Argentina & Chile

Benefits:

• Argentina Woman – Definitely the most beautiful and charming of my round the world trip
• Empanadas - small ones and delicious in Argentina; bigger and served as a main course in Chile
• No visa needed to cross the border. This was really good because I picked the best of both countries and therefore crossed the border more than 5 times!
• Pantagonia - Perito Moreno (Argentina) & trekking at Torres del Paine (Chile)

Concerns:

• Cross the border to Chile is a nightmare – All your stuff has to be checked and the procedure takes some time.
• Distances and time estimation at Torres del Paine National Park – Sometimes too conservative, other times to optimistic.
• Buses in San Pedro Atacama don’t operate each day (even when there is enough demand).

Places visited (& days): 24 days from 8 Nov. till 2nd Dec. – San Pedro Atacama (1) + Salta (2) + Mendoza (2) + Valparaiso (2) + Puerto Montt (1); Bariloche (3); El Calafate (3); Puerto Natales & Torres del Paine (6); Ushuaia (2); Buenos Aires (3)

Transport (time or distances): San Pedro Atacama to Salta hitchhiking by truck (15h30); Salta to Mendoza by bus (15h); Mendoza to Valparaiso by bus (7h); Valparaiso to Puerto Montt by bus (15h); Puerto Montt to Bariloche by boat (cruise during all the day); Bariloche to El Calafate by air (1h30); El Calafate to Puerto Natales by bus (5h); Puerto Natales to Ushuaia by bus (12h30); Ushuaia to Buenos Aires by air (3h30)

Currency:
1.00 EUR = 4.55270 ARS (Argentina Pesos)
1.00 EUR = 735.899 CLP (Chile Pesos)

Funny Experiences:

“Haciendo Dedo” - Hitchhiking - To leave San Pedro Atacama to Salta I was told that the next days the buses were fully booked. It was really a problem since I was supposed to spend the weekend with some friends there. I checked all the alternatives and the only one was to go to the border to hitchick. So at 7.00 am, one hour before the border opening I asked all the trucks around if anyone would take me to Salta.

At 8.00 am I was leaving with Carlos for one of my best journeys. I didn’t know but during the trip we had to load the truck with some minerals (borax) and later on unloaded it.

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Carlos´truck with whom I was hitchhiking

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Crossing the Andes

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So instead of a short trip (8h) to Salta it took me 15 hours to cross the Andes. We were caught by the police with extra weight but as usually in South American countries, a quick chat and some money solved the problem.

San Pedro Atacama

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San Pedro Atacama is a lovely village but very tourist. It is known as the most expensive one in Chile since it is such a remote place and therefore locals take advantage of it. I would have loved to stay longer and explore the region around, but since I was already traveling through the desert in Bolivia I decide to keep going on my trip and see other sights and landscapes. Anyway. I still had time to enjoy a great dinner with a very quiet girl from Santiago (Luna), who almost made me change my mind.

Bicycle tour to Pukara - San Pedro Atacama

Dinner with Luna (empanadas and wine - of course!)

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From San Pedro I went to Salta (Argentina). It seems to be an interesting city but the real reason to come here was to visit my friend Ricardo Roquette who married an Argentinean and is running a business there (very well by the way!)

Preparing asado with Ricardo
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We did a quick tour to visit the city (the Cathedral, the San Francisco Church & Convento San Bernardo) because the best thing that you can do here as normally in almost all Argentina is eating the empanadas, go for an “asado”-barbecue and drink wine.
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Cathedral - Salta

Then I went to Mendoza, the main city of the winery region. I spend two days heremainly trying several wines and doing some tours. One of them to the Flichman winery which is running by Luis Cabral Almeida (Portuguese).

Parque General San Martin

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Valparaiso, was my next stop. It is considered the cultural capital of Chile and a Unesco World Heritage. The most interesting here is to walk around the city, climb the hills or take the "ascensors" which are spread all around the city.

Plaza Sotomayor - Valparaiso

Cerro Concepcion - Valparaiso

View from one of Neruda's house (la Sebastiana)- Valparaiso

Nearby (just 7 km away) Vina del Mar is also worth a visit. The city is just next to the sea and is a typical destination for Chileans of Santiago for their weekends and holidays.

From here I went directly to Puerto Montt and didn’t stop in Santiago. It was a pity since I had some friends there but it was a question of priorities (I visited Santiago 4 years ago) and my first ones were Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the Lake District.

I was somehow disappointed with Puerto Montt. There was really nothing to see and the weather was horrible when I arrived (very windy and cold). There were two alternative routes from here. The first one, to take the Navimag ferry for a 3 day journey through Chile’s fjords till Puerto Natales. The other one, to cross the Lake District till Bariloche. I decide for the second one, since the ferry was leaving just on Mondays (it was Friday that time) and there was no way to stay more days in Puerto Montt.

