Friday, January 21, 2011

Patagonia #3 and Buenos Aires

For the trip back up to Bariloche to drop the car off we decided to travel along the Atlantic coast then cut back across to the West when we got level with Bariloche, making a big loop. This was so we could check out the penguin colony at Punta Tombo and also the canyons on the way back across. From Ushuaia it was five days of all day driving, stopping overnight in Rio Gallegos, Comodoro Rivadavia, Trelew and with another night in Trevelin. Thankfully we had seen the last of the gravel so it was open freeway all the way.

One great thing about driving in Argentina and particularly Patagonia is that the traffic police don't seem to be interested in doing anything other than ID-ing drivers at checkpoints (luckily they only ask for a passport, I didn't have a licence....). This means that out on the open road anything goes; we were regularly passed while doing 140km an hour. When you're driving over 1000km a day this can save you a lot of time, trust me.


In one little town on the way we stopped for some bakery treats and noticed that Patagonian Santa apparently uses guanacos instead of reindeer, nice!








On the third day we left Comodoro Rivadavia early so we could stop off at Punta Tombo on the way to Trelew. The penguin colony there is home to over 500,000 magellanic penguins as well as a host of other wildlife and is the largest penguin colony outside of Antarctica.




Mother penguin with baby




We saw quite a few cuys scurrying around too, possibly the cutest animal ever?




A rhea


Through the desert canyons on the road across to Bariloche


We got the car back to Bariloche in one piece (thank God) and before giving it a clean we thought we'd quickly take it in to the depot and see what they said. Turns out that despite being covered in dirt and with a big star in the windscreen, a dent on the side and the dodgy spare it was all good so we signed off on it and went out for a big fat loin steak to celebrate.




We then got the overnight bus up to Buenos Aires for Mum's last few days and for me to catch up with Denny from Ecuador for an Aussie christmas away from home.

We stayed right in the centre of town, between the congress and the main square with the cathedral and the "pink house", the presidential palace. Buenos Aires is a huge crazy city and in the week or so I was there I barely scratched the surface of what there was to see. I did manage to check out an impressive cemetery, the colurful painted houses in La Boca and a did a nice walking tour of the old buildings with Mum.


At the cemetery in Recoletta, home to the grand tombs of Argentina's rich and famous


After two days in the City it was time to see Mum off at the airport. Seeing Mum walk into the customs area was quite sad; it was a great three and a half weeks and an amazing trip I'm sure both of us will never forget. I'm sure the rental car won't either!



Back in the hostel I now had a few days to rest after the hectic driving before Denny and her friend Emily arrived for Christmas. I spent those days doing a lot of lazing around and wandering aimlessly through the streets, watching the almost constant street protests and just breathing in the atmosphere of this crazy city.



This march was for marijuana legalisation, definitely the nicest smelling one!




Adding to the craziness were a lot of homeless people camped out in the parks and streets. This is a camp of plastic and paper recyclers in the park out the front of the federal congress building




Christmas was great fun, going out on the town the night before and heading out to a park with the girls for Christmas lunch.



La Boca, home to Maradonas soccer team, Boca Juniors. Unfortunately as we were walking the few blocks from the football stadium to the tourist strip Emily had her bag snatched while Fernando her Argentinian friend was put in a headlock. This was in broad daylight in a relatively safe looking part of town. You can never be too careful....




A few days after Christmas Denny flew off to Africa to complete her around the world adventure and I caught the bus up to Iguazu Falls.


Thursday, January 20, 2011

Patagonia #2

Back over the Andes again and into Argentina we made yet another border crossing west of Coihaique and started the long two day drive down to El Calafate. Once over the border and into Argentinian Patagonia the scenery changed almost instantly from the lush steep mountains east of the Andean ridge to the low, arid sweeping scrubland that extends west all the way to the Atlantic coast. The roads changed as well from reasonably good paved roads in Chile to hundreds of kilometres of rough, dusty gravel. The main road we took down through Argentina, the legendary ruta 40, is being remade in bitumen parallel to the current gravel road; it was kind of cool to be able to make this famous journey in its original form before the tourist hoards come streaming through on the nice new road.

Coming up through a pass in the hills we stopped to take a photo of the view and by some freaky luck there was a big fat lizard on a rock right at our feet. Turns out this lizard is well known among the locals as having a poisonous bite (due to the bacteria living in its mouth). Good thing I didn't try to catch it....


That day turned out to be a great one for wildlife, the next sighting being an armadillo streaking across the road. I leapt out of the car and gave chase through the tussocks and after ten minutes of searching I found it hiding between two bushes. It was quite relaxed so we gave it a little pat (the armour was very hard but had little soft hairs between the plates) and followed for ten minutes as he snuffled around looking for bugs. Definitely a wildlife highlight for both of us.


There were also Guanacos (wild Llamas) everywhere and a lot of Rheas too (flightless birds like small emus).

Guanacos


A rare and welcome stretch of bitumen



There were little roadside shrines everywhere, even in the most remote areas. Mostly they are dedicated to the Mother Mary or one of the local gods of traveling. This one was half a boat sticking out of a brick wall, not sure what thats about......


We spent the first night in the unremarkable rural town of Gobernador Gregores and continued down to El Calafate, passing the spectacular lakeside Fitzroy Massif on the way.


