As soon as we crossed the Argentinian border, the landscape changed dramatically. We left the green forests and the snow covered mountains behind and found ourselves in the middle of the endless plains on the other side of the Andes. The weather also changed, from rainy and rather cold to sunny and warm. These are the famous
pampas! Here we took the also mythical Ruta 40 in Argentina, a road that crosses the country all the way through, from the Bolivian border up North to the Chilean border at the southernmost Patagonia. We just did 1/6th of it approximately and this was more than 1500 kms! At these latitudes the road is basically a dirt road, but quite wide and safe, in the sense that you ride across plains and there isn't the risk of falling into a river or a big slope if you go out of the road. We drove south, for 12h straight, with just short stops to refuel and buy something to eat. It is amazing how you can drive for 5h across the same landscape, sprinkled here and there with guanacos, sheeps and ñandus, a sort of ostrich, and suddenly arrive at a small village, which has not more than a dozen of houses and a petrol station. Of course, they charge whatever they want for the petrol, there is no competition and everyone (literally everyone) has to stop here to refuel since the next station will be 300 or 400 kms away. Even though they inflate the prices, fuel here is 1/3 the price of that in Portugal!
The goal for the day was to gain the extra day and reach El Chaltén, a small town existing since 1985 with a very specific purpose: tourism. It is strategically located inside Los Glaciares National Park, the symbol of the Argentinian Patagonia. From the town it is easily possible to do day treks to amazing places: glaciers, lagoons, waterfalls and Patagonian forest. We arrived at night and rented a fully equiped
cabaña, managed by a very friendly Argentinian from Buenos Aires. The day after, we did a beautiful 4h-trek to Laguna Torre to see a glacier and the plan for the next day was to get up early and leave in the morning but... it was Friday night.
As good
latinos and since we believe it is one of the best ways to assimilate the local culture, we couldn't miss a Friday night. We had a few beers at home while playing cards and we decided to go out and see what was happening. We immediately met another group, a local group, who were going for the same. Armed with Quilmes (aka Kill Me), the national beer, we went to a bar and this was the best night of the whole vacations and the most memorable one as well. I will not go into full detail around this epic night, but one of the remarkable moments was when the DJ started playing Buraka Som Sistema, a Portuguese electronic group, and among the fuss we made about it, I met an Argentinian girl who had been in Portugal recently! Needless to say, the next day nobody woke up early and we decided to stay an extra night. We took the evening to drive to a lagoon nearby and see some waterfalls and more glaciers. We spent the extra day here, but it was definitely worth it.
The next day we left early to see the biggest tourist attraction of the Argentinian Patagonia. On the southern part of the Los Glaciares National Park is the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the very few that is not retreating and is able to regenerate itself. This monster glacier is in a lake (Lago Argentino) and acts as a natural dam, dividing the lake in two. There are one-hour boat rides that approach one of the glacier sides and where you normally can see some ice collapsing from it. The total area of the glacier is equivalent to the area of Madrid and it is indeed an impressive view. At the end of the day we went to El Calafate and decided to stay there for the night. After an hearty discussion, where the four of us needed to distress from the tight schedule, we decided to loosen it up a little bit and cut part of the trip, namely the incursion to Tierra del Fuego, and gain two days with it. It was getting stressful! The next day we drove the last miles of Ruta 40 to reach the Chilean border via Rio Gallegos, on the Atlantic shore. This was all from Argentina. It is interesting as Patagonia is normally more associated to Argentina than to Chile, but the symbolic spots of its Argentinian part are gathered in one single National Park and it is just in the border with Chile...
As soon as we crossed the Argentinian border, the landscape changed dramatically. We left the green forests and the snow covered mountains behind and found ourselves in the middle of the endless plains on the other side of the Andes. The weather also changed, from rainy and rather cold to sunny and warm. These are the famous pampas! Here we took the also mythical Ruta 40 in Argentina, a road that crosses the country all the way through, from the Bolivian border up North to the Chilean border at the southernmost Patagonia. We just did 1/6th of it approximately and this was more than 1500 kms! At these latitudes the road is basically a dirt road, but quite wide and safe, in the sense that you ride across plains and there isn't the risk of falling into a river or a big slope if you go out of the road. We drove south, for 12h straight, with just short stops to refuel and buy something to eat. It is amazing how you can drive for 5h across the same landscape, sprinkled here and there with guanacos, sheeps and ñandus, a sort of ostrich, and suddenly arrive at a small village, which has not more than a dozen of houses and a petrol station. Of course, they charge whatever they want for the petrol, there is no competition and everyone (literally everyone) has to stop here to refuel since the next station will be 300 or 400 kms away. Even though they inflate the prices, fuel here is 1/3 the price of that in Portugal!
The goal for the day was to gain the extra day and reach El Chaltén, a small town existing since 1985 with a very specific purpose: tourism. It is strategically located inside Los Glaciares National Park, the symbol of the Argentinian Patagonia. From the town it is easily possible to do day treks to amazing places: glaciers, lagoons, waterfalls and Patagonian forest. We arrived at night and rented a fully equiped cabaña, managed by a very friendly Argentinian from Buenos Aires. The day after, we did a beautiful 4h-trek to Laguna Torre to see a glacier and the plan for the next day was to get up early and leave in the morning but... it was Friday night.
As good latinos and since we believe it is one of the best ways to assimilate the local culture, we couldn't miss a Friday night. We had a few beers at home while playing cards and we decided to go out and see what was happening. We immediately met another group, a local group, who were going for the same. Armed with Quilmes (aka Kill Me), the national beer, we went to a bar and this was the best night of the whole vacations and the most memorable one as well. I will not go into full detail around this epic night, but one of the remarkable moments was when the DJ started playing Buraka Som Sistema, a Portuguese electronic group, and among the fuss we made about it, I met an Argentinian girl who had been in Portugal recently! Needless to say, the next day nobody woke up early and we decided to stay an extra night. We took the evening to drive to a lagoon nearby and see some waterfalls and more glaciers. We spent the extra day here, but it was definitely worth it.
The next day we left early to see the biggest tourist attraction of the Argentinian Patagonia. On the southern part of the Los Glaciares National Park is the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the very few that is not retreating and is able to regenerate itself. This monster glacier is in a lake (Lago Argentino) and acts as a natural dam, dividing the lake in two. There are one-hour boat rides that approach one of the glacier sides and where you normally can see some ice collapsing from it. The total area of the glacier is equivalent to the area of Madrid and it is indeed an impressive view. At the end of the day we went to El Calafate and decided to stay there for the night. After an hearty discussion, where the four of us needed to distress from the tight schedule, we decided to loosen it up a little bit and cut part of the trip, namely the incursion to Tierra del Fuego, and gain two days with it. It was getting stressful! The next day we drove the last miles of Ruta 40 to reach the Chilean border via Rio Gallegos, on the Atlantic shore. This was all from Argentina. It is interesting as Patagonia is normally more associated to Argentina than to Chile, but the symbolic spots of its Argentinian part are gathered in one single National Park and it is just in the border with Chile...
2 comments:
Friday night yeahhhhhhhhhhh
Bom ano Novo !!!!
Post a Comment