Category: Argentina

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Argentina Chile

Cruce Andino – Crossing the Lakes District from Chile to Argentina

Volcan Osorno, Chile

From Puerto Varas (or Puerto Montt), you can cross over in to Bariloche, Argentina via a series of boat and bus rides through gorgeous lakes and the Andes mountain range.   One company Turistur (?) has a monopoly on the trip (Cruce Andino) so it’s quite pricey ($230pp) and as far as I know, impossible to buy individual tickets for each segment of the trip which would presumably make it cheaper.

Here’s a map of how the trip goes, going from left to right, starting with the yellow line which means “bus”, and changing to red, which means “boat”:

Here’s a better map:

Despite how beautiful the views were, we don’t think it was worth the hefty price.  So, take a gander at the photos here, save your money, and take the bus to Bariloche instead.

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Saltos de Petrohue

Mount Tronador, Argentina
If you do take the trip, the Chilean side seemed to have better views.  The trip from Puerto Blest to Puerto Panuelo on the Argentine side was a bit boring and the catamaran we were on was already packed to the hilt with people when we got on.  Might as well have been a cattle boat.   And they all looked bored and tired.

A cattle boat, lakes crossing on the Argentinean side

But, still a good trip nonetheless!

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Want to see more photos? Click here to see more on Flickr

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Argentina

Perito Moreno Glacier, near El Calafate, Argentina

Total Miles Traveled: 8,912

We’ve made our way south to the Patagonia area, flying in to El Calafate, Argentina. The highlight thus far has been the Perito Moreno glacier, both looking at it and hiking on it. Here’s a video taken by Lisa – it’s a huge chunk of ice falling off the glacier. If you’ve been to a glacier before, you know that this doesn’t happen regularly, so take a look:

Here’s Lisa, overlooking the north face of the Perito Moreno glacier:

Perito Moreno

And, finally, here’s the south face of the glacier where we did some ice hiking.  Beautiful!

Perito Moreno

And here’s the full set of photos. View on Flickr here for full-size photos.

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Many more pictures to be uploaded, but Internet access can be slow. Right now, we’ve just finished a couple of days in the Torres del Paine park in Chile, which is just across the border from El Calafate. Tomorrow, we’re headed down to Puntas Arenas, Chile, to check out a penguin colony before flying to Puerto Montt, Chile, where we will begin our trek through the Lakes district of Chile and Argentina.

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Argentina

El Calafate, Argentina – a Japanese Inn and cordero asado (grilled lamb)

Mi Vieja, Parilla en El Calafate

Total Miles Traveled: 8,876

El Calafate is a city of about 150,000 people in southern Patagonia on the Argentinean side.   Most people stop here on the way to the Perito Moreno glacier or to head up to El Chalten to hike Mount Fitzroy.

We stayed at the Miyazoto Inn – yes, a Japanese B&B, all the way out here in southern Argentina – complete with homemade Japanese pastries, domo arigato.   Jorge and Elizabeth Miyazoto are the owners/hosts and both are Okinawan by ancestry, but Jorge grew up in Buenos Aires and Elizabeth is 3rd generation Japanese-Peruvian.   They moved to Calafate after visiting on vacation and being fed up with the corporate world in Tokyo.   And, in the winter, Jorge travels to the Los Angeles area to work as a gardener to earn some extra income to support his family.  Interesting, no?

So, on to food… we’re still in Argentina, so the meat fest continues.  A Patagonian specialty is grilled lamb (pictured above), so on Jorge’s recommendation, we head in to town to eat at Mi Vieja.

Here you see marinated lamb tongue.  When in Rome, right?   Honestly, it doesn’t look that appetizing, but it wasn’t awful – it tasted a bit like cold kielbasa sausage.

Mi Vieja - lamb tongue

And for the main dish, we got “cordero asado” or grilled lamb, which was awesome.  To our surprise, it was only seasoned with salt and then grilled, no more, no less.  Here we are at the Mi Vieja restaurant, getting photo-bombed by the couple behind us.   I think the woman’s face is particularly scary – well done, amiga.

Mi Vieja - Photobombed!

Finally, we went shopping for food before heading down to Torres del Paine because word had it that meals were exorbitantly expensive.  The grocery store was like any other but with a mix of local and international brands.  We found the shopping baskets to be the most interesting – they were ones you could carry, but also put on the ground and roll behind you.  Brilliant.

Supermercado, El Calafate

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Argentina

Buenos Aires – Retiro and San Telmo

Subway in Buenos Aires

Today, we explored beyond Recoleta and took a subway to the Retiro/Plaza San Martin area, east of Recoleta. We then walked down to San Telmo, which is one of the older parts of Buenos Aires, where most of the wealthy lived before being pushed out by a plague many years ago. By day, San Telmo shows off its antique shops and markets where you can buy all kinds of knick knacks and hipster wear. The irony is most of it could be considered junk and stuff people donate to the Salvation Army, but they’re charging $20 USD for a funky/retro t-shirt, for example. The antiques look quite creepy because they’re all together and there are things like old plastic baby dolls you see in horror flicks. In fact, it would be a set designer’s dream to browse through the antique shops in San Telmo.

San Telmo, Buenos Aires

View some photos in the full screen “IMAX” experience on Flickr from the rest of our days in Buenos Aires.

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Argentina

A stroll around Recoleta

Today, we explored the cemetary at Recoleta where many rich and famous, including Eva Peron, are buried.  As you’ll see in the photos, there are hundreds if not thousands of tombs, all built up and decorated in different ways – some old, some very modern. Then, we stopped at the La Biela cafe for beers and snacks – there were a lot of locals mixed in with tourists, and a passionate singer, who couldn’t quite sing. But the dramatic lyrics, dry ice smoke, and Stella Artois made up for it.

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Argentina

More Photos from Palermo

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Argentina

Bienvenido a Buenos Aires

Palermo Viejo

Total Miles Traveled: 7,581

Hola Buenos Aires.   We’re staying in the Palermo Viejo barrio for a few days before heading to el Calafate in southern Patagonia.  The area reminds us of a mixture of New York SoHo chic, with its designer clothing stores and cool cafes, and a bit of grit and indie from the East Village.  And having followed fashion in my last job, it looks a lot like L.A., though maybe a season ago (can’t believe I am actually able to comment on that… thanks beso)?   Haven’t spotted any hipsters yet, but it’s only day 1!

What I’m more excited about is the food.  Folks, I think we’ve found meat heaven.  Palermo is known for its restaurants and bars and we’ve been advised to go to parillas like la Cabrera for dishes like lomo a la pimienta (tenderloin with peppers) and the bife de chorizo (like a NY strip, called a rump steak).  Yum.  Can’t wait to see how it compares to what we’ve had in the States.  Even more exciting though is that there appears to be a wide variety of restaurants beyond parillas, so it’s not all about beef here.

Finally, the weather right now is about 80 degrees F with 80% humidity.  For those New Yorkers following along, it feels like New York in late summer – sticky but tolerable, and hoping that the next rain cloud brings a breeze and a bit of relief…

-TC