one nine three

193 days of adventure

[193days]

Hey! Like you mentioned in your post on Uyuni, past reviews are truly so valuable when picking a tour provider for the salt flats, so that's for the helpful review! I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing the price for the 3 day/2 night tour you did with Red Planet? The only thing I can find only is that it was $140 about three years ago. Thanks!

Hello! Pleased that you found the post useful. I think we paid $175, which included the transfer to Chile.

[193days]

La Oriental Estancia, Mendoza and Rosario

Our trip to Argentina would have felt incomplete without a visit to wine country in Mendoza and seeing the Pampas. Killing two birds with one stone, we set out from Buenos Aires in our hire car with a stop scheduled at La Oriental estancia, before our five nights in Mendoza.

The estancia we chose was due to be a three and a half hour drive from Buenos Aires. However, our drive took considerably longer than this after the map we had printed turned out to be somewhat insufficient and we spent two extra hours driving aimlessly through deserted and seemingly identical dirt roads. Usually unflappable in situations where extreme navigation is required, Alasdair began fearing that the pampas might be our permanent home, as we were each silently calculating how long the packet of biscuits and five litres of water could keep us going until help arrived! Fortunately through some guess-work, an iPhone compass and the first human contact in days (OK, two hours!), we were eventually set on the right track. Upon arrival, the aforementioned immediately melted away.

The most luxurious place we’ve stayed on our travels, this was our Christmas gift to each other and one that will be remembered for a long time. Getting a few strange looks when people asked how long we were travelling for, we hastily added this was not our usual style of travel! La Oriental is set within a 2400 acre estate and has a working farm producing soya and raising cattle. Stepping into the house was like stepping into the set of a Noel Coward play, with beautiful period features and rooms with ceilings reaching seven metres high. Our host kindly upgraded our room and it was quite hard to contain our excitement as she showed us to the grandest room imaginable, complete with an en-suite with a roll-top bath! An estancia stay isn’t complete without partaking in a variety of activities and we enjoyed a sunset canoe, walks through the grounds, a horse ride at dusk in the pampas with the wonderful Miguel, some archery and soaking up the surroundings by the pool. We felt thoroughly content and sorry to leave, as we set out on our 10 hour drive to Mendoza.

During the first nine hours of this long drive, the landscape remained unchanged, making us realise the scale of Argentina’s agricultural heartland. A long but easy drive, we arrived in Mendoza in the evening. Having had several successful Airbnb stays during our travels, we had booked into another for our wine-tasting week. Oh how the mighty fell! Mendoza ‘Cool House’ (the clue should have been in the listing) could not have been further from the luxury of the last two nights. From roll-top bath to a toilet that needed a piece of string and a bucket to flush it! Having done a lot of searching for reasonable accommodation with no luck, we resigned ourselves to the fact we would live like unlucky students for five nights.

We found Mendoza city to be a little bland, with a couple of nice restaurants but little else going for it. That didn’t bother us though, as we were here to taste wine! Our first day of wine tasting was somewhat thwarted, after we discovered that the majority of the wineries in Luján de Cuyo only accepted appointments by reservation. Several hours of driving and one strange visit to an empty winery, where the woman leading the tasting stared at us as we were awkwardly sipping our wine, we were wondering if we should just head to the nearest supermarket to stock up and give up.

The next day was a different story when we visited the beautiful Valle de Uco. Whilst the day before we'd found ourselves driving by and failing to visit imposing, unwelcoming and hugely commercial wineries, we chose a little better in Valle de Uco. We visited small family run wine-producers and a larger but friendly vineyard. The day was made by an amazing lunch at the incredible Azul winery. A relaxing few hours were spent eating delicious food and drinking equally delicious wine under a shady canopy. If you’re ever in the area, go there!

Our final couple of days were spent exploring Maipu, where there are more smaller wineries and olive oil producers, and soaking in the Cacheuta thermal baths overlooking the foothills of the Andes. All in all a lovely week!

Having been firmly on the tourist trail, we were looking to try and find somewhere that would give us a taste of Argentina that hasn’t yet been cornered by gringos. With that in mind, we decided to head to the second, second city of Argentina - Rosario. A very Argentinian, Argentine city, Rosario celebrates being home to the location of the inaugural use of the national flag. In the centre of the city, there’s an imposing monument dedicated to General Manuel Belgrano, who was the creator of the flag. Belgrano is laid to rest under the tower of the monument, where sightseers can take a lift to the top to get views over Rosario.  

