Most people doing the clockwise trip of South America travel to Pucon, Chile from Bariloche. Most people take a leisurely overnight bus for the 10 or 12 odd hour trip through the Andes. Most people. Not us. Nope, 10+ hours on a bus at this point in our trip was fairly frightening for me at least. 10 hours couped up in a small seat without food and with the person in front reclining their seat all the way no matter how much i press my knees into the back of the seat. Terrifying!

Instead i consult a snowboarding mate i met on the Internet. Yup you’ve got to love the world wide web. He tells us of a quaint little town much better than Bariloche, only 6 hours from Bariloche and has a short route to Pucon. Brilliant! The places name, San Martin De Los Andes.
San Martin De Who?
Yup San Martin for short.

Pretty Trees

And scary graffiti

San Martin De Los Andes is a small pretty little ski town. The lonely planet has a paragraph or two about it but essentially it is a ski centric swiss type village with great food and scenery. According to the lonely planet it’s frequented by the elite of Argentinian society for their ski holidays. Unfortunately for us it’s not the ski season, so no spotting the likes of Evita or other celebrities. Oh and the fact she’s dead would of also made it a tad difficult.

We arrive mid-morning from Bariloche and struggle to find a taxi or any transport other than feet to get us to our accommodation. It seems the off-season is pretty quiet here. After a half hour or so we manage to arrange a taxi and venture the whole 500m up the road. Doh!

Our B&B, Las Lucarnas, was amazing. It arrived in the same fashion as large mountain might arrive however it’s timing was impeccable.  It was just the time in the trip where we were getting tired of hundreds of people cramming the shared kitchen, lounge and bedrooms. Tired of the nostril stinging bleach all hostels seem to use. Las Lucarnas was clean, cosy, friendly and as Jess said it had the comfiest nicest sheets ever! We even wrote a review about it, it was that good: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g312843-d1572908-r63336003-Hosteria_Las_Lucarnas-San_Martin_de_los_Andes_Province_of_Neuquen_Patagonia.html

Besides the B&B, San Martin is a gorgeous place, nestled in a small bay on a river surrounded by beautiful forest’s scaling the mountainside.

Without the ski season there isn’t much that goes on in San Martin, lots of walking, relaxing and mountain biking. Of course, we chose mountain biking. Suckers for punishment after the our De Bariloche. We packed a picnic, hired some bikes and started off up the hill. The hill makes Perth’s hills look like Sand Dunes and we spent most of the time on gravel roads walking our bikes up the steep incline. I was excited though, thinking if it’s this steep up it will be this steep coming back down and on gravel woohooo. And it was sort of, the path winds it’s way slowly back down through the forest, past a bunch of cows who munched grass and moo’ed as we zipped by. But then it ends abruptly onto a major highway, certainly a break tester. We meandered our way down the highway, occasionally being blown off it by massive lorries. We perched up on a cliff overlooking the town and had our lunch before cycling back to bed.

Jess in autumn colours

Taking your horse for a walk

Vew from lunch

San Martin was a lovely place and was certainly better than the city that is Bariloche. It’s small cosy with a lot of character, i just wish we timed this trip to coincide with the snow.

Cheers
Hutch

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At home we discovered the place was used to shoot and house the stars/crew of Fitzcarraldo. You know the Beatles right? Ok, so a bit later one there was a band named The Clash, you know The Clash? Ok, no. So you know Rock The Casbah? Ok that year. 1982 was when the film was released but the writers/producers etc stayed in Iquitos for 5 years prior. Mind boggling. Hugh Hefner is really Walter Saxer the executive producer. He co-owns the place and runs it from what i can gather, nice bloke who occasionally gets pulled out of the jungle to produce films.

We wake up the next morning to the sounds of a rooster barking and a dog crowing.

Must dash, i’ve got to have breakfast by the palm covered pool and next to the naked mermaids.

Later

El Hutcho

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They hopped off the bus round mid-day
And to their great dismay
They got off early about 5 k
Walk walk and walk the rest of the way.

Arrived tired and sweaty at the bus bay
Grabbed some bikes and set off for 30k
They met some freaky deaky dutch along the way
Firkin knackered Hutch did say
The dutch replied Oh Touche’

3 hours later back at the bus bay
They arrive knackered and willing to convey
That this was the hardest bike ride on a highway
But it was stunning on such a beautiful day

Later that night they sat down at a buffet
With the freaky deaky dutch and a waiter Jose’
They had earned dessert, a great sorbet
Retired to bed listening to Ricky Gervais.

