Argentina

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Our dream of finding soft beds and showers as we entered Argentina following our tiring trip in the wilderness of Bolivia was to remain just a dream… In fact we got just the opposite! We crossed the border at sunset and discovered the first lie of our Bolivian salesman; the bus wasn’t going to have the nice reclining seats he promised! Having wasted the evening in a cafe we got on the bus heading for Buenos Aires at midnight for a massive 22 hour journey. Just to really frustrate us it turned out the journey was actually 28 hours! Cheeky Bolivian salesman…

Almunk, hogy meleg agy es tusolas var rank Argentinaban Bolivia utan, sajna alom maradt. Sot, epp az ellenkezoje tortent! Ahogy a nap lebukkott a horizonton, mi is atleptuk a boliviai-argentin hatart es szembesultunk a boliviai “buszjegy-uzer” loditasaival. Igeretevel ellentetben nem lesz kenyelmes, maximalisan dontheto buszulesunk. A busz nem 22 orakor, hanem ejfelkor indul (ekkor kb 18 ora volt) es a buszut nem 22, hanem 24 ora lesz. Bar ez sem lett igaz, de ez argentin toditas volt. 28 ora volt a buszut Buenos Airesbe, ami nem meglepo hiszen 2000 km-t tett meg a busz.

We spent 5 days in the capital city, which is a lot for us! We enjoyed being there primarily because it was the first place on our trip that felt like we were back in Europe! All those things we couldn’t find in the shops in the previous countries we could find here. The food was from all around the world, and all really good, especially their world famous steak. Even the buildings and people looked pretty European, and we felt risk free and at home here. This was a city we both agreed we would enjoy living in.

5 napot toltottunk az Argentin fovarosban, ami szamunkra rekord teljesitmeny egy varosban, es nagyon elveztuk. Hosszu ido utan eloszor ereztuk magunkat “otthon”. A boltokban minden korabbi “luxustermek” kaphato volt. Mi foleg a hires argentin steakre kaptunk ra. De nemcsak a boltok, az epuletek, sot az emberek is “europainak” latszottak/szaglottak. Mindketten ugy ereztuk itt tudnank elni.

Having sampled the flavour of home, we flew off to Ushuaia in search of something new and different to Europe. Ushuaia is nicknamed ’the end of the world’ as it’s the most southerly town in South America and acts as the gateway for the boats sailing to Antarctica. It’s a beautiful place nestled in amongst snow capped mountains and sitting next the port with the Antarctica bound cruise ships. It’s a really unique setting, and it felt quite special to be a part of it for a couple of days.

A “hazai izek” utan Ushuaiara, “a vilag vegere” repultunk. Ushuaia Del-Amerika legdelibb varosa es egyben az Antarktiszra tarto hajok kikotoje. Egy kellemes kisvaros a hofodte csucsok kozott. Tele volt a varos a lelkes turistakkal Antarktisz fele, irigyeltuk is oket. Erdemes a szezon elejen vagy a vegen a last minute utakra jatszani. Jelentos az arkulonbseg es ilyenkor meg egy-egy hely is akad.

We took a boat cruise in the Beagle channel on the first day to take in the panoramas of the area and to check out the resident seals and birdlife. The next day we set off on a hike in the mountains to see if this National Park was as beautiful as people had told us. It was! And besides from walking around the town that was pretty much all we did there and in all honesty there wasn’t too much more to do. Never the less we really enjoyed our time there, and it strengthened our commitment to visit Antarctica one day…

Megerkezesunk napjan egy rovid hajoutat tettunk a Beagle-szorosban a taj latvanya es a helyi allatvilag megismerese celjabol. A kovetkezo napon turaztunk egyet a Tierra del Fuego (Tuzfold) nemzeti parkban. Tenyleg olyan szep ahogy mondtak. Vicces volt hogy bar mar nyar eleje volt, meg csak most kezdett felengedni a talaj. Ezt leszamitva nem sokat csinaltunk, csak setaltunk a varosban es ha oszinte akarok lenni nem sok mast tudsz csinalni. Ennek ellenere elveztuk az itt toltott idot es az utolso reggelen a kedvunkert megmutatta magat az igazi arcat a helyi idojaras. Havazas es szelvihar bucsuztatott bennunket.

Our next flight was less than an hour to El Calafate (by car it takes 12 hours with several border crossings with Chile). On arrival we teamed up with a Spanish couple and hired a car to do some sightseeing in Chile, but we will write about that in our next blog on Chile. Next stop was the Perrito Moreno Glacier, a place we were excited about seeing before we even left on this trip. It was a great day, starting with a boat cruise along the front of the glacier and ending with the National Park with all its viewing platform to check it out from different angles.

Kovetkezo uticel El Calafate, ahol veletlenul oszeakadtunk egy spanyol parral, akikkel egyutt hajoztunk a Beagle-szorosban es egyutt bereltunk autot egy chilei kiruccanas erejeig, de ezt a kovetkezo Chile blogban. Visszateresunk utan tovabbra is egyutt megneztuk Perrito Moreno gleccsert, remelve, hogy a nyari melegben epp elottunk szakad le egy hatalmas darab a jegfalbol. Nem igy lett, de a hajotura a gleccser front szakaszan, majd a seta a Nemzeti Parkban es a kicsi, am nagy hanggal jaro leszakado jeghegyek felejthetetlenne tettek a napot.

The El Chalten National Park was our next visit where we spent two days hiking in amongst the mountains and pristine nature. We were not sure if we wanted to make this trip originally but we were so grateful we made the effort …

A gleccser utan az El Chalten nemzeti park volt az uticel, ahol 2 napig turaztunk a hires Fitz Roy es Cerro Torres csucsok tarsasagaban. Andy nagy banatara nem talalkoztunk az itt honos szarvassal, de igy is megerte az elore nem tervezett kitero.

