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Dobbs Away II
Dobbs Away II

Dobbs Away II

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    Alpaca family
    Cusco's Sun TempleChincheroOllaytaytambo stepsOllaytaytambo walls1Corn collectionPisacCaves at SaqsaywaymanSaqsaywayman walls

    Cusco

    15 avril 2018, Pérou ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Before heading to Machu Pichu, we spent 5 days in beautiful Cusco walking through the very narrow, hilly streets, acclimating to the altitude (11,000 feet) and picking up tickets for our trip to Machu Pichu.
    One of our days we hired a guide and driver to take us on a tour of the Sacred Valley. We visited the impressive Inkan ruins at Ollaytaytambo and Pisac and the colonial church of Chinchero. What a great introduction to the incredible architecture of the Inkas (and the terrible plundering of the Spanish). We also stopped at Pisac’s market and tried chicha – the local corn beer – from a roadside stall.
    Another day we took a taxi up to the nearby Inkan ruins of Saqsaywaman. It was an incredibly impressive site with massive stone walls and many interesting caves and structures – and the bonus of a very cute herd of alpacas wandering the expansive grounds. The ruins are so close to Cusco that we were able to walk back to the city in less than an hour via part of an original Inka trail and some very steep steps (ouch!).    En savoir plus

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    Art in the park
    Miraflores coastColonial churchCentralCentral menu1Pirahna serving plateA&G macaroon ice cream sandwiches1Mural near ceviche restaurant

    Lima, Peru

    12 avril 2018, Pérou ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We’d been looking forward to returning to Peru since our first trip here in 2005 when we hiked the Inka Trail, visited the remote jungle of Manu and discovered incredible ceviche in Lima.
    We were also excited to meet up again with our dear friend Cindy, who we hadn’t seen since she joined us for a few weeks in South Africa back in May.
    Lima is not what we’d consider a pretty city, but it has developed so much since our last visit and has become a major foodie destination with many new buildings lining the coast and pretty parks packed with families enjoying the outdoors.
    Lima was a budget-buster because we had booked tables at two of the city’s top restaurants: Central and Astrid & Gaston. After watching “Mind of a Chef” and learning about chef Veliz’s inspired menu at Central celebrating Peru’s indigenous ingredients and bio-diversity, this had been on our wish list for years. While the experience was really interesting, the food was sometimes challenging from a taste and texture perspective. The food at A&G was much more approachable, but unfortunately Christy got sick from what she thinks was her sea urchin udon. Hopefully she can recover her taste for uni before our Japan trip.
    Apart from eating, we enjoyed a visit to Amano, the Pre-Columbian Textile Museum, and the pre-Inkan adobe ruins of Huaca Pucilana.
    It was an interesting time to be in Lima as the city was hosting the “8th Summit of the Americas” with leaders from most North, South & Central American countries in attendance. The security was intense and the street where our hotel was located was closed most of the time as we were near to the big hotels where many leaders were staying. While corruption is still a major issue for Peru, this is a country that has cut its’ poverty rate in half in the past decade, a remarkable achievement.    En savoir plus

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    Main square
    Colonial buildingAmazing salad at last!CafeCowboy museum1Currency change

    Montevideo, Uruguay

    8 avril 2018, Uruguay ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Uruguay is a small country with just over 3 million people, It’s known to tourists for its’ beautiful beaches and for hosting the world’s longest carnival (40 days).
    Originally, we’d planned to spend more time in Uruguay, but decided beaches weren’t how we wanted to spend our time away.
    We stayed in the old town of this capital city and were surprised by the endless wall of (mostly modern), high-rise condos lining the shoreline for miles on the way from the airport to our hotel. The historic center was much more charming with many pretty old colonial buildings and churches, though many are in disrepair. Overall, we enjoyed our time here and spent our few days walking through the city (though the dog poo is possibly worse here than in Argentina or Chile – we are so over it!).
    We also visited the cowboy museum and explored a much more inventive restaurant scene than what we encountered over the past few months, with a bigger focus on fresh ingredients (finally!). It was a brief, but enjoyable visit.    En savoir plus

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    Simon the guard dog
    Another cute dinner locationRoad to Salta from CafayateSalta CathedralTown squareWild burroAnother (lovely) church

    Salta

    5 avril 2018, Argentine ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    The landscapes in Northern Argentina are ridiculously beautiful and we were treated to very dramatic red-rock landscapes much of our drive up to Salta. This is a part of the country not to miss!
    Salta has a feel similar to Jujuy, but is larger. Many crumbling and some updated adobe buildings, churches and squares make it a very charming place to walk around. And the North keeps their cities much cleaner than other parts of the country with almost no litter or dog doo anywhere. How wonderful! We loved Buenos Aires, but could have easily spent a week or longer in this nice-sized, safe and charming city.En savoir plus