The Tour De Bariloche was a 30km ride on bitumen up and down some big hills around some of the most spectacular lake’s and forrest we’ve ever seen. Here are some photo’s of our great little Tour De Bariloche:

A lake on route to the first hill:

A cute little cafe:

Please read on below.

Panoramic of two of the four lakes:

Jesse onya bike son:

More lakes:

Top of one of the smaller hills:

Beautiful Autumn colours:

How’s the serenity:

Bariloche itself is a pretty uninspiring city. Not a cute little town or ski resort on the Argentinian lake district that we’d hoped for but a thriving metrolpolis of 80′s east berlin apartment buildings. Still the pubs and restaurants are lively and shops busy. But what makes Bariloche fantastic lies outside of Bariloche, the ski fields, the lakes, the forrests and the glaciers.

We’d just come from El Calafate so glaciers werent on the top of our to do list. But the hostel had cars for hire, cheap and pretty new. So we hopped in a little Renault Clio aptly named Cleo and drove off to a “black glacier” named aptly Gray Glacier.

Liek all of our road trips it starts off getting lost. Say 30 minutes past the turn off, down some dirt road, we arrive not at a glacier but at a lookout to another lake.

Jesse at another lake:

The autumn colours of Argentina:

You would think a major tourist attraction might have a sign or at least a road. Nup, not this one just a limestone path that twists and winds it’s way up and around hills to the glacier. Passing along the way some absolutely amazing untouched scenery.

Cleo, she climped and jumped down every hump and dip in the road so well and even slipped around the odd corner taken too fast. Halfway to the glacier, we found out later the road was closed due to a public holiday, we got hungry. We bumped into a deli, well a little house, which was closed but the owner opened it up and sliced us a loaf of bread and some home made chorizo sausages.  It was the tastiest chorizo sandwhich ever!
As we were leaving, in the middle of a vacant national park, a local drunk Argentinian on a bike falls in through the door. Off his trolley, he climbed back up the door frame, slurred something in some kind of pissed spanish to the owner he told him in clear spanish to piss off! As we rolled laughing into the car, the owner was off walking to the bridge where the drunk had ditched his bike to help him out.

The deli:

Cleo, Jess and I continued our twisting way to the glacier. Along the way enjoying the views.

View of the waterfall and at the top the main glacier:

As better represented here:

We finally sucessfully fight through the european looking forrest and arrive at the black glacier which looks like a giant chocolate milkshake or coco pops:

After taking in the bowl of coco pops we take the small hike up to the waterfall:

We drove back down the path under the cover of darkness. Spent another night in Bariloche and headed off to San Martin De Los Andes.

Until next time viewers, stay not too shabby.

Hutch

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Another beautiful cold sunset over the lake and mountains of El Calafate, Argentina.

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View of a distant volcano from near the top of the Villarrica Volcano in Pucon.

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A rustic local delicatessen located just outside of Bariloche Argentina on the way to the Gray Glacier.

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We booked the tour for 2 days’ time to maximise the weather conditions which was treating us well for that time of the year.  We felt very prepared for the hike through the forest and strapping on some crampons to hike the glacier. This confidence was primarily due to the fact we had just watched “Man Vs Wild in Patagonia” just weeks before we left Australia. “Man Vs Wild” is a program hosted by Bear Grylls (yes his name is Bear) in which he strands himself in remote locations to demonstrate localized survival techniques. The episode documents his efforts to survive and find   way back to civilization, usually requiring an overnight shelter of some kind.  He served three years with the Special Air Service, a special forces unit of the British army, was the youngest Brit to climb Everest, first to circumnavigate around the UK on a jet ski (why would you want to do that anyway and how is that an achievement???) blah blah blah. What they don’t tell you in the promo is that he does the same techniques every episode just in a different location and involves stating the bleeding obvious, ie Don’t swim with man eating sharks….they might eat you if you look tasty etc. The worst part is I have to endure it every Monday night as it is Plums favourite program.

Anyway I digress……….

We woke early for our expedition to the glacier. Having prepared thoroughly the night before with provision, clothing and Bear Grylls still fresh in our mind we embarked in to the transit van that would drop us deep into the wild……Well actually it dropped us off to another bigger bus that would THEN drop us off into to wild. We decided to befriend a British couple who laughed at the ridiculous amount of rations they had packed. They seemed like a worthy ally if the worst would happened. We had to wait 15 minutes at one of the stops for four Spanish princesses to board the bus still doing their hair and makeup. They continued to do this for the next half hour, instead of mentally preparing for the physical onslaught that would ensue. We decided they would be a worthy candidate to eat if the need arose….although probably stringy.

