza, Pasta and of course BBQ. The first time I went to a BBQ restaurant I tried to play it safe by ordering a skewer but nevertheless I was given 5 pieces of heavenly meat which must have totalled at least 400grams. Well, I went home pretty full and happy that night, also because the meal did not cost a fortune. Generally though the times when Argentina was “cheap as chips” are over. Several locals have mentioned that prices have risen by about 200-300 precent over the last couple of years and this is not making their life any easier. In fact, I also noticed that the prices indicated in my travel guide (published in 2008) seem quite out of date and the further south you go the pricier it gets. Sadly I think it will only be a matter of time before Argentina “blows up” again. One of my friends from Buenos Aires told me that the whole middle class has been wiped  out over the last 30 years or so and surely salaries will not increase in line with the dramatic price increases people are experiencing. On top of that there are some other interesting developments which make the daily life of Portenos (citizens of Buenos Aires) miserable. There is a “crisis de monedas” (crisis of coins), meaning that there are not enough coins available and no one knows why. Well, too bad that all the buses are operating purely on coins and if you have no coins you get no ride. Since buses are the principal mean of transportation (the railways went bankrupt about 15 years ago), people are really struggling to find the change for their daily rides. One theory says that the bus companies are hoarding all the coins while another one is saying that coins are not produced anymore because the cost of production is higher than the actual value of the coins. Anyway, I have seen Qs of several hundred meters, Portenos trying to change money. But as always, the locals are quite creative to find solutions and so it has happened to me a couple of times that I was given candy instead of change in the supermarkets.

In terms of travelling, I have spent one week in Buenos Aires and then made my way south to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. In Patagonia I have been to Calafate, Chalten and Torres del Paine (on the Chilean side). Patagonia is primarily a trekking heaven with a combination of amazing landscapes, lakes of various colours, breathtaking glaciers, spectacular mountains, beautiful flora/fauna and last but not least surprising weather patterns. People say if you want to experience the four seasons just spend a day in Patagonia. Unfortunately, the weather gods have not been on my side and so I got to experience the full spectrum of rain, snow, hail, fog, wind, sunshine etc.  (in fact I have not seen so many rainbows since my childhood!) Well, I guess after sitting in an office for 20 years I was looking to get more exposure to nature again and so I should not complain. I am also certain now that my gear is totally weather proof. My favorites in Patagonia are definitely Torres del Paine National Park and a village called El Chalten (aka trekking capital of Argentina). I could not wait to get on the hiking trails and I must have walked something like 120-150km in 10 days (not regretting any single step!). It’s amazing to walk on these trails and see how the landscape changes every kilometer depending on how exposed it is to wind and rain. Also I love the moutains down here which come in amazing shapes, although they often try to hide their beauty behind clouds. However, once they peek through the clouds it leaves you breathless. I always thought that Switzerland had a monopoly on beautiful mountains – definitely reconsidering that. The other beauties down here are the glaciers. The best known of course, Perito Moreno, at an altitude of only 200m above sea level (another confirmation of the special weather patterns down here) and one of the few glaciers in the world that can maintain its size. Others are less fortunate though and I was told for example that Glaciar Grey (in Torres del Paine) has retraced by 2km in only 10 years! In Chalten I was able to do some glacier trekking on Glaciar Torre and was truly impressed by the beautiful colours and amazing shapes. After that much hiking I decided to head to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, a grueling bus ride of more than 20 hours. Ushuaia sits at a latitude of 55º South and is officially labelled as the end of the world (fin del mundo). After driving through flatlands for many hours, the setting of Ushuaia is spectacular in a bay and surrounded by snow capped mountains. I did not expect more mountains at the end of  the world… Actually I was even told that they have pretty good skiing down here, something that may be worthwhile trying out on another trip (this is true for Patagonia also, which is said to have much more stable weather in winter time and of course much fewer tourists). Ushuaia is also the base for tourists travelling to Antartica – I had no idea that more than 40,000 people are taking that trip every year. I met several people who had taken the trip and could not stop raving about it.

Anyway, I am definitely not taking a trip to Antartica, so the only way from here is north!

  Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires

 San Telmo, Buenos Aires

   Torres del Paine National Park

Perito Moreno Glacier

 On Torre Glacier

Tierra del Fuego

 Early Morning in Ushuaia, at the end of the World

  Laguna los Tres and Mount Fitz Roy