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.

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.