Argentina

It took us an exhausting 28 hours to fly from South Africa, up to Dubai, down to Rio de Jinero and on to Buenos Aires, but we finally made it to South America!! Our last continent of the trip! We wanted so badly to include Brazil into the mix, but between the exorbitant visa fees, overall expense and size of the country, and our limited time on the continent, we decided to reserve Brazil for its own trip in future years. So, our South American adventure started in Argentina.

We ended up spending about four more days in Buenos Aires than we had planned due to flight schedules down to Patagonia, but that afforded us plenty of opportunity to explore all the nooks and crannies of the vibrant city.

Congreso de la Nacion Argentina

Catedral Metropolitana

Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace) - home to the balcony that Evita often used to address the poor laborers that supported her.

 

The newly developed waterfront where the wealthy live and all the modern office buildings dwell.

Obelisco on the world's widest boulevard & Plaza General San Martin

Statue of Don Quixote - brings back memories of 4th year Spanish at WMC!

Avenue de Mayo - Famous French-inspired avenue

One afternoon we took a trip to the historic La Boca neighborhood. Although most of the neighborhood has turned very poor and dangerous, there is one street packed with colorful buildings, al fresco dining, impromptu tango performances and loads of tourist shops. I'm glad we went, but we didn't stay long because the area was so Disney-fied that it had lost all authentic charm it must have once had. We did attempt to attend a famous La Boca Juniors soccer game while we were staying in BA, but their fan base is so massive that it is nearly impossible to get tickets.

It was in Buenos Aires that we discovered which city was Blair's ideal home. Due in large part to the massive portions of steak and potatoes, the artsy culture and prominence of Argentinian tango, Blair fell in love with the bustling city. We had done a tango for our wedding dance 3.5 years prior, so we were feeling pretty confident that we could pull out a few moves during the milonga night (open dance night at a local dance hall) we had decided to attend. We arrived around 10pm so we could get some practice in before the night really started to heat up between 11pm-4am. It wasn't long until reality set in and we discovered just how bad we really are! Even at 10pm, couples were whipping around the dance floor doing moves we couldn't even comprehend.  We sat for hours just watching each couple glide gracefully around the dance floor in complete awe and intimidation.  We later learned that we had stumbled in during the celebration of one of the true Argentinian professional's birthdays.  A large portion of the crowd consisted of true pros, so that made us feel a little bit better. It made for a pretty incredible night of spectating, if not actual dancing.  Before we left, we did muster up enough courage to dance one song.  We stumbled and tripped on each other's feet (me being mostly at fault) while trying to stay out of everyone's way and then ran out of the joint before we could be laughed onto the street! A few days later we decided to take a lesson to work on our tango basics--it was a good refresher on the basics, but we have a few more years of practice ahead of us if we ever hope to return to Buenos Aires to run with the 'big dogs'.

Empanada tasting tour in the trendy Palermo neighborhood

On Sunday afternoon, we rounded the corner near the Congress building and were confronted by a massive political rally for the new prime minister. It was cool to see people so enthusiastic about politics, complete with confetti, banners, drums and dancing. I can't say as I have seen such a lively demonstration during a political rally in the States, but I guess it's not too surprising with all the economic challenges Argentina is facing these days.

After observing the rally for a while, we ventured to San Telmo to explore the Sunday antique market. We heard that there was still World War II and Nazi stuff to be found but we never really looked hard enough to find it. Even so, the shops and architecture in the oldest neighborhood of the city were fun to explore.

After nine fun-filled days in Buenos Aires, we hopped a flight to the Fin del Mundo...the End of the World! Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world and dwells on the Tierra del Fuego peninsula in Southern Patagonia. On our first day, we hitchhiked to the trailhead of Laguna Esmerelda. It took awhile to be picked up, but eventually a trucker pulled over and gave us a ride.  The hike to the mountain lake was an easy and beautiful one.

The next day we caught an early taxi with a new Spanish friend, Oscar, to the Tierra del Fuego National Park to spend the day hiking. Our early arrival awarded us some spectacular scenery without competing with hordes of tourists.  We spent most of our time in the middle of nowhere without another soul in sight.

Southern most post office in the world

The next morning we started the long journey by bus up to Rio Grande, by ferry over the Straits of Magellan, across the border to Punta Arenas, Chile and then up to Puerto Natales. We intended to spend a day hiking in the Torres del Paine National Park because we had heard such spectacular things about the scenery there. It was well out of our way, but we were sure it would be worth it once we started hiking.

Our cozy hostel in Puerto Natales

Sadly, luck was not on our side as we visited the park. From the sounds of it, the weather was complete crap for weeks on end. Many backpackers had done the five and eight day treks without even glimpsing the stunning peaks even once, so on our one day trek, chances were slim that we would get to see anything. Unfortunately, we not only had a cloudy day without views of the mountains, but it was so rainy that they shutdown the trail completely. We had spent three days journeying to the park and literally only hiked for one hour before having to head back to the bus. I would dare say that this was the biggest, and most expensive fail of our travels thus far. Being the frugal gal that I am, I think I was in a bitter mood over the lost money for three days afterwards. Ah well...It was bound to happen at some point in our nine months of travel.