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Volcano Osorno - Lake District

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So I booked the typical tour to cross the lakes. It was nice but comparing to other activities of my round the world trip this was really a tour that I could have skipped. On top of that it was very expensive (the only company who offer this service is Andina del Sud) and too long.

Lake Petrohue - Lake District

Just to give an idea, to cross the lakes we took 3 catamarans and 4 buses!!! The sights seen were the Volcan Capulco, Volcan Osorno, Volcan Puntiagudo, Waterfalls Petrohue, Lake de todos os Santos, Puerto Frias, Puerto Alegre, Puerto Best, Puerto Pamielo and finally Bariloche

Bariloche is a ski resort town but even during the summer there is a lot to do and see. It is also a hot destination for the Portenos (people from Buenos Aires)

During the cruise, I met some people. My favorite one was a Colombian couple (Dairo and his wife), who were in their honeymoon and who very kindly invited me to dinner.

Lake Nahuel Huapi - Bariloche

El Calafate was the starting point to explore the Patagonia.

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El Calafate

The first day I did the glaciers cruise on the National Park Los Glaciares. The most impressive one were the Spegazzini and the Upsala. A very nice thing was also having lunch at the Onelli bay.
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Upsala Glacier

The Tuga at Bay Onelli

But my favorite activity was the hiking day on the Perito Moreno.

Perito Moreno

Just by getting close to this glacier is a memorable experience, and trekking on it is paradise. Perito is 30km long, 5 km wide and 60 m high.

Trekking on Perito Moreno

Visiting a hole - Perito Moreno

For security reasons there is just a maximum of 20 people per day and we had to use harness and croupons. The group was as always very international and very friendly

Enjoying wisky after the trekking - Perito Moreno

From El Calafate I took a bus and once more crossed the border to Chile. I went to Puerto Natales which is the town to get to if you want to visit Torres del Paine National Park! To avoid the busy lodges of the park I decided to rent my own tent.

Torres del Paine

Torrence, who I met on my way to Puerto Natales, joined me and we did almost all the W circuit together (he just left the last day before visiting the Grey glacier). It was a fantastic experience trekking here. The landscape is fantastic and Torrence was the ideal mate since we had the same pace which is always very important when you are trekking with someone else.

Torrence & Pedro

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Day 1 – Trekking from Hosteria Torres till the Torres del Paine. We slept at Camping Torres

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Torres del Paine

Day 2 – Trekking from Camping Torres to Camping Los Cuernos and then till Camping Italiano where we stayed overnight.

Day 3 – We still climbed till the Camping Britanico to get another good view from the back of Torres del Paine. Then we walked till Camping Paine Grande were Torrence took the ferry back and where a slept.

Lake Nordenskjold - Torres del Paine

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Day 4 – To complete the “W circuit” I trekked this day with two other Dutch friends (Marcel and Jordi) to visit the Grey Glaciar.

Grey Glacier - Torres del Paine

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I would have loved to know how many kms we have been trekking but as I mentioned before the information was not very clear.

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Arriving at Tierra del Fuego

To complete my trip in Patagonia I visited Tierra del Fuego (which is mainly Chilean) but I ended in to the southern most city in the World, Ushuaia in Argentina! To my surprise it was very warm during my visit.

Huge country...

Ushuaia

The main activity here was to “climb” the glacier Martial. I did it with Umberto an Italian guy, and the views from the top are incredible with the Ushuaia city and Channel Beagle on the background. Anyway, after visiting Perito Morreno, Scalabicini, Grey all these glaciers are somehow ridiculous comparing to Martial one!

On top of the Glacier Martial

One funny thing in Ushuaia is their marketing. Each restaurant, bar, tour ... always use the slogan “… del fin del mundo”- … end of the world!

Last stop in Argentina was the Capital, Buenos Aires. From Ushuaia it is a 3h30 min flight (3000 km!). I stayed in Palermo Viejo. In fact the atmosphere was very nice with a lot of restaurants and bars around but also very difficult to find a hotel since all of them are very small and the demand is always very high.

During the day I walked around to visit the area (Palermo), Recoleta and its the cemetery, Plaza de Mayo and its cathedral, Teatro Colon, the Obelisco, San Telmo…

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Plaza de Mayo - Buenos Aires

With some local friends (Filipe and Sofia) and a Portuguese (Eduardo) we had some great meals (Happening at Puerto Madero, Baez in Canitas, Osaka in Palermo) and also experienced the Buenos Aires’s nightlife (El Punto).

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Felipe, Sofia, Pedro & Eduardo - Puerto Madero

The best activity, was to watch the semi-final of the Polo tournament (La Dolphina against Chapas Uno). Very interesting, the game and all the glamour around it!!! In fact Argentinians can proudly say that they have (probably) the most beautiful women in the world!

Watching a Polo Game