Archiv der Kategorie: Argentina

Argentina, Chile, World Trip 2018-19

Argentina & Chile – Summary & Photos

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It may seem odd that I’m doing a combined country summary for two very large countries – but since we zig-zagged our way down South, we sometimes had to remind ourselves which one of the two countries we are in right now. Also, I found more similarities between e.g. San Pedro (CH) and Purmamarca (AR), Pucon (CH) and San Martin (AR), El Chalten (AR) and Puerto Natales (CH) than for example between San Pedro, Pucon and Puerto Natales.

People: We met very friendly and helpful locals on both side, as well as a share of annoying ones. Through hitchhiking the Carretera Austral, I got a bit more in touch with Chileans than Argentinians overall. As in travellers, we met a surprising high number of Austrians and Swiss, some travelling by central car or camper. Most people we met were on a 3-5 week holiday and didn’t enjoy having as much time as we do.

Food: We cooked mostly for ourselves, went out for fast food here and there and treated ourselves to some nicer food around Christmas. Cooking for ourselves was tricky sometimes, with many ingredients not being readily available and especially our trekking food was usually rather boring and required lots of compromises. What we liked most, were the Argentinian empanadas – however the best empanadas ever we found in tiny Caleta Gonzalo on the Carretera Austral, in Chile.

Weather: Anything and everything! Burning heat in the North, cold drizzles in the South, lots of strong winds all over Patagonia… but overall we were mostly lucky with the weather and the sun came out on the most important days!

Costs: We spent WAY less than what we had budgeted for Chile and Argentina. Travelling as a couple, and with camping gear, saved us lots of money in accommodation and hitchhiking the Carretera Austral cut down our overall transportation costs. On average, including all tours and one internal flight, we spent just a little over 28 Euro per person/day. About 58% of our budget was spent in Chile, 42% in Argentina which means that relative to the days we spent per country, our daily spending for Argentina was about 25 Euro and for Chile about 31 Euro.

Accommodation: In the North and South, we stayed at quite some AirBnBs (either a room in a shared house or an apartment to ourselves), which worked out cheaper than a room in a hostel or guesthouse. In Patagonia, we camped a lot which saved loads of money. Camping for both of us usually cost less than 2 beds in a dorm and wayyyy less than a double room.

Infrastructure: Travelling by bus was easy, even though some routes in the South booked up a couple of days in advance, so required some pre-planning. Along the Carretera Austral, we hitchhiked, which worked really well and saved us lots of money!

Illnesses: None of us got ill, but the long hikes took their toll on our bodies: my knees were in bad pain on and off during our whole time in Patagonia and Mathijs‘ ankles were not always happy either. All in all we managed really well though, given all the challenges we had!

Safety: If I would have written this chapter in Ushuaia, I would have said: all good, no issues. However, when we arrived in Buenos Aires, my big backpack got stolen off a bus which was super annoying and made me realize that there are still some safety issues – not so much in peaceful Patagonia, but definitely in the bigger cities.

Itinerary: We visited both countries very thoroughly and managed to see everything worth seeing (for us). We zig-zagged our way from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile all the way South to Ushuaia in Argentina, crossing borders between both countries multiple times. A big part of our trip was spent in Patagonia on numerous hikes. Later, we flew up Buenos Aires, and after a short detour to Uruguay and Paraguay, made our way to Iguazu Falls, from where we crossed into Brazil.

Highlight: Impossible to say since we spent so much time in these 2 countries and saw so many amazing places. Hiking in Patagonia in general was awesome, the Huemul Circuit very special, as was our boat tour to the O’Higgins glacier. At the same time, Bariloche’s surroundings and the street art of Valparaiso were really cool too. You see!? Impossible to tell.

Lowlight: Getting my backpack stolen in Buenos Aires. As in places: Punta Arenas (the penguins are cool, but the city itself sucks).

Click on the photos below to see our full photo albums of Argentina:

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And Chile:

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Argentina, Brazil, World Trip 2018-19

Iguazu Falls – Argentina & Brazil

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The Iguazu Falls are of course a highlight we didn’t want to miss out on, so we planned our route into Brazil to go via these waterfalls. On Argentinian side, Puerto Iguazu is the town you stay at. From here, we took and early morning bus 30 min to the national park where the falls are located. It was good we arrived early and accidentally chose our favourite trail – the lower circuit trail – as a first thing to do. Luckily we did, because most groups went elsewhere first and we had the trail pretty much to ourselves, with some really pretty first viewpoints!

The Iguazu Falls are, as the name already suggests, a series of many, many waterfalls that form one huge fall together. The trail led us to some points with a great view overall, but also closer to some of the falls.

