G’day Everybody,

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

Related posts:

1. Hutchae in Bariloche
2. Accommodation Top Eleven – Review
3. Mendo-zzzzzzzzz-a

Yes, you read it right Hutchae was in Bariloche(pron. Baril-o-ch-ay)
He was travelling with the beautiful Jessae
Sometime in Autumn, probably mid-May
When it was time, Hutch did say
To do some exercise, a cycle around the bay

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

Related posts:

1. San Martin De Los Undies
2. Wildly Dramatic
3. Snowboarding Diary 26th February 2011

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

No related posts.

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

Related posts:

1. Hutchae in Bariloche

We landed in Buenos Aires (BA) airport feeling pretty rough having spent the night flying 10 hours without any sleep.  I really didn’t know what to expect from our first taste of South America. As we got off the plane we were segregated into two lines, Aussies, Canadians, Americans and then all the other nationalities. Ben and Vicks we ushered through promptly as we were stuck in line. We were lugged with a $100 USD entrance fee each by an abrupt customs official and cattle herded to the next line. Good start on all accounts.

Ben had all the apartment info and had left to baggage by then. As we waited in line an aggressive customs agent was drilling an obviously gay couple in front of us on where they were staying and why they didn’t know the exact address. This started to worry as we didn’t have those details either; I was pretty impressed that I had remembered the suburb to be honest. A tense ten minutes later we thankfully got another official who was blasé but still pretty short. Slightly relieved we progressed to the slowest moving baggage carousel in history and the jeers of Ben and Vicks (collectively known as Bicky) having passed through quickly with no fee on their British passports. I don’t know how that works since the Brits fought a war against the Argentinians and we Aussies had done nothing but be pleasant as far as I know…..Maybe there is something in that?

All the bags were thankfully collected which is always a concern for Justin and I and after a twenty minute wait we were bundled into our transfer van which obviously caters for South Americans who subsequently are small people. Ben and Plum are not small people and we had to have a mini game of twister to get in. With faces squeezed up against windows and bodies snug against each other we set off.

As we drove from the airport I became concerned by the vast amount of slum like dwellings with no windows, no doors, some with half a roof and all literally right on top of each other, some right next to a five lane freeway. It improved slightly as we left the freeway and headed towards the heart of BA.  Everything looked all over the show – as Vicks said “higgledly piggledly” with some nice older looking building next to communist looking apartment block, next to one plainly falling down.

View from our balcony

We pulled up to our apartment block on a non-descript road outside an even more non-descript front door gate.   The smell of arse hits you pretty quick (if you have been to Barcelona you will know what I am talking about). After many jeers of “it smells like ass” we proceeded into the smallest lift you have seen (only takes 2 people at a time and you have to open and close the gate to the lift). Our apartment looked exactly how it did on the net but a miniature version. Again I have to remind you South American (SA) people are generally small and we are not. We laughed at the second toilet because as Ben pointed out he couldn’t actually sit on it as he knees would be pushed up against the wall forming a foetal like sitting position. The boys decided they would have to side saddle it. Hmmm comfy?

Ben and Justin in the apartments tiny lift:

Me and Vix in the apartment

Our crew were feeling peckish by this point so we went along the main street (Sante Fe) and found a decent enough place to get some refreshments. Out of this visit a special thing happened that would set the tone for the rest of the trip. It was the discovery of Empanadas and a little thing called a “liquido de banana con leche” (ie banana smoothie). Empanadas are little pasty looking fellas with all sorts of goodness inside. The main ones are Carne, Pollo and Jamon and queso (meat, chicken and ham and cheese). If you go somewhere a little left field they will mix it up and make up all sorts of combinations.   If you know Plum, the banana smoothie needs no explanation as it is one of his favourite things in the world, as for Ben just times that by 2.

I still wasn’t sure about the place but with our bellies full a nap was in order. We agreed to do a walking tour at 5 and went to sleep. Somehow we woke up at 4:40 and frantically gathered our stuff and bounded out the door and into a nearby cab. We drove for about six minutes before the taxi driver starts rambling about something and starts yelling at other taxi drivers through the window. Confused we looked at each other with a “what the hell” expression. He abruptly stops the cab, gets out and gestures for us to do the same and runs to the cab behind him. The new cab driver yells, gestures, looks at us waiting, gestures some more and drives off. Pissed off our taxi driver comes back his car, we squeeze back in and start driving again. Two minutes later the same happens again but thankfully the new driver takes us and we all crack up laughing……what was that all about!!!

Thankfully the tour runs on SA time so it hadn’t left even though it was 5:10. Our guide introduced herself as Macarina (yes like the song) but asked nicely not to sing the song and assured us she has heard all the jokes before and to just call her Maca. The tour went through the Recoletta area which is the posh end of town. It was great to get the history of the city of how BA went from a relatively poor SA city to a booming post World War meat producing powerhouse. After the World  War many Europeans came to Argentina, discovering its rich and fertile soil all over again. Many bought up land cheap and started farming cattle, exporting it back to war ravaged Europe, making an absolute fortune. They made BA their home but wanted it to look more like Europe so they literally dissembled houses from Europe and shipped them over reconstructing them to their former glory in BA.

Free walking tour in BA

Argentinians are known for their arrogance and vanity. During this time the wealthy elite of BA were determined to “out do” each other. If one family built a Palace the other would construct one bigger in front of the others to block the originals view. This was coupled with many interfamily marriages almost like the dynasties of the European monarchs to secure power and status. It sounded all very bold and the beautiful if you ask me.

