The original plan was to cycle the Interamericana in Chile, but due to the problems there I decided that a change to Argentina was wise.
Arriving in Buenos Aires with no research I spent the first couple of days getting my bearings and deciding what to do.
Also with a last minute change of footwear I needed my shoes stretched a bit and found this little shop in the backstreets where the shoesmith worked out what I wanted after showing him my shoes and pointing to my toes! 'Mi espagnol is poquito' is still my most used phrase.
I stayed in a hostel in the business area, so quite a few sites were in easy walking distance.
The view out of one of the hostel windows. As the flags indicate hostels are very international, it is always great to talk to people from all over the world - unless you're really unsociable you'll soon be discussing all kinds of things with people from Europe, Mexico, Brazil, USA, and Canada and others, or sport and beer with Ozzies.
The Casa Rosa - the square in front has been the scene of large rallies in the past in some of the unhappier times. The balconies are where Madonna sang from in Evita - the choice of actress was not universally popular in this very Catholic country!
BA is pretty hot and humid - as you can see from the palm trees. A lot of the buildings are very impressive - though the economy has had ups and downs, historically Argentina has been a wealthy country from the export of well, beef!
Of course a town in the region, 'Fray Bentos' is globally known for pies and OXO cubes, but of course, as anyone who had been diligent about doing their geography homework would know - 'Fray Bentos' is over the border in Uruguay!
This trip was intended to be partly a cycling tour - but a large percentage of Argentinians live in BA and most of the roads out are highways with no cycling lanes.
I was a bit worried that the pedalling experience would be less than safe and definitely not really enjoyable so took a bus to Bariloche, I think about 1000km to the South West.
As you get close to Bariloche the scenery improves!
My first ride - here you can see the town surrounded by its backdrop of mountains and froggy wih his new quetzal colours. After the log journeys FQ was plased to be out of his box!
On a day trip to the Black Glacier we were lucky to have to Condors fly low over us and land on a rock nearby - sadly my shots weren't 100% sharp - must read the manual for the digi-snapper again!
On the side of the road you often see shrines to 'Gaucho Gil' a Robin Hood figure who was sadly executed for his 'crimes'.
After another day ride, (this time to Llau Llau, pronounced 'Shau Shau' as the language here is Castiallano ('Shano'), though in Chile the same thing would be 'Yow Yow' - these variations on Spanish not making it any easier!) I booked a trip to the deep south of the country of famed Ruta40. This takes two full days on the bus with an overnight stay en route. Though they are slowly paving it, most of the way is gravel and thus less than relaxing.
On the second day though we had one of the best sunsets that I have ever seen. Like Montana, you get what is called a 'Big Sky' in these remote regions.
One of the reasons for heading south was to see this - the Perito Moreno glacier. This is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen - it is about 2km wide here and an exquisite blue - every so often it 'calves' and chunks fall off with a large echoing crash.
As part of the trip we spent an hour and a half trekking on the ice, and at the end a surprise measure of Scotch on the Rocks with the 400 year load ice freshly chipped from the glacier!
Got it - very pleased to catch this moment!
On another trip to 'Torres del Paines' in Chile we saw these guanacos. Similar to llamas and related to camels, they could possibly be called camas, cetainly they looked very peaceful. But it is not all plain grazing as they are predated upon by pumas, which can be a bit of a, well, drama.
These are wild, but famously the Welsh came to Patagonia to farm sheep, but other reports say it was just to get away from the rain!
These are the famous towers of the park, unfortunately partly in the clouds.
Whilst treking in the park we all nearly got blown into the Pacific by the sudden huge squalls. It really was difficult trying to stay on your feet.
Some pretty impressive waterfalls in this country!
Back in Bariloche I've been planning the next step.
Last night I got chatting to an Austrian girl called Lisa. Notably she decided three years ago that she wanted to spend some time in Peru and spent a year living with a Peruvian family and going to school there under a scheme with the AFS. (http://www.afs.org/afs_or/home) She said her parents hadn't been totally delighted at the time when she announced it. Now 18 she is doing a bit more travelling before going back to Austria to go to University.
I was more than a little impressed and surprised!
I was more than a little impressed and surprised!
Chris
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