Although I must have seen hundreds of pics of the Iguazu Falls before in my life, I was still captivated. The falls are even better and more impressive in real life than on any pictures!

Later, we continued on the upper circuit where there were of course more people now, but it was still ok and less busy than expected. On this trail, you got to see the falls more from the top, which was also nice, but not quite as spectacular as on the lower circuit.

Last but not least, we took the train to Devil’s Throat, where you get very close to the most impressive part of the falls. Here, you were getting sprayed by the water masses splashing down. It was impressive to see nature’s force from so close by.

Unfortunately, here we had to fight our way through masses of people and stand in line for photos. Oh well, at least the rest of the day had been less busy than expected and really, really cool.

We said goodbye to the falls, knowing we would see them again next day – from the Brazilian side. We packed up and took a bus directly to the falls, where we could lock up our big backpacks before taking the park’s shuttle bus the last bit. We got off a little before the last stop, to be able to follow a scenic walk along the river – getting closer and closer to the falls, with lots of amazing views. That day we had left much later, so unfortunately there were way more people, more fighting for good photo spots and even standing in line at some spots.

Oh well, it was all worth it! At the end of the walk, there’s a board walk across the water which brings you really close to the falls. Too many people and lots of spray again, but beautiful!

There’s also a watchtower which you can access by elevator and provides some more good views over the falls.

By the end, we had really seen the falls from any and every corner and viewpoint possible it seemed – so we were ok to leave, pick up our backpacks, take the bus to the city of Foz do Iguazu, then another bus to the big bus terminal… and then hop on the night bus to Florianopolis! The Brazil adventure had officially started.

Argentina, Uruguay, World Trip 2018-19

Buenos Aires & a short visit to Uruguay

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Buenos Aires – the good air – did not start off so well for us. Happy to see a sunny sky and to walk out of the airport in a t-shirt, my big backpack got stolen during our ride into town! We were on a normal local bus, had put our big bags in the luggage area and set down right next to it. Apparently at one point when we didn’t look, a guy was blocking Mathijs‘ view of the bags and next time we saw them, mine was gone!! Big shock moment. It took me a while to understand and believe what had just happened and in a way I still find it unbelievable. We paid so much attention, but never thought anyone would be after our BIG backpacks… Shit. Our planned „easy relaxing and sightseeing time“ in Buenos Aires became a frustrating and exhausting shopping time, and before and after we had to deal with insurance. BA is not a good city for shopping. High import taxes make international brands very expensive and there are hardly any nice shops. But…I needed something at least, so I had to find something! We saw pretty much every acceptable women’s shop in central BA, but only very few sights in between…

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I was not sad to leave BA after all this, and looking forward to a new country, a fresh start. We had chosen for the cheapest but longest way to travel to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay: waking up at 5 am, we took a taxi to the train station and a train to Tigre where we boarded the Cacciola ferry. The ferry ride was nice in the beginning, leading through some smaller channels. There were lots of wrecks of stranded boats here, kind of scenic but I also hoped we wouldn’t end up like this. Lol.

The ferry goes until the little town of Carmelo, where we had to wait for our connecting bus to Colonia del Sacramento. All in all, the day was filled with a lot of waiting, mainly at the two immigration points. It was chaotic and one of my least enjoyable border crossings! A long day…but at least we saved some money. Not sure I would do it again this way though.

In Colonia, we dropped our bags at our AirBnB and headed out to see the old center… some cute little streets, some old houses and green squares. It was nice, and what we really enjoyed was the sunny weather! The town itself didn’t wow us.

We also climbed up the old lighthouse, probably the no. 1 touristy thing to do. The views were not that amazing though, as the city is very green (which is nice), the vegetation covers the views of the old streets which you might otherwise have.

Next day, we took a bus further to Montevideo. Here, my main mission was to visit a big shopping center that has an H&M and buy as many of my missing clothes as possible! There were quite some nice shops actually, and the mission was successful. Now the main issue remains the stolen camping gear (sleeping bag, silk sleeping bag, sleeping mat, half of the tent, steripen) which seems impossible to find replacements for here… Oh well, we’ll have to see how we can deal with this!

On our 2nd day in Montevideo, we went out for some sightseeing, and more shopping. Montevideo doesn’t really have any famous sights, but it’s a cool, relaxed city. It’s also very green and I generally much preferred it over Buenos Aires.

Originally, our plan was then to travel to some Uruguayan beach towns – but we forgot about high season and once we checked, prices were too high for us. So we changed our itinerary and headed up to Salto, where we crossed the border into Argentina again – only for a night bus ride from Concordia to Posadas – from where we again crossed the border into Encarnación, Paraguay.