Peninsula Valdez on the east coast was next on our list. We flew (yet again) as the distances to travel overland in Argentina are huge (we met a couple who took a bus for 55 hours in Argentina!!). This area is world famous for one thing, its marine wildlife. We did two day trips to ensure we saw as much as possible. The first was to explore the peninsula itself and look for the resident elephant seals (they are massive), sea lions and to do a whale watching boat cruise. We saw plenty of all the animals, with the whale watching being the days highlight. There is nothing quite like a fish (ok, mammal..) bigger than your boat coming to the surface just in front of you…We even got lucky at the end of the day and saw some Magellan penguins in their burrows. However, that penguin encounter was nothing compared to the penguins on our second day trip… We have seen many amazingly beautiful slights on
our trip, but sometimes we find a place that really sticks out as being something even more special, and this was the case for our penguin trip. We visited a national park on the seafront where the monogamous penguins come every year to give birth. Fortunately for us we were they at exactly the right time of year and could see the place in full swing! All around this national park and even walking along the footpaths are an unbelievable 300,000 penguins!!! They are all over the place going about their daily lives with their chicks, without any fear at all of the tourists. They were quite curious of us and frequently watched us go about our business, and sometimes even followed us on the walking path! There are amazingly beautiful, cute, curious, well behaved little creatures. They are definitely in our top 5 favourite animals list! We had such a great day, and can’t recommend it enough.

Miutan kelloen kituraztuk magunkat johetett az elovilag. Erre legmegfelelobb a Valdez-felsziget, ami vagy 2 ora repulout, vagy 30 ora lenne busszal. (De a csucsot egy utas tarsunk tartja a maga 55 oras buszutjaval.) Bar egy vagyon, maximalisan megeri a balna-leso hajotura, melyet tetez az elefantfoka kolonia. A november-marciusi idoszak tokeletes a balnanezesre. Sikerult is kozelebe kerulnunk 1 vagy 2 mama+bebi parosnak (lehet ugyanaz volt) es a tavolban lattunk nehany ugralo oriast is. Majd jottek a fokak. A Galapagoson latott oroszlanfokak (him 350 kg) kutyafulek az elefantfokahoz kepest (him 4 tonna). Meg tisztes tavolbol is hatalmasnak tunnek. A nap vegen meg egy apro Magellan pingvin csapat is a programba fert. Jo volt a sorrend, mert a kovetkezo nap Punto Tombon egy 175 000 parbol allo pingvin koloniat latogattunk meg. Sok csodalatosan lenyugozo dolgot lattunk a turank soran, de nekem a balna es pingvin tura magasan kiemelkedett az elmenyek sorabol. Ahogy az apro frakkosok tipegtek korulottunk, idonkent egyenesen elottunk (tabla szerint nekik van elsobbseguk) vagy ahogy a mamak-papak oriztek a frissen kikelt fiokakat. Felelem nelkul, sot kivancsian vizslattak bennunket. Nem lehet leirni az erzest. Egyontetuen az 5 kedvenc koze soroltuk a pingvineket. Nem is emlitve, hogy a pingvinek elott egy dusky delfin nezo turan jartunk, ahol panaszra nem lehetett okunk. Alig hagytuk el a kikotot a lelkes fekete-feher joszagok maris a hajo elott, mellett “pancsoltak”.

We were sad at having to leave the penguins but we had to catch a bus to Barriloche, a town in an area the Argentineans call the ’Lake District’. It is a perfect place to go on endless hikes into hike-able mountains (i.e. they were not too high or steep), and take in picture perfect vistas from every mountain top over the lakes. However, we fell in love with our own picturesque, Swiss style wooden cottage, and opted for shorter walks, huge homemade meals and tonnes of sleep! We did get a nice overview of the area though and we enjoyed it enough to say we would like to come back and check out those walks one day..

Fajt a szivunk, hogy el kell hagynunk a helyet, de vart rank Barriloche, a “tavak videke”. A “jarhato” hegyek turavilaga, (nem tul magas, nem tul meredek) csodalatos ralatassal erre a keklo vilagra. De be kell vallanunk, mi megis a bungalonkba szerettunk bele es a rovid setakat, hosszu alvasokat es hatalmas adag hazi kosztot reszesitettuk elonyben. Azert van nemi elkepzelesunk a videkrol es rajta van az “Ide meg visszajovunk egyszer” listan.

1000km north of Barriloche is Mendoza. Its a nice town in Argentina’s most famous wine district, so of course we had to try as much as possible. And that was how we finished our stay in Argentina. The next stop was the border with Chile.

Barrilochetol 1000 km-re eszakra = egy ejszakai buszutnyira talalhato Mendoza, a hires argentin borvidek. Biztosithatok mindenkit vettunk mintat. Tokeletes veg egy tokeletes orszegnezesnek.

In summary Argentina really did seem quite different to the rest of South America (as the Argentineans keep telling us!). The people and the cities seem so much more European. Its also a huge country, really huge, with plenty of open spaces. Most importantly for us was the nature. Both the wildlife and the countryside really impressed us, and had aspects which I’m sure can’t be seen anywhere else in the world. So definitely we want to come back to see
more of the country, and of course try a few dozen more of those gorgeous steaks..

Ahogy sokan mondtak, Argentina nem Del-Amerika. A varosok es emberek inkabb europaiak (nem meglepo a rengeteg bevandorlo alapjan). Egy hatalmas orszag rengeteg terrel es szamunkra a legfontosabbal, termeszettel. Ide meg visszajovunk. Ha masert nem a steakert biztosan.

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