Unfortunately with all rises there must be falls. Even though money poured into the country and there was a prosperity never seen before, politics like in so many SA countries brought it to an end. The next forty years were filled with political unrest, coupes, dictatorships, military rule, concentration camps, abductions, protests, crashes of currency and poverty. These times are not long gone and still seen in the people and in the streets of BA. Political slogans graffiti the streets, protests still occur on a daily basis ranging from government corruption to awareness of hygiene during the Swine Flu scare (spewing I missed that one!!). Ask any local about their president Christina (she is only referred to by her first name for some reason) and they will give you a run down with all sorts of gesticulating (these motions always include a pulling back of the face, to represent all her plastic surgeries she has billed to the state)

Just an average monday morning protest march

Dooooowwwn heaarrted…

SA in general has had such a turbulent past from the days of Christopher Columbus to the present day. It is theoretically  the same age as the United States but so much more richer is its colour, culture and history. BA has the look of a European city with European buildings, traditions and language but it is so much more. So what if it is a bit weathered looking, so what if some of the buildings are crumbling, so what if it is a bit dodgy and smells like ass. It is this that makes it unique to any other city I have been to. It is the resilience of the people, their passion for pretty much anything. It’s the vibe the city gives off that cannot be explained and must be experienced. Just to top it off BA gave us the most spectacular sun set I perhaps have ever seen, but that is just BA being vain and showing off again. That is why I have totally fallen in love with it!!!!

Not too shabby

Recoletta

Stay tuned for our second trip to BsAs
Jesse x

Related posts:

1. Hutchae in Bariloche
2. Vancouver – Week 1
3. San Martin De Los Undies

Ok we’re skipping ahead a moment here only because this is fresh in our minds.

A little while ago (in travelling time – which i believe to be an extension of bistro mathematics and a form of time travel. Travelling time doesn’t work on the usual calendar of days, weeks, months but on the observer’s movement through tourist destinations. Confusingly, it has the potential to slow time itself when visiting museums, gift shops and any walking tour. slows down when visiting museums and anything else that maybe boring to the observer. Therefore the measurements used by travellers are relevant to the observer such as a while ago, not too long ago, ages ago etc) Any i digress.

Ben, Vicky, Jess and I took a day trip from Buenos Aires to Tigre. Tigre is a tourist destination popular with both international and local tourists located on the Parana Delta. We went there mostly too keep me entertained as i needed to do something active other than walking, strolling, slow jogging(with a soft j) and any other form of painstakingly moving your legs in alternate directions.

You take a 1 hour train ride from the Retiro(train station) on the 80′style trains whilst local musicians busk for your coins. However after a few too many Malbec’s, schnapps and captain morgan(never go to sea without a captain) the night before ending at 2am the sounds weren’t as appreciated as they should of been.

The town of Tigre is beautiful very European situated on the river it is lovely. The sunny day made it even better. We navigated our way to the boating ticket counters for a boat that will take us too our particular part of the river. The boats were beautiful old wooden river boats and after some confusion we were on our way to Bonanza Delta Ventura. A place that offer day trip activities that we found on the Internet the night before.  Delta Ventura

Your travellers at Tigre:

Panorama of Tigre Boat Terminal

After too many de dedededede BONANZA and Ace Ventura quotes including Jesse’s impersonation of the asparagus “Do i have somfin in my teeth” scene. We arrived 1.5 hours later at Delta Ventura and greeted by the lovely Rosana.No waiting around, a nice hello and we’re bundled onto a guided horse riding tour. Having never ridden a horse i was a bit hesitant of the prospect and our guide didn’t speak English so communicating i dont know how to do this was via frightened face pulling which didn’t work. Jump up on the horse, the guide trots away and we’re all left standing around trying to get our horses to move. Ben’s Albino horse was off like a rocket mainly due to his horse seeming like it had taken some Amphetamines as it was bouncing around urinating and trying it’s hardest to piss everyone else’s horse off. Vix and Jess were off like professionals and mine, which i dubbed Jet after Wal and Trish’ cat, and the fact that every time it took off for a jog to catch up to everyone i’d stop it. Which pissed it off no end, 5mins later it tried to bite my leg to every-one’s amusement at my screaming “it’s trying to bite my leegggg”. Followed by screams of “how do i stop this thing” while bouncing up and down like i was on a trampoline. Then it decided to take the wrong path! Damn you Jet! 15mins of pleading, arguing and physical confrontation we turned around and caught up to everyone.

The ride was through some stunning green Argentinian river delta country-side. Stay tuned for photo’s. We arrived for lunch which was BBQ chicken, something else and something else. Very tasty somethings, horse i was hoping, and beer out in the courtyard.

Panorama of Delta Ventura:

A window oooooooooo wow!

Delta Ventura – Homestay

In the afternoon we paddled canoe’s up the mighty “insert river name here” which was at it’s highest point. Which meant that most houses were flooded. As it was the Easter long weekend there were still plenty of people enjoying their holiday houses and even a Jehovah witness preaching by boat. The paddle wasn’t really that exciting more of an easy paddle up to look at some houses and lillies. Pleasant enough.

We’re now in Iguazu, famous for the widest waterfalls in the world and having a great time. The falls are breathtakingly spectacular but more of that later.

Adios amigas and commodaor 64′s.
Meep meep
Hutch and Jess

Related posts:

1. San Martin De Los Undies
2. Hutchae in Bariloche