Blogs from San Martín de Los Andes, Neuquén, Argentina, South America

I planned to visit Chachin waterfall in Lanin National Park today. It’s only 27 miles away but 25 are off road. The old man is unenthusiastic but we set off anyway. It’s supposed to take 80 minutes but our little car struggles so much that we take twice as long. Mo Farah could have run it faster. The old man picks up some hitchhikers en route. They don’t speak English and we quickly exhaust my Spanish so we pootle along, very slowly, in silence. At the end is the Chilean border crossing and a ranger station. They tell us the trail to the waterfall is closed due to fallen trees, but suggest we head there anyway, in case it reopens. So we drive even more off road, over a bridge that reminds me of a Top ... read more

EXTREMELY long wait at the Border and even longer day of driving.... Well, I was wondering when this day would come....Jan.29th, we are all needing some space:) Our living in a very very small space 24/7 has hit everyone hard today....after 35 days not bad:):) We arrived late afternoon in San Martin de Los Andes in the Lake District of Argentina. We headed straight for the beach and went for a swim and then Helados (ice cream).....the cure to all! San Martin de Los Andes is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains. We had dinner and explored the town. As it was extremely busy we woke and got outta dodge:):)... read more

sonntags in argentinien… ist wieder mal ein bisschen, wie sonntags bei uns am land: mit rumtata-blasmusik-marschkapelle und buntem volkstanz! das sonntägliche hauptplatz spektakel wird von klein und groß der bevölkerung san martin's und zwei blonden touristen bestaunt - anschließend gibt es kuchen und kaffee ;-) . unsere letzten argentinischen pesos werden in tupperware und reiseproviant investiert… wir organisieren uns zunehmend besser und haben jetzt sogar schon gekochtes mittagessen mit auf den busreisen und unseren eigenen hostel-food-behälter! knuspriger reis mit ei und shrimps (reis!!! juhuuu!) wird getuppert mit zum bus richtung chile genommen. sobald wir die chilenische grenze erreichen wird es kalt, neblig und nass-nass-nass! was ist nur mit chile los? welche wettergötter wurden hier verärgert?! am frühen abend kommen wir in pucon, chile an und müssen leider erfahren, dass uns... read more

My plan for the next few days was to travel north about 3 hours from Bariloche to San Martin De Los Andes. San Martin De Los Andes sits at the northern end of the very beautiful route of the 7 lakes and on the southern edge of the Lanin national park (more lakes and mountains, ho hum), which is dominated by the 3,700m+ Lanin Volcano. Prior to coming to San Martin I had vague plans to join an organised trip to walk/climb around Lanin (this would be good practice for the even higher climb up Cotopaxi when I got to Ecuador). But on arrival, conscious that it might not be the best therapy for my back and finding San Martin less accessible than I had expected, it now seemed unwise and unlikely in the 3 full ... read more

We awoke 'early' at the crack of dawn...well, about 8am which seems early when it is still pitch black outside. We quickly had breakie and got a taxi into town to collect our hire car. Unfortunately, we were informed yesterday that there were no automatic transmission vehicles available for hire anywhere in Bariloche which is annoying considering that I don't really know how to drive a manual. So Rach unwillingly volunteered to be my driver for the day. After getting all the paperwork done in the 'office', we had a short walk to find our car. On the way, we passed all sorts of vehicles ranging from brand new ones to rust buckets and we were holding our breath as to what sort of vehicle our 400 pesos would get us. Thankfully, it was a nice ... read more