Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires! We walked around lots, went out to eat delicious food and drink cheap wine, and generally enjoyed the good things in life.

Congreso de la Nación Argentina.

A lot of the streets look like this, but often with more trees!

Happily, when we first got to BA a couple other friends (yes you, Ben and Arden) were also vacationing there. We went out for good dinners (including one where we actually sat down to eat at a nice restaurant at 1:30 AM... crazy city...) and visited Tierra Santa, purportedly the world's only religious theme park. When Ross arrived we all met up in San Telmo, wandered the huge flea market (I think Arden almost fainted) and drank lots of beer!

Friends!

The day after my birthday was a bit of a slow one. We spent a while lounging in the big parks of Recoleta, and then decided we needed a choripan. Virginia and I had gotten one next to the zoo a few days earlier, and we knew it was just what was required. And Ross had to try one of course. The choripan (chorizo + pan, ie sausage and bread) is the South American equivalent of the hot dog, except with a lot more gristle and more like a sandwich. After some wandering (and asking) a friendly security guard gave us excellent directions to a small parilla that might satisfy our needs.

Open up! Please!

It looked closed up, but with a bit of pestering, Ross managed to get the owner to open for us! Hurrah!

Mmm choripan.

Choripan completo: with onions, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg.

We also took a walk around the Recoleta cemetary, where lots of the Argentine rich and famous are buried. Although the two photos below look kind of empty, it was fairly packed with tourists and stray cats.

On our last night in BA, we took the metro out to a neighbourhood called Belgrano. We had read about an outdoor tango dance in a park near here, and we (or at least I) wanted to see some tango before we left. I thought we might have a chance to learn a few moves and try it ourselves, but once things got going it was clear we were out of our league. Still, it was great watching couples,  young and old, casual and dressed up, spin around the floor.

Tango in the gazebo.

Road trip part 2: Ruta 40

After crossing into Argentina, we passed through Los Antiguos and reached Perito Moreno, on Ruta 40. Here we started the long drive south towards Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, in the hopes of seeing Cerro Torre and Monte Fitz Roy.

Los Antiguos has delicious cherries.

The pavement petered out soon after we turned south and things got empty and flat. It was impressive how quickly (within a day) we had gone from being next to the Andes to all of a sudden being right in the pampas.

Our friends the guanacos. (Photo cred: Virginia)

We camped out just next to the road, and the next day started driving around 9am to arrive in El Chalten at 7pm. Our fairly small selection of CDs was starting to run out by the end, but we made it managing to stay mostly sane.

First view of the mountains!

El Chalten is a pretty odd town. After driving through hundreds of kilometres of emptiness we were all of a sudden surrounded by hordes of quick-dry pant wearing European tourists. Slept one night in town and then hiking! We were ridiculously lucky with the weather, since the mountains are almost constantly cloud covered. Our two days of hiking were both blue-bird skies.

Cerro Torre (pointy one on the left) and Fitz Roy (on the right).

Cerro Torre from Mirador Maestri.

Self-timer photo in front of Laguna Sucia and the glaciar that drops icebergs into it.  We ate lunch here.

The mountains were really big, and quite astounding after lots of FLAT (see below).  After this brief stay, it was back to the pampas. We drove up to Bajo Caracoles, this tiny (tiny!) town on the way back north. There are 30 people who live there. And lots of cats.

 A sweet sunset, so we stopped to take "artistic" photos.

Sunset #2.

THE ONLY tourist attraction between El Chalten and Esquel, a LOT further noth - Cueva de las manos.
It was cool, there were paintaings of all left hands from 8000 years ago, they were everywhere!

After numerous hours of driving, about 12 more from the Cueva de Las Manos, we arrived at Parque Nacional Los Alerces, and drove on scary windy roads, stopping for lunch at a really nice beach next to a glacial lake. It was really hot out so the water felt refreshingly ice cold.

The next tourist attraction that we saw: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid´s Patagonian hideout.  They lived here for a few years before eventually robbing banks again.  This nice dog showed us around.  It was cool because there wasnt anything there, so you could explore all on your own.

Canine tour guide.

Note the overlapping log construction, rarely seen in South America!

After visiting Butch and company we followed some signs towards a teahouse, the Casa de las Piedras. There was a lot of Welsh immigration to this area (says Lonely Planet...) and so there is a tradition of big afternoon/evening teas. This place was a beautiful stone farmhouse, where we served unlimited tea and cakes upon cakes by a warm elderly couple. A more calm relaxed afternoon would be hard to imagine.

'Te Gales' in Cholila valley.

Next day it was back to Chile for a couple days recuperating in Osorno, and then a 27 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires where we are enjoying life, eating lots of cheesy pizza, choripans, and, best of all, Klubbin' with Kurtner (see rock climbing posts).  Love, Virginia and Oli.