The great traveling adventures of Señor Burnie Snapper
Follow Señor Burnie Snapper as he tango's his way through Buenos Aires, rocks Iguazzu falls, crawls through salty planes, stumbles through the vineyards of Mendoza and scales the glaciers in Patagonia.
We made an unsuccessful, yet valliant effort to get up early and head to the Perito Moreno Glacier. In the end we didn't head out until about 10 am. First stop was the car rental agency (who btw offered helmet and body gear rentals with their vehicles). The car rental was a bit tricky since Leah had her licence but only limited experience driving standard, Adam could drive standard but didn't have his license, I had my licence but can't drive standard and Chris didn't have a licence nor was he able to drive a car. In the end Leah and Adam rented with Leah's licence and Adam as a secondary driver. To keep up pretenses, Leah somewhat successfully drove the car off the lot. As soon as we got around the corner, Adam switched to ... read more
There was a lot of debate whether or not we would attempt to get down to El Calafate. It's definitely not the easiest place to get to in Argentina. Our choices were a 36 hour bus ride with 4 different buses, driving down a closed route 40 (like in Motorcycle Diaries) or a dodgy 2 hour flight. We opted to fly. We arrived in El Calafate around 2 in the afternoon and spotted some other back packers to share a cab with into town. The place is pretty desolate. There's glacier fed lakes and some mountains but it's mostly sand and rock. The stray dogs were everywhere and covered in sand flees. Our hostel was just outside of town but had nice clean rooms and super friendly staff. Once we dropped off our bags we decided ... read more
So today we had a sleep in and got ready for our paragliding excursion. We were told we'd get a phone call in the morning to see whether or not the weather would be suitable for a flight. The wind was too strong in Bariloche so they suggested we drive to El Bolson instead. It was now too late for the morning so we were told to be ready for 2 p.m. In the meantime, Leah and I decided to take the city bus over to Cerra Otto mountain. It was a lovely drive along the lakeshore and when we arrived we took a chairlift up to the top. The views were spectacular of all the mountains and lakes. The weather was extremely clear so you could see for miles. It was pretty windy though so ... read more
Got to sleep in for my b-day. What bliss! I wanted to go kayaking but the weather wasn´t great. We booked a morning horse back riding tour instead. A guy picked us up in his truck and drove us to a field where the horses were waiting and we headed up the mountain. I´m not much of a horse rider but the horses were pretty calm and took direction well. We took a pretty steep path up the mountain and ended up at a look out about 3/4 of the way up. There was a great view of the mountains and area. It was only a 2 hour ride so we headed back down. Leah´s horse wasn´t so keen to go very fast so required a lot of encouragement from the guide. We made it back ... read more
Bariloche - lake district of Patagonia. It´s the first large expanses of water we´ve seen since we got here. Our room over looks lake Nuel Huapi (sp?) and the mountains are all around us. Once again, the scenery is stunning. The town looks a lot like a swiss village with beautiful wooden buildings and mountain side lodging. We headed straight for the main market for some tourist information and then wandered around the town. I wandered around the town and some some great artisan markets. Most notable thing here is the dramatic increase in pricing and touristic stuff. It´s a real ski village with ski rental stuff around every corner. Bariloche is also known for chocolate making so it was a must to check out ¨Mamuschka¨. Delicious! This was the one thing that wasn´t too expensive. ... read more
We got up this morning knowing it was our last day in Mendoza. So far this has been one of my favourite places in Argentina (not to mention, the nice hotel that we treated ourselves to). We packed up our stuff and put it in storage for the day. The Lonely Planet recommended heading to Maipu for wine touring. After some confusion over which bus to take we finally got on the right one and had about a 40 min. ride to the outskirts of Mendoza which is known for good vineyars all close together. We got off the bus and headed to Mr. Hugo´s to rent bikes for the day. I wanted a bike with a basket to carry the wine around but it turned out those bikes were more rickety than without. I nearly ... read more
So with some hesitation we decided to book another all day high mountain pass bus tour... I refused to book it with the hostel and went to a travel agent recommended by an Australian couple we met at the spa. It turned out to be a great choice. Most of the bus was Argentinians but many of them spoke English. There were some surly Germans in the back but they mostly kept to themselves. It was another early departure and we were heading into the foothills of the mountains as the sun rose over the valley. The Andes are absolutely breathtaking. Here there´s much more vegetation than in Salta and the road follows the Mendoza River for most of the trip. The bus went along highway 7 which is the official road to Chile. We stopped ... read more
Mendoza spa was absolutely spectacular and exactly what the doctor ordered. We got to sleep in at the nice hotel, they picked us up and drove us to the spa (about 1 hr away). First things first, we booked a massage for the afternoon and then headed for the pools. We paid a few extra pesos to have a bathrobe for the day. That way we didn´t have to put our clothes back on for lunch (ha!). They had a really neat cave/steam room that we started in then went out to the hottest pool. Of course I jumped into every single one, including the 12 degree cold pool. I got a lot of entertained smiles from the Argentinians who had no intention of trying the cold pool - ever! There was also a mud pool ... read more
Thank goodness for first class buses is all i have to say. The bus ride from Cordoba went smoothly and we all actually slept. The only problem was arriving in Mendoza at 6:30 in the morning. We ended up wandering around the town looking for a nice hotel before the sun had even come up! What a weather change too. Only 0 degrees when we arrived While we didn´t manage to find a 4 star hotel, we did find something really good. (We did ask for a room at the 4 star Hyatt Hotel but they were over $300/night!). We checked out a place from the lonely planet - Hotel San Martin. It´s the low season so we ended up with a huge suite with a sitting room overlooking the main plaza of Mendoza. The room ... read more
Well it turns out that going Cama suite on the bus really is the only way to go. We could only get semi-cama for our 16 hour bus ride from Salta to Cordoba and we didn´t sleep a wink. Our plan was to arrive this morning, drop off our bags and wander about the city until 10 p.m. when we catch another(!) 10 hr overnight bus to Mendoza. Did I mention that we figure we have the swine flu as well???! Not a pleasant trip when you can´t breathe in addition to everything else. We arrived this morning in the pouring rain. Not a great start after we´d been up all night but the rain cleared up pretty quickly only to be replaced by a freezing cold wind. We stowed our bags and headed for the ... read more
