Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 25

It was a 15 hour bus ride that took me overnight to the capital of Argentina’s wine producing region. Mendoza is a desert town at the foot of the Andes and within the last few years has caught the attention of wine buffs for producing some fantastic wines. Mendoza is merely a desert town which feeds its vineyards through a complex system of irrigation channels which line every street in this area. Water is funnelled down from the distant Andes to create some world class vintages. The town’s perfect year-round climate produces great wines year in, year out. Mendoza itself is a delightful place although some ugly stories of muggings from other travellers were alarmingly common. The town has wide, tree-lined boulevards and some great restaurants. As well as the wine, Mendoza is also a great ... read more

Nur ganz kurz: uns geht es beiden gut! Wir sind um 4h00 Uhr morgens allerdings heftig aus dem Schlaf geruettelt worden. Wir befanden uns in einem Hostel im 10. Stock eines Hochhauses in Bariloche, weshalb das Erdbeben besonders stark zu spueren war. Haben zur Sicherheit die Nacht von da an im Freien verbracht, da wir sowieso am naechsten Tag weiterreisen wollten. Bariloche liegt etwa 400km vom Epizentrum entfernt, es gab aber hier gluecklicherweise keine Schaeden. Ausser in Bariloche hat man das Erdbeben noch in vielen anderen Teilen Argentiniens gespuert. Mehr Details dieses unglaublichen Erlebnisses in einem neuen Blog: Vielen Dank allen, die nachgefragt haben! Andrea und Stefan Très brièvement: on va bien les deux! On a cependant été réveillé très brusquement à 4 heures du matin. On se trouvait dans un hostel au 10ème étage d’un ... read more

So we have finally finished our last trek in the South American Andes and it proved to be quite a task. We arrived in Barriloche after a 9hour bus from Puerto Montt in Chile. It was midnight and unfortunately every hostel was booked out. Eventually we found a cheap hotel and jumped straight into bed. We woke up early the next morning as we ad to get to the national park for our last three days of trekking. We went to town and got a map of the park, booked a hostel for our return and set off with heavy bags. I think my bag was around 20 kgs and Annes was around 10kgs. The first day of the trek was beautiful. We gained around 700 meters in 4 hours of trekking alongside Lake Guitirez and ... read more

Bariloche is in the 'lakes district' of Argentina, and is a popular summer destination with the locals. It is located on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi, across from the national park of the same name. Reading about the place, I imagined afternoon swims followed by feasts of wild boar roasted over open pits. Well, it was too rainy and cold for swimming, and Eva wouldn't let me eat wild boar in case it was endangered (in truth, it was hard to find on the menu). Still, Bariloche stands out as one my favorite stops on our whole trip, although there is not much to write about. The best part of our experience was staying at Alojmento Kahuin, a log cabin in the woods just west of town. Alojamento Kahuin was home to Daniel, the hippyish, ... read more

Patagonia!! It is the busy season now and this town was packed full of people. This town reminded me a lot of Banff. Mountains, lakes, lots of overpriced shopping, and numerous chocolatiers. There was also some strange fascination with Saint Bernard dogs. We rented a car and quickly escaped. The drive down to El Bolson was unbelievable. We stopped by a lake for a dinner of dark beer, fresh strawberries and calibrasi and cheese in a baguette. The mountains have a very sharp jagged appearance quite unique to Patagonia. Like shark teeth. That night we saw a little dirt road going down to one of the lakes and we decided to drive in to check it out. It was such a nice location that we decided to set up camp. We did make sure to camp ... read more