Blogs from Neuquén, Argentina, South America - page 10

Many apologies for my laziness; I am now foregoing exploring leafy Palermo to belatedly write this. It might be short! My last day of spanish lessons was the best yet - a wander around Bariloche taking in museums (one suprisingly interesting given it´s modest initial impressions, one closed!) and a coffee, one of my favoutite pasttimes in the town. The lesson was good because we just chatted and it was great to finally put some of the grammar into practice. Having delayed leaving for a day in order to have a last hurrah paragliding off Cerro Otto, I was pretty disappointed to miss out because of the whims of "paper,scissor,stone" (I lost and ended up on the second flight) and a building breeze at the landing site which made it too difficult. I did get one ... read more

We gave ourselves a late start after the travails of the walk the day before. Leaving Bariloche to start wending our way through the northern parts of the lake district. Picked up another car and drove round the eastern end of Lago Nahuel Huapi and along the northern shore to Villa la Angostura. Another very scenic drive with lots of water, trees and moutain scenery under burning blue skies. Our hotel turned out to be on the lake with gardens down to the beach. We had had good intentions of going out to see the Arrayanes park (another sort of tree) but gave in to the temptations of an afternoon dozing and reading, and eating local trout for dinner. Next day we took the scenic but very very dusty unmade Seven Lakes Road up to San ... read more

Ben Well from Puerto Madryn we went a little south and then a little east, some up and then some down to Puerto Natales (Chile). In fact we were so lucky with our south then east that we arrived an entire day early (which was much better than the alternative - being about half a week late - some of our connections ran about twice a week). We ended up staying in a random hospedaje (house with spare rooms) - turned out fine (purely judged on the state of the front garden. There´s a tip for you - when in doubt look for the well kept garden. On the other hand maybe the very thing for pushing up the best roses is hastely-buried-backpacker but as a rule of thumb it seems to have worked so far). ... read more

Back to Argentina Travelling across international borders in South America on a Sunday is never a good idea. Our journey from Pucón to San Martin de los Andes in Argentina, which normally takes 4 to 5 hours, took us a whole 8 hours. We were delayed for three hours outside Pucón waiting for cyclists in the Ironman competition to finish their cycle. They had a worse journey than us though, having to cycle 100 km, swim 3.5 km, and run 40 km on a very hot day. The border crossing at Tromen is surely one of the most beautiful in the world. Both the Chilean and Argentinian customs posts lie beneath the spectacular Volcan Lanin, which towers over everything else in this area (it's almost 1000m higher than nearby Volcan Villarrica). There was a surprising lack ... read more

Liebe Zurueckgebliebene ;-) Wo waren wir? Wie doch die Zeit vergeht, bzw. wie weit man kommen kann in kurzer Zeit. Von den schoenen Straenden Uruguays in die Berge Patagoniens. Auf dem Weg von La Paloma nach Buenos Aires legten wir zuerst nochmals einen Zwischenhalt in Colonia del Sacramento ein, das sich als wunderschoenes, altes Kolonialstaedtchen mit einer sehr entspannten Atmosphaere entpuppte. Sogar die Polizisten waren nett: Als wir einen nach dem Weg zum Hostel fragten, fuhr er uns geradewegs hin. Mit der Schnellbootfaehre ging es dann ueber den Río de la Plata nach Buenos Aires, wo wir den Bus nach San Martín de los Andes nahmen. Die Busfahrt dauerte insgesamt ca. 20 Stunden, war aber wesentlich bequemer als z.B. der Flug. Argentinische Langstreckenbusse sind wohl der beste Weg zum Reisen ueberhaupt: Mit Business Class - Komfort ... read more