Heading south in Argentina
Trip Start
Mar 31, 2006
1
23
37
Trip End
Mar 31, 2007
Bariloche,
Argentina
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
I´m nicely settled in an Austrian style cottage in the rather beautiful garden of a Slovinian lady in bariloche. I have my own room and a shared kitchen but am only sharing it with myself so far! Bariloche is beautiful, its on a huge lake surrounded by snow-covered mountains, and at this time of year (spring) that equates to chilly!! And the wind is bitter when it blows...but the sun is hot when it shines too. I havent done spanish lessons again mainly because I wanted a group conversation class but could only get private 1-1 and it is very expensive here in Argentina (as is everything compared to where we´ve been!). I pore over the newspaper evey day with my dictionary and am definitely finding an improvement in my understanding of the written word. From the newspaper I learned that bolivia is simmering at the moment with hints of a possible coup - so glad we hit it when we did cos it was so calm and we loved it
cerro sosneado near Malargue
. Morales´ popularity after 9 months has dropped from 85% in May to 52% today. people have such unrealistic expectations as to how much change can be achieved in a 9 month period. He is pursuing nationalisation of the resource industry and is promising an improved economy as a result, but of course the opposite is likely to happen - witness Zambia and other examples, and if this becomes a reality then he wont be around for very long. He also seems to be somewhat under the influence of Hugo Chavez, venezuela, and there is talk of Venezuela military bases being built on the Bolivian borders and Peru and Chile are up in arms about it. Chavez seems to be trying to position himself to be the ¨super president¨of south america, although its only the weaker countries that he will win over to this way of thinking.....Since we have hit Argentina we have realised that we´ve bitten off more than we can chew in a 1-year trip. Argentina is so big you could spend a whole year just here! But in all honesty its too sophisticated for us here - and Chile will be the same -we prefer the simpler less develped countries! So we´re going to turn around at Bariloche and will not make it down to the far south. Interesting though, the people here are far more interested in our car and number plate and hence where we come from than anywhere else. And the countryside is vast - every corner opens up yet another expansive view with amazing geology and colours.....am thinking of starting a new career in geology I find the rocks so fascinating
on way to cerro sosneado
! We´d just arrived in Mendoza at the end of our last BLOG. Its a nice town surrounded by vineyards (amazingly cheap wine) but its nothing special with no attractive buildings. Its best feature (apart from the Walmart (dont cringe Sandy!!) that we discovered and just had to visit as we were leaving town!) was an enormous park of 1200 hectares right in the centre of town and we were camped in the municipal camp site right in the centre of it...even had agua caliente for the duchas! Mendoza was also the scene of our almost second scam where a trio sat next to us at a restaurant and the female tried to entice me to the washroom by bending over me and muttering to me something about keys and the washroom as she walked past - sufficiently vague to peak my curiosity even though I didnt have any keys- but chris figured it out and told me to stay put. Once she saw I hadnt followed her all 3 of them left. We figure they were going to distract chris and get our bag whilst I was away at the loo...one has to be so on ones guard, its a shame really. Probably the most memorable part of Mendoza was the driving and watching poor chris have a heart attack a minute. Its a busy city with lots of traffic and the rules of the road are totally unclear and so at each and every intersection, unless there are lights - you have to guess whose right of way it is - CRAZY! Poor chris lost it several times - at one intersection we had given way and the cross traffic was pouring across when suddenly a car roared up on our left side going at 60+ and without any slowing down at all on his part the cross traffic parted, just like the sea of galilee, and he, closely followed by us in his jet stream, crossed the intersection...phew!
rio atuel
! Roundabouts are another heart stopping experience, and the best one is that if you want to turn left first you turn right--.......From Mendoza we travelled to Malargue taking a detour to a canyon south west of San Rafael, but although beautiful it was spoiled by being densely developed with hotels, cabanas, river rafting etc - not our scene. In contrast Malargue was delightful, a sweet little town full of old american cars cruising slowly down the high street and everyone hugging and kissing each other. It also has an observatory which monitors cosmic rays for the world, and all the world experts were here at a conference whilst we were there. We stayed for 3 nights at the Muni campsite and did day trips to Cerro Sosneado (5189 metres) which was spectacular and there was no-one else around, to a lake 50x10km with flamingos and black necked swans and set in a weird landscape which was flat with multiple volcanic cones of varying size popped up all over the place. Our campsite was next to the local sports complex and we had 2 minor panics (or chris did) as they had events on 2 of the nights we were there but fortunately the insulation kept the noise inside and we were able to sleep undisturbed!
By now we were trying to balance eating up the miles to Bariloche to get chris there in time for his Oz flight, and not getting south too quickly as it would get colder and colder. Our next 2 camping spots were in small towns, Chos Malal and Zapala where we were definitely the only tourists...we like that
rio limay near bariloche
! The muni campsites in both these places were free...amazing! Once we left Zapala which was still in arid flatlands with mountains in the distance, every where began to become greener and the mountains got closer, and the temperature was droping fast---and we arrived in bariloche in the pouring rain! Its green (hence the rain!), forested and lots of lakes...very BCish actually.As I mentioned earlier Bariloche is our turnaround point other than some short trips south from here with friends Lynn and Rose (ex Zambian camping buddies) because the weather gets colder and wetter the further south one goes at this time of year. We then cross to Osorno in Chile to meet with Dave and Stella (our Whistler buddies) and then we begin the trek north meeting up with Simon in Santiago and Fin in Ecuador before shipping the car to Central America in January.
Its difficult to believe that we´re already more than halfway through our trip - the time is going so, so quickly. We´ve met several couples for whom this type of travelling has become their lives and they´ve been on the road for 12 years already! I must say we´re not tempted even though we´re loving this trip....we miss all of you friends, and our house and garden, and we´re dying to see you all again! 2-3 month trips to mexico or alaska maybe, but not another 12 month trip!