We boarded a ferry which would take us over to base camp (where the toilets were for wee breaks). For the first time we caught a glimpse of the challenge in front of us, the amazing Puerto Merino Glacier, eerily  glowing blue in the morning sun.  The wind was fierce on the water and we were glad we had brought the extra empty water bottle just in case we needed to pee and it could be streamed into said bottle to keep us warm at night like a hot water bottle, if needed, in our make shift shelter (as seen in Man vs Wild in Patagonia {MVWIP}).

We descended into the forest following a well-positioned path. We felt nervous as it was going away from the water source and further up into the woods. Bear always says when you are lost to trek down hill and follow the water source, it will always lead you back to civilization and help (as seen in MVWIP). We resisted the urge to climb a tree and get a better idea of where we were going and simply follow the path and the guide (MVWIP).

We could hear the mighty crashing sound of the glacier in the background cracking like a shot gun in the distance. The enormity of the natural wonder became apparent as we snuck up the side of the sleeping beast and strapped on some crampons (well actually the guide did, better to be safe).  We started to gingerly walk the slippery slopes in the manner required to avoid injury (guide showed us this not MVWIP). Then suddenly we were faced with our first crevasse. I had always thought if you had fallen down a crevasse you would be a goner. I was so glad that Bear had (in MVWIP) lowered himself into a crevasse to simulate how indeed you would be royally f*#ked if you found yourself in one.  I didn’t feel like simulating this and we moved on.   We climbed relentlessly for what seemed like centuries but surprisingly it was only an hour and a half. From this point we landed at a make shift shelter in the front of the glacier which was actually a bar from which we had whiskey on ice (funnily enough) and a chocolate (thankfully we didn’t have eat glacier plankton  as seen on MVWIP). We were relieved to have successfully conquered the first hundredth of the glacier without casualty.

We decided to bask in our glory over a couple of giant bottles of beer and a nap on the way home.

But in all seriousness now, we had a fantastic time trekking the glacier and generally enjoying the amazing scenery. We were lucky to see many chunks of ice calving of the glacier and even got some footage on camera. We could watch it for hours (it becomes a little obsessive to be honest). I hope you enjoy the photos: they tell the real story.

Much love all!
Jesse Belle

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We took the ferry from BA and checked into our lovely B&B/hostel with a balcony and a view to the sea. Unfortunately Bickie didn’t have such luck getting a room where the windows shook violently every time someone turned on hot water (which was frequently). Needless to say they moved to another B&B the next day.

For purely novel reasons we decided to get around town in a golf cart hired from Thrifty car rentals (like you do). It is a really small town so it was an easy way to get on and off sight seeing with the cart, plus it saved Plum strolling which he loathes with a passion. We named him for whatever reason Jorge and became slightly attached to him (as you can see by all his photos) With Ben and Justin the front and me and vix in the back we set off. The only problem was that we took the wrong turn off and ended up on the freeway to the capital city Montevideo. Needless to say we got some strange looks and toots chugging down the freeway at 40km/hour.

We finally took the coast road to the old derelict bull ring where Justin and I simulated a bull fight. I think the bull won that time (it was a big ass bull). While we stopped for Bickie to spend an hour looking at a market for gifts (that was a slight dig to them for looking at the markets all the time ), Plum and I saw some group of school kids celebrating and chanting. We curiously looked on to see what it was about (which we didn’t) and then they started playing “short dick man” on the stereo….it was very odd!!!

Of course that would make you a bit peckish so we stopped at an alien looking street vendor caravan and had the local “Milenesea completo”. It is a whole crumbed veal steak in a roll with (like literally everything else) cheese. Unfortunately there was no banana liquardo’s or empanadas but with full bellies we pottered over to old town.

It is absolutely beautiful with cobbled streets and white washed building surrounded by vibrant coloured bougainvillea. We happily strolled the streets taking loads of photos, finishing on some rocks on the beach to watch the sun set. An amazing day filled with loads of laughs, good food and great scenery. As we dropped of Jorge we became concerned to see armoured guards with large shot guns. We couldn’t help but stop and watch to see what it was all about. It then occured to us that the kombie was an armoured van for transporting money!!! I haven’t seen a kombie used for that before!!! Over all a great place we would recommend to chill out and enjoy the finer things in life with some great friends.. Enjoy! We did.