It turns out that our slightly left-field decision was a good one, as we got to visit a place where we didn’t meet any other foreign tourists, where locals were interested in speaking to us and where we felt we got a taste of a city without the polished veneer of say Bariloche or Buenos Aires. There isn’t loads to see here (especially if you happen to be there on one of the days where the museums are closed, as we were!) but it’s a pretty city with interesting places to explore for a short stopover. We’d definitely recommend heading here for a night or two if you have time and you’re curious to visit somewhere a little different…just make sure you can speak a little Spanish!

[193days]

[193days]

[193days]

[193days]

Buenos Aires (Pt 1)

We welcomed in the New Year in Buenos Aires. We thought that the city would be one of our favourite places and we weren’t wrong! Given our introduction to the nightlife had been on a busy Tuesday night, leaving as locals were still arriving at 3am, the city was surprisingly quiet and New Year’s Eve a fairly low key affair. That said, we had a fantastic evening at a great cocktail bar across the road from where we were staying.

Based on our few nights in the city over New Year, we decided this was a place we wanted to get to know better. With that in mind, we booked into another Airbnb for an extended stay after our return from Mendoza and surrounds. More to follow on our time in Buenos Aires in a later post...

[193days]

Bariloche

Beautiful Bariloche was our home for Christmas. We hired a gorgeous log cabin about half an hour outside of the city and enjoyed feasting, drinking and relaxing in festive doses, with a backdrop of the incredible view from our windows. The simple pleasures of having space to unpack our backpacks, cook and watch Christmas films were a delight.

Situated in Patagonia, more stunning scenery was abundant. Our homely week in the cabin was punctuated by lovely walks in the Nahuel Huapi national park and a couple of drives around the nearby 60km Circuito Chico and Ruta de los Siete Lagos. The Seven Lakes Route was spectacular, stretching north from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes. We were treated to alpine lakes, pine forests, lush countryside and more Patagonian loveliness. All in all, we had ourselves a very merry little Christmas!

[193days]

[193days]

Puerto Madryn, Punta Tombo and Pingüinos

Our visit to Puerto Madyrn was booked on a bit of a whim to try and see some of the wildlife around the area and also out of necessity.  After exhaustive research, we found that there would be no cheap and easy way to get to Bariloche (our destination for Christmas) and that we'd somewhat underestimated the size of Argentina! After much deliberation we booked flights from El Calafate to Trelew, a short bus ride to Puerto Madryn.

Upon arrival, we were not impressed at all by Puerto Madryn. On a rainy day, it's a drab seaside town that appeared to be mostly closed. First impressions were also not helped by the hostel we'd booked, where the staff were useless and seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with the film Despicable Me, using images on signage to warn against every possible offence that has ever been committed in a hostel world-wide (Hostel Trapalanda. Avoid). This, plus the fact we'd apparently just missed whale watching season was conspiring against us. Undeterred, we tried to book onto a kayaking tour to see some sea lions but it was too windy to go out onto the sea. 2-0 to Mother Nature.

Thankfully at this time of year the Magellanic penguins are a fail safe bet! We didn't fancy doing one of the pricey tours on offer, so we hired a car and headed out to Punta Tombo the next day. Having been lamenting our trip to Puerto Madryn thus far, we were very happy with what we got to see. This was a special time of year to visit, as the chicks were only a few weeks old. The unique thing about visiting penguins here is that you can get up very close to them, so much so that the penguins have right of way on the paths!

A power outage in town and another unsuccessful battle with 20 cashpoints in Argentina meant that a low budget meal was followed by a very tense taxi ride to get to the bus terminal on time for our overnight bus to Bariloche.

Those little pingüinos saved us from an otherwise calamitous few days!

[193days]

[193days]

[193days]

El Calafate and El Chalten

After a couple of recovery days in Puerto Natales our time in Chile sadly came to an end, as we took a bus across the border to El Calafate in Argentina.

Immediately reminded at the border of the continuing tensions between Britain and Argentina with a sign claiming the Malvinas (Falklands) as Argentinian, we nervously handed over our passports at border control. We shouldn't have worried, as the first signs of Argentinian hospitality waited there.

El Calafate itself is a town that relies heavily on tourism due to proximity to Perito Moreno glacier and the Southern glacier park. We spent a day looking around the town, visiting the lake and battling with cash points (something that hadn't happened since Cartagena in Colombia). Not loving the hostel we were staying in, we decided to head out to El Chalten for a few days before returning to El Calafate for Perito Moreno (and housed somewhere a little nicer).

