Blogs from San Martín de Los Andes, Neuquén, Argentina, South America - page 8

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes November 19th 2005

So it was beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, amazing. Every corner brought a new view, a new surprise, the road dragged us onwards ... blah, blah, blah ... I´m sure you get the idea, and if not, wait until I get another CD burnt of my photos and I´ll show you what I mean. In short it was a pretty amazing day. There were a few niggles. Firstly the bitumen pavement ended about 1km from where we camped :( ... but it was 50km of the best dirt road we´ve cycled so far by a long, long way. Plus it becomes bitumen again at the Southern end of Lago Espejo, about 15km before El Cruce where we´re spending tonight. Another slight complaint was that about 8kms (of wonderfull downhill) from our windy and wet campsite we found another ... read more

Two types of day

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes November 18th 2005

Up that hill again

jkd

It´s funny how when cycling you seem to have two types of day every day. Whilst you´re out there, the hills always seem so steep, relentless headwinds slow you to a crawl, rude drivers splash water and mud on you or drive you into the soft gravel on the side of the road, showers pass through all day chilling your hands and feet, the gravel roads just go on and on and on, and endless cries of why do I do this echo through your head (and if cycling with Christie you also get frequent expletives echoing around you ... I need to have words with her mum when I get home about her vocabulary) .... But then, in the evening, when you´re sitting by your tent in a gorgeous campground or with a beer in ... read more

And on the fifth day, they rested.

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes November 17th 2005

jkd

It rained all morning. We slept, ate breakfast, slept some more, ate lunch ... you get the picture. I discovered that blogs with photos take a bloody long time to put together (spent 6 hours in total most of which is sitting around waiting for photos to upload). The end. Forward Planning We did some rough forward planning this morning. Rough plan from here is to take a week to get to Bariloche and Puerto Montt. Another week or so from there through Chiloé to Chaiten. Two weeks to cycle the Carretera Austral to Chile Chico. Three or four weeks to bus to El Chalten then cycle to Calafate and Torres Del Paine (Christmas and new year should fall in there somewhere). Then a week or two to get down to Ushaia and back to Puerto ... read more

It´s a wonderful day today ...

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes November 16th 2005

The sign says it all ...

jkd

What a glorious mornings ride. We set off on our bikes before 9am and then enjoyed 3 or 4 hours of demanding but wonderful cycling. There were several significant climbs uphill over the first 22kms, usually followed by a fast downhill straight back down to the lake shore giving up all the hard work we´d done, but as I´ve found in the past if you hate the downhills because of the uphills to come well you just shouldn't be cycling. Christie´s achilles and knee were really hurting her by the time we stopped for a bit of a break and we were both looking forward to a rest in San Martin. We finally made it to the plateau above the lake, and got to enjoy 10km of fast riding down a long valley, a short climb ... read more

wet and wild in San Martin

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes October 28th 2005

boat on Lago Villarica

emmy

Well, this is the first well and truly miserable weather day so far. It's been raining (not hard, but constant) since last night, but at least it has moderated the temperature a bit. Yesterday afternoon it was 9C. The sun is supposed to come out again tomorrow for a nice weekend, so hopefully I can get out there with the camera and see some of the sights... As soon as you cross over the Andes from Chile to, you notice the change in climate - Argentina is obviously in the rainshadow of the Andes, as it gets very dry very quickly on the other side. I didn't think there'd be as many Monkey Puzzle trees because it was so dry, but the base of Volcan Lanin was thick with them (just over the Argentine border). The ... read more

YOU: The Owner's Manual : An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes September 9th 2005

Austin

just when you take the eye off the ball it lands on your face...the resulting connection could either end up in the top corner or just knock you on your feet..... well right now...we are heading straight into that top corner....and the celebration will be as crazy as the situation was a fuckin´blessing! once again we´ve gone to hell in that old handcart.....but the inflight service is a peach.....the only way is up..... nuff 4 now.....but we´ll meet again..... Wonderfully consequencial, wonderfully insane.....and it just fills a great void for parents and educators by offering practical ways to change the developmental course for boys at risk. boys at risk.....hummmm......peril or pearl....well this ones shiny...and a pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain mollusks, primarily oysters...god damn... read more

Hello from Nowheresville, Argentina

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » San Martín de Los Andes March 23rd 2005

Trekking success

Royals

Brace yourselves - this is gonna be a long one! Since seeing sealions be cut off in their prime we've been up to all sorts, not least trekking, fishing, drinking, travelling and more drinking. Today is a bad day, hence the title and if you're patient enough to read to the end of this entry you'll know why. From Puerto Madryn we went to a place called El Calafate, where the last diary entry was written from. The big appeal of El Calafate is the Perito Moreno glaciar, a quite phenomal natural landmark slapbang in the middle of a lake. We spent a day wandering around the national park in which it is housed and then got a boat trip out onto the lake towards the edge of the glaciar. From time to time there was ... read more

An elated Andy reaches the end of the all day trek...

Brief history of Argentina

Following independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina experienced periods of internal political conflict between conservatives and liberals and between civilian and military factions. After World War II, a long period of Peronist authoritarian rule an...more history

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