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Published: December 3rd 2017
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Scroll down to see all the pictures 😊
11th to 22nd of January
Salta - Cafayate - Tilcara
Our last stop after 2 months of great traveling around Argentina.
Salta is smaller than other cities but has a lot to offer. Apparently the area is famous for having the best empanadas of the country so after 8 weeks of eating them almost on a daily basis we tried some more. Empanadas are made of a dough filled mostly with meat or cheese. Tasty and cheap, the perfect lunch for backpackers 😉
Something else Salta has to offer is the MAAM, museo de Arceologico de alta montaña (archeology museum of high mountains) with one of the most interesting but also creepy exposition we have ever seen. In 1999 archaeologists discovered the mummy of three children buried around 500 years earlier. Thanks to the altitude and also the dry and cold climate their bodies where almost perfectly preserved and are now show in the museum. Among other things, the Incas believed in life after death and sacrifice. More information on the museum's website www.maam.gob.ar
Cafayate was what we believed to be our last stop in the country and we where already
a bit sad of leaving Argentina. Unfortunately the first bus leaving to San Pedro de Atacama was in 10 days so we said goodbye to that plan and booked a bus to Tarija, Bolivia. As we had a couple of days left we took a bus to Tilcara.
Today we hiked with some Argentinian students up to a waterfall and shared some mate and cookies. Mate is never missing here in Argentina, not even on hikes 😉
The last sightseeing was Puermamarca with the beautiful coloured mountains, where we ate our last Argentinian empanadas 😊
Currently back in Salta waiting for our bus to the next adventure: Bolivia.
1st to 10th of January - Cordoba and Puerto Iguazu
Back in Argentina we visited Cordoba on our way up to Puerto Iguazu. Cordoba is a student city but at the moment most of them are at home for summer holidays. That's way most of the musuems where closed, but one of them was not open because the guy working there was on holiday and they couldn't find anyway to replace him. "That's Argentina" as our guide said.
We joined free walking tours in almost every place we visit.
The idea is that a local shows the place to a group of people and you can tip the guide at the end of the tour. Highly recommended as you see a lot of places, get to know the history of a town, learn a lot about the country and get some insider info.
Puerto Iguazu borders whit Brasil and Paraguay sharing one of the most amazing things we have seen so far; the Iguazu falls.
Hard to describe how beautiful is was, the best thing we can do is share the pictures with you 😊
Our fist view of this incredible spectacle was from the Brasilian side. After getting our passed stamped we entered the national park. One of the viewpoint gets so close that you get wet. Completely. As it was one of this super hot days we decided to go there not once or twice but three time during the day 😉
The Argentinian side had more to offer, as the park was bigger but unfortunately we stayed to dry for a day with about 34 degrees, a lots of walking and no clouds.
In the evening of the second day we went to eat in
an 'expensive' fish restaurant a couple recommended. It was one of the best dishes we had on our trip! La rueda (the wheel) win's the ducklingsontour restaurant award 😉
14th to 28th of December - Tunpungato, Mendoza
If you ever backpacked for a couple of weeks or even months you now how awesome but also exhausting it can be. So we decided to participate in a workaway project. The idea of workaway is that you work for about 4h a day and get the accommodation and some food for free. After 2 weeks we have to say that we couldn't have pick up a better place than the Goddardini farm.
Our days started with a relaxed breakfast after we fed the dog's, the cat and the chicks. Afterwards we mostly worked in the vegetables garden and in nut plantation, cutting trees, spraying the plants and working barefoot in the mud collecting weeds 😊 For lunch we mostly had salad and other stuff from the garden along with food we bought in town. I guess this where the two healthiest weeks of the trip 😉
From 1 to 5 there was nothing else to do than siesta, as the
temperature rised up to 34 degrees. It was nice to meet Ana and Augustin who did workaway at the same place 😊 There is someone else we are happy we met: Paschic, the most lovely and stupid dog we met so far. We will be happy to tell the funny stories when we will be back home 😊
4th to 12th of December - El Bolsón - Bariloche
Leaving El Chaltén we traveled to El Bolsón in the north. According to the Lonely Planet Guide it is a small hippie town. We were not disappointed. The bus had an hour delay due to some booking trouble of the bus company. On the way to the hostel we got picked up by the hostel manager who was already looking for us. We stayed in a hostel with small bungalows owned by Augustin, a very friendly guy.
He called us a taxi the next day for a trek in the mountains that started a bit outside of the town along the Rio Azul. The trail was a bit tough but it rewards you with this gorgeous (but freezing cold) river which deserves the name azur, light blue. After our
standard lunch made of sandwich we continued the track in the woods. We crossed a bridge that didn't look thrustful at all just because there was self-made beer on the other side.
After 3 nights in one of the coolest hostel we had we couchsurfed for one night at Leonardo, Lynn's and Gaspars place. It was great to spend some time with this hippie family 😊 left for Bariloche.
Bariloche - the paradise between lakes
This city is between mountains and lakes and it was a good idea to come here. Some Swiss people thought the same and moved here in the late 1800 forming a small colony. Colonia Suiza now is just a super touristic spot in the montains who sells food and souvenirs. As it was Sunday the lakeside was full of Argentinian enjoying the long weekend. As the town was crowded the bus couldn't make it through and left from another stop without announcement, leaving us and about 20 other people waiting for nothing. As the next bus was 2h later we thought we give hitchhiking a try. Took us not more than 30 seconds and a nice couple from Chile took us back to Bariloche.
20. November to 3rd of December
Puerto Madryn - Calafate - Chaltén
After eating in a restaurant for Matthias' birthday in Buenos Aires (where we ordered a bottle of wine for ourself cause we could afford it 😉 we took our first overnight bus. We where a bit unchilled cause the information at the bus station wasn't the best and our bus came 45 minute late. As we took a couple more buses now, we know that this can be normal here 😊
After a 20h comfortable bus ride we arrived in Puerto Madryn which is famous for whale watching, seals and pinguins. After a good coffee with some media luna's (Argentinian sweet croissants) we informed ourself about the tours and found out that the they where too expensive for us as and we already saw most of the animals in NZ. After spending two evenings at the same bar with Anne which we met on the bus we headed down to El Calafate via Rio Gallegos.
El Calafate is quite small, very cute and extremely windy. One of the main reasons tourists come down here is the Perito Moreno glacier which is amazing! Light
blue and huge, it's an incredible spectacle, specially when part of it fall in the lake making quite loud sounds. Tried to make a video of it but he decided to do so only when the camera was in the backpack.
The town itself has lots of nice restaurant, bars and cute shops and has a apres-ski atmosphere.
El Chaltén is even better than our previous stop. The small town is in the middle of incredibly beautiful mountains and it's a hikers paradise. There are a lot of tracks you can make and they reward you with a stunning view, in particular the Fitz Roy one. It's hard to describe how amazing those peaks are so we will show you some pictures while we are out for a beer which we definitely deserve today 😉
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Christoph
non-member comment
Big Brother is watching ..... and happy to do so
Schön das man euch verfolgen kann ...... werd ich ab jetzt immer :)