Page 6 of barrygahan Travel Blog Posts


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barrygahan
November 9th 2007

I think we could easily have spent our entire trip exploring North-West Argentina, as it's a beautiful region, the weather is perfect - well a little too hot, perhaps - and there is plenty to see and do, much more than we had initially expected. We had originally planned two weeks in the north west, but that quickly became three, and would easily have become four had we not taken the decision to move on. Tucumán: Where the siesta should be obligatory San Migual de Tucumán (or Tucumán as practically every one calls it) is the largest city in the northwest but we spent less time here than in any other place we visited, with only 12 hours between our arrival from Tafi del Valle on the bus and and our departure on an overnight bus ... read more



North by Northwest

Published: November 14th 2007South America » Argentina » Salta » Cafayate
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barrygahan
October 29th 2007

Cafayate: Where the wine is so abundant they add it to the ice cream Ten days of hiking and cycling had taken it out of us so it was relaxation time when we reached Cafayate. As soon as we jumped off the bus we were charmed by Emma-Inti from El Balcon into taking a room at her family run hostel. Which we liked so much we ended up staying for four nights. We did do plenty of relaxing in Cafayate, but plenty of hiking too. A great hike near to Cafayate is along the Rio Colorado, where, if you are lucky and persistent you will reach beautiful waterfalls. Armed with a map from the tourist office, lunch, swimsuits and a compass we set off on this hike on a beautiful Sunday morning. We reached the first ... read more



Salta the Beautiful

Published: November 10th 2007South America » Argentina » Salta
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barrygahan
October 29th 2007

Twenty hours after leaving Asuncion we finally arrived at our next destination, Salta, in North-West Argentina. This was the longest bus journey of our trip so far and we were a little unfortunate in that neither of the buses we took had "cama" facilities: I'm not sure such a thing exists in Paraguay, whilst the only bus with spaces from Resistencia to Salta was semi-cama. It might not seem that big a deal but for me it's the fine line between a good night's sleep and staying awake most of the night! At 7am we made it to Salta and were immediately talked into a hostel nearby for 45 pesos. Well, that solved the accommodation problem anyway. Salta is at 1190m altitude so after such a long journey we should probably have taken it easy, but, ... read more



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barrygahan
October 24th 2007

Quebrada de Humahuaca Stunning scenery, great hiking, a UNESCO world heritage site and the chance to see a way of life that has all but disappeared in the rest of Argentina are just some of the memories we have from seeing the Quebrada de Humahuaca. Jujuy may be Argentina's poorest and least-visited province, but it's rich in natural wonders, with one of the country´s finest sights, the Quebrada de Humahuaca (Humahuaca Gorge), a stunning gorge through the Andes which stretches from San Salvador de Jujuy up to the the Bolivian border. The main road through the Quebrada is Ruta 9, which runs starts far away in Cordoba. We haven't seen all Ruta 9, but I reckon we've seen (and cycled) the most beautiful part from Purmamarca to the Tropic of Capricorn. San Salvador de Jujuy is ... read more



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barrygahan
October 18th 2007

A few months before we began our trip I remember we went to Stanfords, the best travel shop in London, to ask for books or any information about Paraguay. And they had practically nothing. No guidebook, no maps, no travel literature; all they offered was Lonely Planet's South America Shoestring guide which gives 29 pages (out of 1000+) to Paraguay. So what was it that put everyone off from travelling here? As we crossed the border from Posadas in Argentina, I read the Lonely Planet to see what we could expect from Paraguay: Friendly people, who all carry guns, and in the countryside, horrible poisonous snakes. Excellent! Paraguay, however, made a good first impression on us. The lady in the tourist office at the border was possibly the most friendly and helpful tourismo person we´ve met ... read more



Brazil in one day

Published: October 23rd 2007South America » Brazil » Paraná » Foz do Iguaçu
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barrygahan
October 15th 2007

It seems a little strange that we've allocated only one day of our whole trip to South America´s largest country, but for reasons of cost and language we've decided to leave the rest of Brazil for another trip. It would take at least 3 months to see Brazil properly and we're having enough problems with Spanish (not to mention budgeting) as it is without introducing a whole new language! Our day trip to Brazil was a short hop across the border from Puerto Iguazu to Foz do Iguacu, both towns named after the nearby waterfalls. The Iguazu Falls are divided between Brazil and Argentina. Argentina has the bigger (and many would also say better) part of the park. We spent more time on the Argentinian side, and I would tend to agree that it's better, though ... read more



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barrygahan
October 14th 2007

Back in Argentina Just as we were leaving Uruguay a big storm hit the Rio Uruguay area so we abandoned our original plan of going to Concordia and Colon; instead we travelled further inland to Parana, on Argentina´s longest river, Rio Parana. The bus from Concordia to Parana was great - we travelled in Cama class which, despite reclining seats, movies, food and drink, is apparently only the third best class of bus in Argentina. I can´t wait to try the others! Argentina seems to have gone rugby mad since we left. The soccer authorities even changed the start time of the football match between River-Plate and Boca Juniors, the biggest club game in the football calendar, as it clashed with one of the Argentina's games. I guess, seeing as we're here now and Ireland are ... read more



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barrygahan
October 2nd 2007

Before we arrived in Uruguay we had planned to visit the country for only a few days, or a week at most. But here we are two weeks later, still in Uruguay and finding it more and more difficult to leave. It´s hard to explain as there isn´t a huge amount to do here in comparison to other countries in South America. However, every time we plan to leave we find an excuse to stay a bit longer! We knew very little about Uruguay before visiting (apart from the fact they've twice won the World Cup of course) as finding information beforehand proved to be difficult. None of the major guidebooks cover Uruguay and all we had with us was a small chapter in an old edition of Lonely Planet´s "South America on a Shoestring". I´ve ... read more



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barrygahan
September 22nd 2007

After two very busy weeks in Buenos Aires, it felt like we needed a holiday, so we went across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia del Sacremento, a relaxed town in south-west Uruguay. We had had a great time in BA but I think it was time for a change. Many people we had spoken to were planning to visit Colonia on day-trips or overnight trips from BA but we decided to really take it easy and stayed here for 3 nights. We took the slowest (also the cheapest) ferry from BA, which meant we had to wake at 6.30 am to arrive in time. I think the previous night´s party was just finishing up at the Downtown Mate hostel at this time but we did manage to get a little bit of sleep before ... read more



The start of an adventure

Published: September 22nd 2007South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires
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barrygahan
September 21st 2007

After years of waiting and months of planning, we finally began our Latin America trip in Buenos Aires. And it couldn´t have started any worse! Not long after we'd reached the city, after an arduous 15 hour flight from London, my wallet was stolen on the subway. As we were boarding a train from a very busy platform at Diagonal Norte station, a man stopped to let us pass in front of him, which we though was very polite, particularly as we had a rucksack and backpack each. Before the doors closed he and two others quickly left the train. I remember thinking this was a bit strange and a couple of seconds later after the doors had closed I realised my wallet was gone. It had been in a zipped up pocket in my trousers ... read more






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