We arrived in El Calafate in the early afternoon and after securing a hostel room for the night we drove out along the lake to check out the Perito Moreno glacier.

Coming in on the walkway, this thing is MASSIVE....
The left side



The right side


The 74 metre face close up


Perito Moreno is one of the very few glaciers worldwide that are actually advancing in light of global warming, with several feet of ice being pushed forward every day. We stayed for a couple of hours in the chilly wind, watching for and hearing the frequent calvings of icebergs and big ice chunks crashing down from the face. Then it was back to town for a dinner of supermarket food and another brief rest before more driving the next day.

Our goal was to check out Torres del Paine in Chile for a few hours on the way down and make it across to Rio Gallegos for the evening, which would mean two more border crossings. Unfortunately the weather was not great so our time at the Torres was spent searching for glimpses of the peaks between the clouds but we did manage to get a couple of snaps.


After the night in Rio Gallegos we started the final part of the drive down South to Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel, the Southernmost city in the world.
Ushuaia
In Ushuaia we spent a couple of days walking around checking out the "end of the world", catching up on laundry, shopping and going on a small train trip through the national park to the site of a former prison camp noted for its brutal conditions.
Also the sunset was amazing

The night before we left it snowed heavily, giving us some amazing views as we drove through the pass amongst the jagged peaks of the Martial range.


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Patagonia #1

Turns out I was spot on time to pick up Mum so after a coffee and a chat we went into the city to our nice hotel that mum had organised from Australia, a welcome change for me after four and a half months of slumming it. We had a couple of days for checking out Santiago (probably the nicest city in SA I've been to) and giving mum a chance to recover from the jet lag and then caught the overnight bus down to Puerto Varas in the Chilean lakes district.



Santiago




We arrived in the early morning and while we were waiting for the hostels to open we spent a few hours down by the lake eating left over bus food and watching some local fisherman reel in a dozen or so big trout off the pier. The afternoon was spent walking around the lake taking in the stunning volcano views and eating a hearty lunch of paella, a huge wok full of slow cooking rice, seafood and chicken.



The view across the lake from Peurto Varas


From Puerto Varas we caught the bus over the Andes and into Argentina to Bariloche. The ride was pretty horrible as we were seated right next to the toilet and got a big waft of stink every time we hit a bump or turned a sharp corner. Possibly as a result of this our two days in Bariloche were spent moping around with a stomach bug although we did manage to organise a rental car and get in some good steaks and plenty of chocolate (Bariloche is overflowing with chocolate shops).


The plan was to drive from Bariloche down to Ushuaia and back again in two weeks, then spend the last four days cruising up to Buenos Aires for Mum's flight home. Probably should have consulted a map first as a couple of days in we realised we would now have to do 10-12 hour driving days with only two days off in between. It was going to be a mission......


We took it easy for the first day to get used to the car and to driving on the wrong side of the road (which was a lot easier for me because I don't drive much in Australia, Mum nearly killed us at the first intersection) and spent the night in the little rural town of Trevelin.


Nice hostel too



Trevelin

The next morning we drove back over the Andes and into Chile once more for a two day trip down the the Pacific coast via the Careterra Austral to Puerto Aisen, for a boat trip through the fjiords to the San Rafael Glacier.





Through the pass, so cold....



On the first day we picked up a hitchhiker who was lucky enough to witness our only breakdown on the trip; me hitting a head sized rock square on at 50km an hour and almost destroying the front right wheel. None of us had changed a flat before so it took a bit of head scratching to work out what to do but we sorted it out and got back on the road fairly quickly, now with no spare and 300km of rough gravel between us and the nearest proper town. When we arrived in Puerto Aisen we took the wheel in to be fixed and realised the rim was completely bent back upon itself and the tire had a ten centimetre gash in it. Luckily the tire guy had an old bald spare in his repair shack that fit the rim and after ten minutes with a wrench and a hammer had the wheel looking relatively normal again. (when we took the car back they gave the spare a quick poke and that was all, hehe....)



We set off on the boat trip at seven in the morning into the murky clouds which gradually cleared as we went along, revealling more and more of the stunning scenery of steep snow capped mountains jutting out of the sea. The landscape was very similar to Fjiordland in New Zealand, just a little bit bigger and a lot colder.



Four hours later we entered a narrow channel leading to the San Rafael Laguna, a vast iceberg filled lake at the foot of the glacier.



Approaching the glacier



When the big boat had gotten in as close as it dared the Zodiacs were lowered into the water and we were divided into four groups to take turns weaving our way through the massive chunks of bright blue ice to the foot of the glacier, called the terminus.




We spent a good forty five minutes cruising around through the ice, listening to the creaking and groaning of the glacier and looking out for the occaisional big chunk falling off the face and crashing into the sea. As we first approached a particularly big chunk broke off and actually caused a decent sized wave to come roaring towards us, glad we weren't closer when that one fell....



On the way back to port we were treated to an open bar with live saxophone and dancing, and drinks made with 20,000 year old "milleniary ice" from the glacier. Mum and I opted for a scotch on the rocks each, which in Patagonia means four shots of Johnnie red......



Cheers Mum!


We made it back to the hotel at six that night, and crashed early for a good sleep before a big drive back into Argentina the next day.