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We’re doing some reminicing of our trip so far and came up with a list of our top eleven accommodation’s we have stayed at as of the 5th May 2010:

1. Las Dunas – El Calafate Argentina – Good food, good views, room with wifi, good rooms, good bath, good service, cable tv, bad pillows, more expensive and no liquardo’s! ****½ (4.5/5)
2. Las Lucarnas – San Martin De Los Andes Argentina – Quaint, cosy, great rooms, great beds, good location, bath, wifi in room, fantastic service, good breakfast, great value and cable tv.****~ (4/5)
3. Viajero Bed and Breakfast – Colonia Uruguay – Great rooms with balcony and view, wifi in room, cable tv, ok service, ok food, good value and good location. ***½~ (3.5/5)
4. Hostel Patagonia – El Chalten Argentina – Great new cosy rooms, fantastic service, cosy common areas, no breakfast, no in room wifi and good value. ****~ (4/5)
5.  Buenos Aires Apartment – Buenos Aires Argentina – Self contained, balcony, convenient, good location, wifi and mobile phone, bit small and smelt awful. ***½~ (3.5/5)
6. HI Downtown San Francisco – San Francisco USA – Good room, great location, wifi in room, street noise, ok service and bad breakfast.***~~ (3/5)
7. La Balconada – La Paloma Uruguay – Fantastic staff/owners, personal touch, tiny rooms, expensive, no wifi and shared bath.***~~ (3/5)
8. Marcopolo Iguazu – Iguazu Argentina – Hotel-like, ok service, ok rooms, ok food, wifi in rooms, great bar, pool and ok location.**½~~ (2.5/5)
9. Hostel-Inn Bariloche – Bariloche Argentina – Great common areas, great view, ok service, good cars, smelt like gas, shared bathroom and dinner and breakfast included. **½~~ (2.5/5)
10. Hostel Ritz – Buenos Aires Argentina – Great liquardo de banana, room service, good location, ok rooms, hotel-like, smelt like mould and ok service. **½~~ (2.5/5)
11. Viajero Downtown Montevideo – Montevideo Uruguay – Tiny rooms, overwhelming smell of bleach, stuffy, ok food, good service, pretty building, good location and good common areas. **~~~ (2/5)

We have also found that the Lonley Planet is seriously seriously out of date though if you do find the hostel/hotel is still in business it usually is very good. Hostelworld.com reviews are way way off the mark and as useful as drinking salt water in a drought. HiHostels.com is average, booking has to be done at least 2 days in advance and the reviews are semi-accurate. Tripadvisor seems to be the most accurate but rarely has hostels.

Most of the places we have stayed in cost around US$40-50 per night for a double room with private bathroom and includes a free breakfast.

Any questions, ask away below.
Cheers
Jess and Hutch

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Montevideo can be summed up pretty quickly. Montevideo is like a rice cracker, as Homer Simpson puts it “Hello hello hello taste? Where are you!?”
It’s a nice bland city, there’s nothing really wrong with it, old town is lovely, it’s located on the river/gulf, not too expensive and getting around is fairly easy. But it just lacks character, large high rise apartment buildings line a stinky litter-ridden gulf foreshore.  I have a 16gb memory card in my camera so i don’t mind snapping away at random things but we struggled to even find something worth photographing. That said we did spend 4 days there looking around for things to do, hoping we just had missed something absolutely amazing but it never happened.

Some dude on a horse in the main square

Jesse in the markets

Montevideo Port Market – mainly BBQ food

Prominent building in Montevideo

We stayed in Viajero Downtown Montevideo Hostel which is very French type of building by that i don’t mean stuck-up, snobby and full of snails with tiny curled moustaches. I mean french windows, doors and an open courtyard covered in grape vines. The courtyard was lovely, the staff were friendly but the rooms were tiny, stuffy and smelled of turpentine.

With Montevideo boring us and giving us headaches from the smell. We decide to leave up the coast to the party surfing town of La Paloma. La Paloma is a small coastal town located 4-5 hours bus ride from Montevideo on a peninsula of sorts with ocean both sides.

We board the Censa bus from the packed main bus terminal of Montevideo. The bus winds it way through lovely green rolling pastures that remind me of Devon, England. It is a grey day outside and after 4 hours or so we arrive and step out of the bus…shocked!

Standing in a small vacant bus station void of signs of life and nestled in a pine forrest we stare at each other. “What have we done” we say in unison. We venture out the doors and find a cab. The cab driver chucks our bags in the boot which is full of thick red dust. We hop in the back, one window is made out of shopping bag plastic the other doesn’t go down. We drive down the beach sand road to La Balconada, the hostel we’re calling home.

We collect our now red dusty bags from the boot and step through the sliding doors of La Balconada to be greeted by a surprised Nicholas who is sitting in for the owners whilst he is off doing things. I don’t think they were expecting us, but he is friendly speaks some English and sits on the couch playing “stairway to heaven” in full. He shows us to our room:

That picture says it all. They’re tiny! But clean.

