PATAGONIA, BARILOCHE 14.-18.12.2009 Buenosairesilaiset ihmettelivät, miksi tahdon matkustaa bussilla La Pampan halki Patagoniaan, Barilocheen. Heidän mielestään koko matka on vain campo, campo, campo, yksi ihminen ja sekin lapsi, pelto, pelto, pelto, lehmiä, pelto, pelto, pelto... Kaupunkilaiset eivät sitten yhtään ymmärrä litteiden ja laakeiden maatalousalueitten kauneutta. Sitä paitsi suuri taivas on jo yksistään nähtävyys puhumattakaan auringonlaskuista ja -nousuista. Aurinko laski La Pampalla ja nousi Patagoniassa. Yhdellä lauseella ilmaistuna: se oli henkeäsalpaavaa. En saanut [View Full Entry]

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Satuimme siis olemaan paikalla, kun Tronadorin jäätiköstä murtui pala jyristen. (lue edellinen blogi) Ja lisää kuvia Patagonian järvistä. [View Full Entry]

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Semaine 18 - Mar del Plata et la region des lacs, Argentine Le debut de la semaine fut plutot paisible, profitant du temps (plutot chageant sur la cote) pour me balader sur la plage avec Eli, Ariel et Uma (leur chien !!). Comme Ariel travaille dans un casino, je suis alle faire un petit tour par curiosite, et evidemment, la chance du debutant m´a souri, j´ai gagne 50 pesos aux machines a sous; pas grand chose mais de quoi me faire un bon diner ! C´est vicieux ces trucs la ! Eli et moi sommes alle chez sa mere pour prendre [View Full Entry]

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After staying in bed nearly a full day and doing nothing but watch the sole english chanel in argentina <woo hoo 90210 reruns) we decided to book some day tours and get out and see bariloche. it is beautiful here. the scenery is spectacular. on our first day of guided tours we took a bus, then a boat to Victoria island which is a national park. we took a short walk with the stroller but could not venture out on most paths. malaya had to fall asleep in the stroller and it was so cold and snowy outside. we bundled her [View Full Entry]

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hola from san carlos de bariloche 2 days ago we flew out of buenos aires. silly me didn´t realize there are 2 airports in b.a. and we went to the wrong airport. it costs us 80 in taxi fares to cross the city twice. luckily it was no charge to switch to a later flight. yesterday was pretty much a travel day. we got to bariloche around 3 p.m. and spent the evening unpacking at our very nice time share. we also walked to the grocery store and stocked up for the week. i was very very happy to cook on [View Full Entry]

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Another quick one to help us catch-up! The next stop was Puerto Madryn, which is where the legendary Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia. It's a laid-back seaside town from where trips to Peninsula Valdes leave to see penguins, elephant seals and whales. We were pretty tired when we arrived as the overnight bus didn't serve food until 11pm and then showed The Fast and Furious until around 1am - this was annoying, but made even worse by the fact that the TV screen near us was broken and so we couldn't even watch the film, instead the noise just kept us [View Full Entry]

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The next few blogs are going to be quite brief as we are miles behind and might not ever catch-up if we don't keep them short! After the oppressive heat of Mendoza, we were really excited about travelling down to Bariloche - a small town on Nahuel Huapi that is surrounded by mountains and a mecca for skiing in the winter and walking in the summer. We would be arriving in their spring and so expected fairly warm weather, whereas in reality it was very cold and there had even been a big dump of snow the week before. Seeing the [View Full Entry]

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Bariloche is beautiful, like Switzerland - lakes, snow capped mountains, chalets. And as an added bonus we found the best value hostel we've come across so far, less than US$9 per night including breakfast and dinner !!! The only downside was our roommates who had some annoyingly dirty habits, particularly in the bathroom. The crappy weather continued with strong winds, snow and rain - merde but hey ho nothing we can do about it. Most of the time we chilled - having hot chocolate in cafes, reading and generally lazing around. During one of the rain breaks we managed to get [View Full Entry]

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So, 2 weeks later we are back in Bariloche. El Calafate was pretty amazing - Perito Moreno glacier was absolutely amazing. We took a 5 hour boat trip round the lakes and looked at 4 glaciers and a whole load of icebergs floating around. The boat was full of old fogeys but was still fun - the deck was totally freezing, even though the sun was shining, so we took regular breaks inside the warm interior on coach style seats. As we looked at the Perito Moreno glacier, huge chunks would occasionally crash off into the water making the noise of [View Full Entry]

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The bus ride from Puerto Madryn to Bariloche was a total disaster. The bus was fully booked as it was a national holiday on Monday and everyone was on the move for a long weekend. The bus had the worst leg room I have encountered, the toilet had been trashed by someone and it was 17 hours of hell. I couldn´t sleep, my legs hurt and they didn´t even feed us, just throw us a shitty sandwich at night and a biscuit in the morning. Needless to say I will not be travelling with Mar Y Valle again. The only highlight [View Full Entry]

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