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    Thankful for someone's birthday - wine and a little luxury!
    A visitor during wine hourRed peppers drying near CachiGiddyup!5 days oldBirthday lunchRoute 40 to CachiAnother visitor at wine time

    Cafayate

    2 avril 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Another beautiful drive through a different desert landscape - this time on a very corrugated, dirt portion of the famous Route 40 – took us to Argentina’s “high altitude wine country”.
    Cafayate is set in a valley of vineyards and surrounded by really beautiful rocky mountains - a more dramatic version of Palm Springs or Calistoga.
    Because it was Christy’s birthday, we splurged a little and stayed at a nice resort on a vineyard. It was beautiful and provided great wildlife and bird watching. We saw 4 different foxes while here and Christy enjoyed galloping through the vineyards on a rented horse. John decided to walk around the town instead.    En savoir plus

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    Cristo of El Caldero
    Town square social hourParque Nacional Los CardonesCachi churchFresh local food at lastBishop's Pass on route to CachiPN Los Cardones (Cactus)Typical front door - Cachi

    Cachi

    31 mars 2018, Argentine ⋅ ❄️ 1 °C

    The 7 hour drive from Jujuy was one of the nicest we’ve done. We passed through desert, semi-tropical rain forest, spectacular mountains and pampas, and more desert landscapes. On the way down, we stopped in the cute town of La Caldera to visit the huge Jesus statue on the hill and enjoyed a very good lunch of tamales and empanadas at a roadside restaurant where the entire family was seated at a table in the yard making up the empanadas. Yum! We also saw a very large iguana and tarantula on the road during our drive. No pictures because there wasn’t a safe place to stop, but we love seeing critters. We also saw wild burros in the desert. Cute!
    Cachi overtook San Martin de los Andes as our favorite town in the country. It is a tiny, colonial village with mostly single-story, white-washed adobe buildings – many, like our hotel, had beautiful courtyards behind the subtle walls. You can walk through the entire town in less than 1 hour, but sitting in cafes and watching the local scene is really enjoyable.
    There was a very sweet and simple church on the town square where we noticed they were hanging a life-sized man-doll. When we asked what was going on we learned that they were going to “burn the devil” that night. Of course we came out to watch and it was quite an interesting scene that the entire town turned out to witness.    En savoir plus

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    Pass to Salinas Grandes
    Yummy locro and tamales in HumahuacaSalinas GrandesPreviously double trouble now triple threat!1Hill of Seven Colors - PurmamarcaRestaurant in HumahuacaSt. Francis makes his daily appearance in Humahuaca1Llama Gigante

    Jujuy

    28 mars 2018, Argentine ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We flew to Salta and picked up a rental car and then drove a few hours to the town of Jujuy.
    Disaster was narrowly averted after we learned our rental car had been given away because we were over 1 hour late picking up the car (despite the fact we’d paid in full, in advance). We scrambled for nearly an hour until we finally found a helpful lady at the Alamo counter who was able to find a cancelled reservation that we could use – PHEW! We needed a car for an 8-day tour around Northern Argentina and going by bus would have been miserable and expensive. All of the companies were totally out of cars because it was a long holiday weekend – not only Easter, but also a holiday remembering the Argentineans who died trying to take over the Malvinas (Falkland Islands). It is very obvious that Argentina strongly believes the Malvinas are Argentinian. We see signs at border crossings, post offices and other government buildings essentially stating that the Malvinas are forever Argentinean…

    Jujuy was a very cute town with a very different feel from other parts of Argentina. People look more Indian and less European and the food is so much better up North! Tamales, stews, the best empanadas we’ve tasted…Yum!
    While here, we did several day trips. One day we drove north to Humahuaca and Tilcara. Humahuaca was a cute town full of adobe buildings and a beautiful old church where there was traditional dancing on display celebrating Good Friday. Tilcara was a small town surrounded by some very pretty red rock formations. On our second day, we drove to Salinas Grandes (the great salt flats) through stunning desert and high mountains. We also stopped at Purmamarca, another cute adobe town famous for its’ spectacular hills of 7 colors – beautiful rocky hillsides colored by many minerals.
    Because of the holiday weekend, the roads and towns were teeming with Argentinean tourists.    En savoir plus

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    Evita Museum
    Chori and Gin&Tonic

    Buenos Aires

    27 mars 2018, Argentine ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Our four weeks in Buenos Aires flew by incredibly fast, but we were grateful for the chance to stay in one place for more than a few days, exercise more regularly and enjoy better food (Argentinean food is definitely not our favorite so we cooked-in >90% of the time after finding some decent vegetable and fish markets).
    We spent a lot of time planning the rest of our travels, getting our US taxes ready, and Christy finished her New Zealand residency application.
    John began refreshing his Japanese for our planned visit to Japan in the fall and Christy spent a few hours every day studying Spanish.
    After the weather finally cooled down in mid-March, we visited museums, churches and explored more of the city’s interesting neighborhoods. The architecture and old buildings here continued to wow us – definitely a world-class city. Sorry to disappoint, but no tango lessons.    En savoir plus