With spirits low from the failed hike, we headed back across the border to El Calafete, Argentina. Our day at the Perito Moreno Glacier quickly lifted our spirits, though! The 97 sq mile glacier is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world, so massive chunks of the face are constantly breaking off and crashing into the icy water below. In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to strap on some crampons and trek across the surface of the glacier, which offered a pretty spectacular perspective of the massive hunk of ice!

From El Calafate we bused to El Chalten. Besides one day of freezing cold wind a rain, we got very lucky with the weather.  The first day we trekked up to the Tres Lagos at the foot of Mount Fitz Roy. The following day, though a bit more cloudy, we had a great hike up to the base of Cerro Torre.

Our next and final Patagonian destination was Bariloche. The town was the most quaint, and the region the most beautiful we had seen so far in Patagonia. Since we were further north, the weather was much more comfortable, and the entire region was a network of interlocking lakes lined with tree covered mountain landscapes. The region and architecture was reminiscent of Berchtesgaden, Germany...with good reason, too. Hundreds of Nazi's fled here after WWII to avoid the consequences of their atrocious war crimes. It was hard to love a setting so much, but hate that so many horrible people were able to escape their country and move to a new place equally as beautiful and serene. We found ourselves gazing over vast and beautiful panoramas with a bitter taste in our mouths.

25km Circuito Chico bike ride along the 7 Lakes

Refugio Frey Trek outside of Bariloche

By the time we left Patagonia, our legs were exhausted from all the hiking and we were ready to relax and drink some wine.  We bused up to Mendoza and stayed in the Maipu region. I don't have much to say about Mendoza. The region is world renowned for its Malbec wine and beautiful landscape--but, if it's there, we didn't see it! We stayed at a dumpy hostel in, apparently, the low budget area of the wine region. We rented bikes with visions of peddling down quaint country roads and stopping along the way to tour the local wineries. In reality, we trudged alongside a busy, dusty, industrial main road on piece of shit bikes and were advised to only venture to the closest wineries off the main drag to avoid being robbed along the way. The few wineries we did visit were fly infested dumps serving less than mediocre wines.  After a day of wine tasting, we were eager to leave Mendoza as quickly as possible. I will say that many people have had magical experiences in the region, so I can't cast off the whole region as a waste of time...just DON'T bother with Maipu!

Tempus Alba- The nicest bodega we found in Maipu

 

From Mendoza, we made our way across the Andes into Chile. I will post separately about our adventures in Chile, but we spent a week and a half there and then travelled back into Argentina for our third and final visit.  This time, we headed to the northern regions of Salta and Jujuy--guacho country! This region was vastly different from any of the other regions we had visited thus far. The land was a more barren display of desert mountains and valleys. The people of the region took on traits more reminiscent of Bolivian culture than Argentinian, and the empanadas were the best we had in the entire country!

Beautiful Catholic Cathedrals of Salta

Easter candlelit service at Basilica Menor San Francisco in Salta

Views of Salta from Cerro San Bernardo

While in Salta, we met a couple who had been traveling around the world for the past 8 months. Helene was from the South of France and Tiago was from Portugal. It was a fateful meeting over breakfast at our hostel when we learned that they also wanted to rent a car and traverse the route through Cafayate and Cachi. The following day, the four of us jumped in a car and started our two day journey through the beautiful Argentinian desert!

Chilis drying in the sun

Authentic Argentinian lunch in Cachi

The other worldly landscape along Route 40 between Cachi and Cafayate

The Quebrada de las Conchas (Gorge of the Shells) region along Route 68 between Salta & Cafayate 

The day after we returned to Salta, Blair and I took a trip to Sayta Cabalgatas, a gaucho ranch outside of Salta. We had a fantastic time riding the horses through the fields and along the rivers of the sprawling valley. In between our morning and afternoon ride, we had a massive feast with steaks and sausage grilled on the parrilla, paired with countless delicious side dishes and a bottomless glass of red wine from the Cafayate region we had just visited. It was the best we ate in all of Argentina, and Blair impressed (or disgusted) the entire staff and group of riders with the volume of meat he consumed! The afternoon ride was a bit less comfortable with our bulging bellies, but we didn't let that get in the way of our good times! They had taught us how to gallop during our morning ride--a bucket list experience I had been wanting to check off the list. Feeling more comfortable on the horses during our afternoon ride, a portion of our group took off at full gallop (against our guides' wishes) down a long and straight gravel road. Up until then, I never really understood people's obsession with horses--after the thrill of racing down the road, hair blowing in the wind, feeling the strength and grace of the massive animal, I get it now. It's addicting!

We had so much fun cruising around Salta with Helene and Tiago, that we decided to rent the car for another couple of days to explore the northern Jujuy region. We could cover a lot more ground, get to more remote regions and avoid being shipped through a million souvenir shops on the tourist shuttle buses. Over two days, we wound through the mountainous region and then dropped the car off in La Quiaca, the border town with Bolivia.

The Hill of Seven Colors - Purmamarca, Argentina

Playing in Salinas Grande in Jujuy

Salinas Grande - one massive mirror

As if 7 Colors wasn't enough, we visited the Hill of 14 Colors as well! Can you see them all!?

We did it! We made it all 5121km (plus all the extra km's going back and forth to Chile) from the bottom of Argentina to the top!! 

We spent a total of five weeks exploring the wildly different regions of Argentina and still didn't manage to hit them all. Even so, we had a blast with all the people we met and loved the country and all the variety it offered.