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Blogs from Santa Cruz, Argentina, South America
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Patagonia: Argentina's Southern Wilderness
Published: May 14th 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Calafate
May 14th 2013
Maria Chiara and I must be suckers for punishment. After two long plane rides we had finally managed to escape an excruciatingly long and severe British winter when we arrived in Buenos Aires. No sooner had we got nicely settled and acclimatised to the benign late summer temperatures, than we took yet another long flight down to Southern Patagonia and yet more cold! Aas our plane plunged towards Antarctica, the land below looked like some sort of moonscape. Or possibly Mars. After touching down at El Calafate airport, a minibus trip to the town took us through tundra-like landscape. El Calafate the town has jauntily-coloured buildings akin to what one would expect to see in Lapland or Alaska. Patagonia is the sort of place where civilisation can never really dominate, where the extreme nature of the ... read more
Patagonia - an autumnal ramble between rock, ice and a lenga tree
Published: May 6th 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » Los Glaciares National Park
May 6th 2013
Momenteel zetten we onze avonturen verder in Zuid-Amerika. Straks reizen we naar Colombia en Noord-Peru. Maar eerste het vierde en laatste verslag over Patagonia op www.patagoniandreams.com for english version of this entry with more pics, please visit www.patagoniandreams.com... read more
El Chalten - Laguna Capri
Published: April 2nd 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Chaltén
April 1st 2013
After having a rest day yesterday, we are wanting to do another trek today. Mojo has worked on my calves with some tiger balm and pointy fingers, and it seems to have released the tension in my knees, so we decide to first walk out to the Corrillo Del Salto (a waterfall 4km out of town), and then tackle the climb up to Laguna Capri which is supposed to have great views to Fitz Roy range. The walk out to the waterfall is on a dirt/gravel road and the wind is blowing hard today. It seems that a lot of the Argentines here in El Chatlen for easter have decided to drive out to the waterfall as well. This means that every time a car drives past, great swirls of dust are created, covering us and ... read more
March 29th 2013
There is only the two of us now, as Mike ventured north yesterday. It was sad to see the final remnants of the group break up, but i have a feeling we will run into each other somewhere in the near future. The previous two days were very low key, recovering from the trek, getting a ridiculously large amount of clothes washed and sorting out travel arrangements. We did go out for a belated birthday dinner last night for mojo, at Afrigonia; i hybrid of Chilean & Zambian food. It was pricey, but for a special occasion and the food was exceptional. We shared an entree of Ceviche, each had an enormous slightly seared tuna steak (it was served in two pieces, each the size of my fist), and black bean panna cotta and a chocolate ... read more
El Chalten (courtesy of Laura)
Published: April 5th 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Calafate
March 27th 2013
Had our legs not done enough moving in the past few week? Apparently not. So even more walking after the beast of the Torres? Yeh, sure. And in the so-called trekking capital of the world.... weather depending of course, as we soon found out. After a long day of bus rides and waits journeying from Puerto Natales, we were greeted by an unforgettable sunset over the Parque Los Glaciers. As the bus rounded one of the last (long) bends into El Chalten, the sun sank behind the mountains casting out long shadows into the red sky. My camera couldn't do it justice at the time, suffering from repetitive shaking due to the uneven road. I wasn't able to hold it still for a moment. The hostel too was only meters away from the bus stop, looking ... read more
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March 23rd 2013
After a great time in El Calafate (forgetting the bug bites), Sonya and I were both keen to discover more of the spectacular beauty that southern Patagonia has to offer. A three hour bus ride north brought us to the tiny town of El Chalten, at the foot of the Fitz Roy mountain range in the middle of nowhere. The town attracts tourists during the summer months because of its many walking trails to various mountains and lakes in close proximity. Now, as you may know, we're not exactly avid ramblers. In fact, we don't even own a pair of those super-trendy walking shoes between us but the beauty of Patagonia will make you do crazy things. In our case that meant a 12km round trip to Laguna Capri, under the gaze of Mount Fitz Roy. ... read more
March 22nd 2013
We arrived at our next destination El Calafate by plane which was a nice change from getting an exhausting overnight bus journey. We had been told that it was pretty cold in El Calafate and as soon as we stepped outside the airport me and Jon both looked at each other and laughed as the freezing weather hit us immediately. We had acclimatised to the hot and humid weather of Brazil so 5 degrees was quite a shock to our bodies! We began joking on how Jon was probably going to freeze to death due to only having one jumper with him and no coat! After coming out of the airport we jumped on the shuttle bus and made our way to our hostel huddled together. It was around 10pm at night and completely pitch black. ... read more
A 26 Hour Documented Bus Ride - El Bolson to El Calafate
Published: March 17th 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El CalafateMarch 17th 2013
Until now the longest bus journey we have done has been 12 hours and its about to be more than doubled. We have over 2000km of arid land to go over before finally arriving into El Calafate, 5 hours outside Puerto Natales. We are more than likely going to go insane on it and I thought it would be best to write down this painfully enduring journey. 11 am - The bus pulled into El Bolson and we see exactly where we are going to be spending the next day and a little bit. We had only one choice of seat, Premier or Cama, which is a big comfy chair that reclines to almost 160*. Here we go. 11.30 am - The initial excitement of spending all this time on the bus has begun to wear ... read more
The Perito Moreno Glacier; Awesome, Incredible and Well Untruly Breathtaking
Published: March 19th 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El CalafateMarch 17th 2013
Feeling surprisingly refreshed and ready to go after our bus ride down from El Bolson we were keen to make the most of our time in El Calafate, all of the two days we had. The first day was almost a write off after arriving into the town at 1.30pm, then getting to the hostel, sorting out our things and of course showering. It left us a few hours in the afternoon to do a couple of things. First and foremost to do our very routine scan around the town to see what was is on offer and have a look in the abundance of expensive outdoor shops, including a very tempting sale at a Patagonia store. The chocolatiers carried on in El Calafate too, the main difference was that this chocolate tasted amazing! We spent ... read more
El Calafate - Ziplining
Published: March 18th 2013South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Calafate
March 16th 2013
Today we went ziplining (flying fox). It was Emiliano's idea, as it was his last day of his holiday, and we had booked it the night before. Unfortunately, he has come down with the cold that has been making its way through all of us, and has bailed out. Just leaving Jo, Mike and myself to do it on another beautiful day. We drive about an hour out of El Calafate to a private farm, where they do eco tours. The zipline circuit for us is 2.5km's over 5 individual lines, weaving its way down a small mountain. After getting up the mountain in a 4x4 we are greeted with the first line, 544 metres in length and 60 metres high. We have tremendous views over towards Torres Del Paine, 450km away, and can actually make ... read more