Little El Chalten, a three hour bus from El Calafate, sits at the foot of the Fitzroy mountain range and was a lovely place to spend a couple of days, including Sarah's birthday. Mention El Chalten to anyone who has been there and it's likely that one of their first comments will be about how windswept the place is. Arriving on a day where the sun was shining and the air was completely still, we wondered what all the fuss had been about, only understanding what people meant when we experienced the gales for ourselves a couple of days later!

Walking weary, we decided to give the heavy hikes a miss and visited the two main viewpoints walkable from town on our first afternoon. It turned out that we were not jaded by the spectacular Torres del Paine and were appropriately wowed by the Fitzroys and surrounding scenery.

Finding a suitably icy way to spend a usually cold December birthday, we spent the next morning visiting the Viedma glacier on a boat ride from the nearby port. Over the two and half hour trip, we navigated across the turquoise Lake Viedma, to get up close with the 40 metre high, two kilometre wide glacier - a very special way to spend a birthday. The rest of the day was spent celebrating in a cosy microbrewery and with a great dinner at the lovely La Tapera restaurant.

El Chalten is made up of little more than a few streets but the scenery, the cosy cabana we were staying in, the friendly locals and the inviting restaurants made this a place that left an impression on us.

Arriving back in El Calafate, our sights were set on the main event of Perito Moreno. One of the few glaciers that advances, moving forwards on average two metres per day, it’s quite the spectacle. Treating visitors to endless cracks and crunches, watching huge chunks of ice calve off was amazing! We spent several hours exploring the different walkways to enjoy the different perspectives and experiencing one of the most fascinating and beautiful sites you could imagine.

[193days]

[193days]

[193days]

[193days]

Torres Del Paine

Given this was the only part of the trip we'd spent many hours planning before leaving London, our expectations were high and following our incredible journey down the Carretera Austral, the bar had been well and truly raised. Our five days in Torres del Paine national park were spectacular, as Chile continued to astound us! A flight from Puerto Montt took us down to Punto Arenas, with a three hour bus journey taking us onto Puerto Natales, a small town where most start their journey to the Torres del Paine national park. Puerto Natales is a laid back town, with nice hostels and most importantly, a hotbed for delicious Patagonian lamb cooked over an open wood fire! Hiking the W of Torres del Paine is a very popular trek for international and Chilean tourists and for this reason we had booked all of our accommodation back in June. After some discussion we decided to take on the hike via the traditional route, starting at Torre Central and ending at Paine Grande to get the catamaran back. The trek itself covers about 75 kilometres distance up and down three valleys, giving it the distinctive W shape. The park offers a huge variety of landscapes: dense forests, stunning glaciers, awe-inspiring mountains and incredible lakes. One of the most spectacular things about the walk is the viewpoint at Valle Frances, which allows you to take in a breath-taking 360 degree view seeing almost all of the above simultaneously. Back in Puerto Natales we had been warned to expect everything from the weather...sound advice, as we encountered lots of sunshine, torrential rain, hail, sleet, gusts of wind reaching 90 mph and a little snow. We were incredibly lucky that the sun shone on the days we wanted it to most, granting us the views we'd wished for of the Torres, the Valle Frances and Glacier Grey. Torres del Paine translates as towers of pain and each of experienced varying degrees of "paine" but it was worth it! We would whole-heartedly recommend this trek to anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and some appetite for trekking. You will not be disappointed!

Our top tips for anyone doing the trek:

You can get the bus from Punto Arenas airport to Puerto Natales, without having to go into Punto Arenas itself if you pre-book

We loved both Tin House and Yaganhouse hostels in Puerto Natales

Take some cash to cover park entry fees etc. You can use credit cards at the lodges to buy food and other things if you need

If you want to stay in a lodge rather than camp, make sure you book in advance

Do the trek just out of high season to avoid the worst of the crowds 

If you only take one piece of advice from us make sure it is to pack light! We had about 7-8kgs each and wouldn't have wanted (or needed) more (though we didn't camp)

Most people stop at Refugio Cuernos on day two, but if we were to do the walk again we would continue to Domes Frances or Camping Italiano to keep day three shorter

Pack for all weathers

Take a decent supply of snacks to avoid expensive box lunches and extortionate snacks

Evening meals were decent, so don't carry more than you need to

You can get safe water refills at all of the lodges or in streams. No need for purification tablets

Where we stayed:

1st night (before the trek started) - Torre Central

2nd night - Chileno

3rd night - Cuernos

4th night - Domes Frances

5th night - Vertice Grey

Note: We took our time but you could do the trek with only three nights accommodation by starting immediately after arriving on the coach from Puerto Natales, and getting the catamaran back in the evening on the last day. Personally we were happy to have the extra time, particularly up by Glacier Grey on the final night.

[193days]