The ‘Los Libertadores‘ road border crossing between Argentina and Chile is possibly one of the most spectacular journeys in the world: Out of Mendoza, we were still passing through vineyards for some time: Slowly the lush greenery started to become more barren and hilly: Throughout the journey a – non-functional – narrow gauge railway line…
Tag: Argentina
24th November – 28th November – Mendoza and Chacras de Coria
We say ‘we are going to Mendoza’, but strictly speaking we meant the region and not the city. Mendoza city seems to be perfectly nice, with wide avenues, plenty of squares, and mostly low-rise buildings (all designed after the earthquake). However, our visit was not about the city but about the WINE, so after one…
18th November – 24th November – Buenos Aires (and Uruguay!)
After four weeks of countryside it was time to come back to the big city. Buenos Aires really *is* a big city, with about a third of the country’s population in the metropolitan area. Like any big city it is made up of areas or ‘barrios’ each with its own character, typical architecture etc. Like many…
15th November – 18th November – San Carlos de Bariloche
Beautiful Bariloche – in the Argentinian lake district – seems to specialise in chocolate and beer. Oh, and hiking, cycling, fishing and general outdoor loveliness. But mostly, in our case, it was the home of the completely-disproportionately-large-for-our-hotel-room hot tub: As well as curious (greedy?) bird-life knocking on our patio windows every morning: Despite the hot tub,…
11th November – 14th November – Trevelin and Esquel
One of the reasons I wanted to come to Patagonia in the first place was the Welsh heritage, so here we are in Trevelin, one of the towns that retains not only Welsh place names but also language, where plenty of people siarad at least a tipyn bach of Cymraeg. As well as optional free classes,…
6th November – 10th November – El Chalten
El Chalten is a small town 3 hours drive from El Calafate, near to the border with Chile. It’s known as the ‘National Trekking Capital’: mainly because that’s the only reason the town is there – it’s inside the Glaciers National Park and has access to many one-day and multi- (up to 10!) day hikes as well…
3rd – 6th November – El Calafate: Glacier Hike, Perito Moreno Boat Trip, and more…
We arrived in El Calafate after a 5 hour but fairly uneventful journey that included the very straightforward Chile>Argentina border crossing. Apparently the other way is more complex and includes baggage scans and checks on boots etc because there is an issue with didymo. This is the view across the lake from our hotel, the…