We are advised to stroll along the beach into town. During our stroll up the sandy beach we still don’t see anyone. We walk down the main street, two cars go past, i joke “must be peak hour”.  No one is here, it’s like a ghost town. We find somewhere for lunch and then get food for dinner from the supermarket. My bank card breaks the entire supermarkets computer system, IBM none-the-less,  people queue as it ‘s rebooted.

Back at Balconada. This time more people are here. A young German couple are cooking up a 3 course meal which takes forever to cook and takes them 2.5 days to finish even with help from other people!

The hostel, La Balconada, is a small square layout with a courtyard in the middle. A cool surfer type house located just behind the dunes from the beach. It can hold 14 or so but even with 4 it is crowded.

Speaking of which, whilst we wait for the Germans to finish cooking, in waltzes a bloke through the rain into the lounge/reception area. “G’day mate had a reservation under Ryhs”! After doubling the towns current population what’s the chances of finding another aussie in some sleepy town in Uruguay let alone another aussie from Perth WA!

A little later we meet Santiago or Santi for short, the owner along with his brother and other owner Juan. They all friendly, outgoing and really make our stay enjoyable going out of there way to take us places etc.

The next morning we check the surf. Surf checking is done via a ute with Santi, his mates, Rhys and I piled into a ute or the back of it then to check both sides of La Paloma. The south side looks better with a small swell hitting the vacant beaches. We head back to pick up the boards.

I rent a board of a local shaper, 1980′s water logged thin dinged up 6’8 board. It’s cold outside but no wetsuits will fit me as most people here are a bit smaller than myself. So i manage to squeeze into a rashie.

With the ute packed we head off to La Laguna, Estuary, which is 30mins away via a maze of dirt roads and past fishing shacks to the rivermouth.
The surf is small, waist to chest high but perfect shape. Not a close out in sight. Just small rolling waves, if only for more swell. The waves break a-frame with a fast takeoff with almond shape barrels and luckily for me the water is warm. Powelly would love this, funny as it’s name is La Powelloma. The beaches are empty just waves rolling through unridden, small but still in Perth this would have a thousand people all over it.
To quote Endless Summer “You should of been here yesterday!” well according to the locals a few months ago. The swell is bigger, the waves break bigger and longer with the same shape and the town swells for 4000 people to 80000 as tourists come from Brazil, Argentina etc to party in summer on the beach. This place would be crazy with 80000 people, we meet the owner of one of the nightclubs who tells us of massive parties that fill the streets until 7am the next morning. His nightclub happens to be a huge outdoor ranch style thing with balconies and bars everywhere.

Anyway back to the waves:

Unfortunately for me the board is absolute rubbish! It’s as slippery as ice! No wax just old grips. I given and go in after 2.5 hours of trying my hardest to stay on the damn thing.

The next day, the other side of La Paloma has the offshore winds. Juan is going to take us out to the surf this time, he says be ready in 10 mins. Santi warns us 10mins is 1hour in Juan time. Sure enough, 3 hours later Juan arrives and we head off. I learn my lesson and take one of the spongey foam malibu’s out instead. We pull up and even smaller crumbling waves roll through onto the beach perfect for a mal!

We check further up the coast to the next town for La Pederra, Juan’s friend Leo joins us in the ultimate surf mobile a VW beetle:

Strange statue:

If only for some swell…you should of been here yesterday…ye ye

30mins later, back at the first stop we made, we get in the water:

The waves werent that good but it was good fun riding the mal, riding the nose, switchfoot and stealing all those damn shortboarders’ waves. It doesnt hum like Easy’s and it’s not that fast but hey it’s better than slipping off all the time.

Back at Balconada, Jesse has a funny story to tell. Apparently Santi’s brother walked in and asked “Are you the only one here?” Jess said “Yep”. Santi brother then asks “ok cool, if anyone comes in looking for a room could you just show them through, give them a room and the towels. Then he shows Jess where they all are and leaves. ahahaha. This wasnt the first time stuff like that happened. One stormy night, Santi leaves us to head home for a while. In pops some locals who rummage through the DVD’s then walk out. 30mins later they’re back grabbing some beer out the fridge.

On our last night there, Juan and his buddies cook us up a storm of a BBQ. A Belgium girl arrives, she’s bundled into the ute and we go out to the forrest to get wood for the BBQ. We laugh at how odd this must seem to her, arrives, jumps in a ute then gets taken down a dirt road to a pine forrest hmmmm.

All in all, La Paloma was quiet, the surf wasnt amazing but we had such a fun time and got a feel for how the locals lived and what they did. Next stop Buenos Aires…again.

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