Blogs from San Martín de Los Andes, Neuquén, Argentina, South America - page 3

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Today I rent a bike and went cycling with Javier. First we did a little trip on the southern side of the beautiful lake and had a rest on a little playa. Afterwards we went back to the city to have some mate with a friend (un alpinista) of Javier on the beach of S.M. de los Andes. Full of energy (thanks to the mate), we did the northern part of the lake, which was quite heavy (steep...) but which lead us to a beautiful beach. You can imagine San Martin as any ski village, but located as Interlaken and with a little latino touch. Tonight Juan will prepare an asado and the porteños (people from Buenos Aires capital), the Chilenos and I will have a nice (and late) dinner. Tomorrow I'll try the San Martinian ... read more


Guten Tag, ich bin mittlerweile in Patagonien angekommen. Das ist das durch die Anden geteilte Grenzgebiet zwischen Chile und Argentinien. Viel Natur und sehr duenn besiedelt. Bin zuerst in San Martin de los Andes angekommen. Das liegt im argentinischen Seengebiet. Wie der Name suggeriert, gibt´s hier sehr viele Seen. :) Hab´dort nur eine NAcht gepennt und bin direkt am naechsten Morgen in den Nationalpark Lanín gefahren. Dort gabs ganz viele Seen (!) und den Vulkan Lanín. Er wird als der schoenste inaktive Vulkan der Welt bezeichnet. Ob´s stimmt, weiss nicht, hab´ja nicht alle gesehen, aber sieht schon ganz schick aus. Der Bus hat einen mitten im Park rausgelassen. Ich hatte eine Karte mit allen Campingplaetzen im Park und hab dann ueberlegt, auf welchem wohl am wenigsten los ist. Ich entschied mich fuer einen und fragte nach ... read more
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Morgens
Abends


We thought it would be a formality leaving Chile, but we didn't expect 2 hours delay at the borders,dirt roads up alpine passes and the heat and dust that was. The scenery and especially Lanin Volcano at 3787m made up for the discomforts and I suppose its given us a taste of border crossing! Over the Andes up to about 1300m, not high, but isolated apart from the borders buildings. We probably could see Lanin for 50km, it stands out as a landmark and is on the border between Chile and Argentina. So they both own it and its part of two national parks, Villarrica NP in Chile and Lanin NP in Argentina. I think Argentina own about two thirds of the volcano so they maybe have the right to call their NP after it. We ... read more
Jumping Argentinian Goats
Old man uses the bulls to drag timber
London Double Decker and Argentinian Flags


Kyle As Tahlei explained in our previous blog, it was in San Rafael where we said our tearful goodbyes to Blake and Rhiannon. It wasn't just the thought of not seeing them again for over a month that made us well-up with emotion, it was also the prospect of being stuck on a bus for the next day or so. We had all planned to do such epic mileage over the next few days it would have even the most seasoned traveller on the verge of breakdown by the end of it. Blake and Rhiannon were doing almost half the length of Argentina and the whole of Bolivia in 5 days. If they were still talking by the end of it they did well. We had the slightly less unenviable task of covering about 800km in ... read more
Camping amidst the sheep
Firing up the barbie in Junín
mate


Zastavka cestou do Bariloche. Cesta z Puconu do Bariloche vede pres San Martin de los Andes a musi se tam prestupovat. A pri prestupu se tam na druhy autobus musi par hodin cekat. Tak jsme se rekli, ze kdyz uz tam budeme, tak bychom tam mohli taky jednu noc zustat a zprijemnit si tak cestu. Horkse mestecko, opet trochu pripominajici Evropu na brehu jezera. Dopoledne dojdeme na vyhlidku na jezero a odpoledne se po jezere projedeme na plaz na druhem brehu. A navecer uz zase autobus a frr do Bariloche!... read more
San Martin-1
San Martin-2
San Martin-3


Nous sommes partis de Santiago, au Chili, et très vite il a commencé à pleuvoir très fort. Il a plut comme ça toute la nuit! Je me suis dit que c'était un bon timing pour ça, étant donné qu'on allait passer une dizaine d'heures dans l'autobus avant d'arriver à notre prochaine destination : le village de Pucon. Dans notre guide "Lonely Planet", ça disait qu'il y avait vraiment plein de choses à faire là comme : de la radonnée, du vélo et même escalader un volcan enneigé avec des bottes à crampons et tout le kit! Et bien malheureusement pour nous, la pluie ne s'est jamais arrêtée. Ou quand elle s'arrêtait, c'était pour quelques minutes, et ça reprenait. On a attendu 2 jours, puis le 3e, on s'est tannés (un on perdait notre "cool" hébergement) et ... read more
Pucon, au Chili
Notre première vraie neige du voyage!
Le volcan Lanin


Barry, being Barry, had some contacts with 2 world-class fly fishing guides. These are the guys who took out George Bush Sr when he visited Argentina. We set up a 2 day drift boat trip in the small town of San Martin. To get to this out-of the-way little town, we had to drive 5 hours up the famous 7 Lakes Road. This drive takes my number one for best drives in the world. Green lake after green lake, mountains, flowers and perfect evening lighting giving a soothing feel to the landscape. We were able to score front seats on the top of our double decker bus so we had a great panoramic view. When we arrived, we were greeted at the bus station by our guide who gave us a ride to our apartment where ... read more
Photo 3
Photo 8
Beautiful scenery


Hey everyone, Thanks again for all your comments, its great to see that people are enjoying the blog and following our adventure! After Mendoza, we headed into Patagonia region, first stop, Bariloche! The drive was beautiful through Patagonia´s Lake District, turquoise waters, mountains and rolling terrain. We arrived in Bariloche and stepped off the bus into surprisingly different weather. It was our first introduction to Patagonian winds and quite a temperature difference from the 40 degree weather in Mendoza! Bariloche is a beautiful town - situated right on a lake, with mountain back drop and the entire town on a hill facing these incredible views. We stayed at a great hostel, Hostel 1004, which was on the 10th floor and overlooking the lake. That day we walked around uptown (discovering that this area is famous for ... read more
Cerro Catedral
View of Bariloche below from our hostel
Our first break along our hike


In my last report, we were in Pucon Chile. The journey following from there, was one of the best journeys we have had until now! We first drove shortly from Pucon to cross the border to Argentina. Though it was already the 3rd time we crossed the border between these 2 countries, we were excited yet afraid as it was the first time we were about to cross with the car we just rented, and we hoped there will be no problems with the paper work - this is not Europe, and so crossing borders with a car requires special permit, power of attorney etc. We indeed had a small problem, regarding the car insurance, but somehow, the clerk in the Argentinian border found what he was looking for in our papers, and we got the ... read more
Traful lake - sunset
Traful lake at morning time
Meliquine lake


So we have arrived in a town that could be Vail´s sister...except CHEAPER....much CHEAPER!!!!! Its a small communtiy situated on a lake in a valley between two mountains. We spent the day hiking around to various Miradors (lookouts).... read more
San Martin
San Martin
San Martin




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