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    Our neighborhood
    BA protest

    Buenos Aires

    1 mars 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    300 days of vacation-we need a break😋. We’ll be taking a pause from our travels for the month of March, staying in a few Airbnb’s here in the city. We’re excited to study some Spanish, get on a healthier eating and exercise routine, and enjoy exploring this very beautiful city.
    While our first night was rough with the power going out ~6pm and not returning until ~3pm the next day, we’re hopeful that was a fluke (though when you google power outages it seems corruption and poor management mean this isn’t all that uncommon).
    On our second full day we went to a rugby game. We felt like we had to go since the BA team were playing the Wellington team (John’s hometown). It was a fun experience (the NZ team, the Hurricanes, won!) and finding the tickets and the stadium was like a mini treasure hunt.
    Oh...and a funny thing happened on the way to the game...As we exited our Uber at the stadium, we heard someone asking in clumsy Spanish, with a Kiwi accent, 'excuse me, where is gate 2'. They were dressed in Hurricanes gear and lost, like us. We were eating some very delicious empanadas so obviously looked like locals. John cheekily waited a few seconds, took another bite of his empanada, turned around and said "don't worry about it, I don't speak much Spanish either - I'm from Wellington..." Turns out the folks were also Kiwis arrived from Auckland and Peru just for the game!
    Note that it’s unlikely we’ll do any updates until April, so don’t worry about us if you don’t see any activity (we’re talking to you, Danella 😀).    En savoir plus

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    Jesuit church downtown Cordoba
    Che's motorcycle (replica?)Che's medical licenseJesuit estancia in Alta GraciaJesuit churchEstancia groundsInterior of church1El PapagayoWe love eggs sooo much (don't we Cindy?)

    Cordoba

    23 février 2018, Argentine ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Cordoba is the second largest city in Argentina. Our Airbnb was in a leafy suburb ~15 minutes outside the city and the apartment was huge. We had an entire room with a garden outside where we could do yoga. So nice!
    The downtown was a little gritty, but had some beautiful old buildings and Jesuit churches. We also enjoyed one of the best meals we’ve had in several years at El Papagayo – a small restaurant in a narrow, converted alley. Beautiful, fresh and creative food. The wine pairings with local wines and a cider was also incredible.
    Outside of the city, we visited the Che Guevera museum set in his childhood home and another world heritage site of a Jesuit church and estancia (farm) in Alta Gracia. We also took a scenic drive through mountains, streams and a large lake to Villa General Belgrano, a town founded by a couple of Germans in the ‘30s. In 1940, some German sailors deserted their ship (they apparently sunk their boat off the coast and fled here after the Battle of the River Plate) and settled here. Today, the town is known for homemade beer and Bavarian architecture.    En savoir plus

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    2"The Cathedral"
    Talampaya Canyon3A Mara! Is it a deer, hare...?2Rock formations1Canyon wall3Dinosaurs are super scary!Petroglyphs (aliens?)1Cactus in bloom2

    Villa Union

    20 février 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    While Argentina doesn’t feel crowded outside of the major cities, we definitely felt like we were well off the beaten path on our trip to Talampaya National Park – a world heritage site. It was a long drive (>6 hours) mostly up the famous Route 40. Apart from one large town, there was virtually nothing for hours and hours with scarcely a passing car, livestock or anything but wide-open desert. This was also the first place we’ve seen evidence of poverty in the villages we passed.
    Talampaya was a beautiful park famous for dinosaur bones, old rocks with stunning red canyons and chimney formations, and petroglyphs. Apart from the dramatic landscape, we also saw some new critters: the mara (looks like a cross between a jackrabbit and a small deer), the suri (similar to a small ostrich), and a road-runner like bird. Cute! Happily, we also saw some more guanacos and condors. Still no puma...    En savoir plus

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    Bubbles!
    1Winery lunchPractical joke?Downtown MendozaThe Aztec bridgeAconcagua1

    Mendoza

    14 février 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    On our way to Mendoza we flew over a huge mountain range – reminding us of flying into Cusco with the plane seemingly not high enough above the peaks. Once over the mountains, the landscape became very flat and dry.
    A downtown Airbnb apartment served as our base. Dangerously, it had Netflix. While we caught up on a few series, we also managed to get out and about a bit.
    The downtown was bustling and full of restaurants, cafes and wine bars. Many of the buildings were charming, but not nearly as impressive as in BA. While it felt safe, we were put off by many of the small corner shops taking orders through barred windows – even in the middle of the day in nice neighborhoods.
    Wine country was a change from Chile with the main difference being there seemed to be hundreds of small, independent wineries near Mendoza in contrast to what seemed to be fewer, bigger ones in Chile. The tasting fees were also far more reasonable (~$10-15 instead of ~$25-30), likely because of so much competition. We visited a few wineries (including the sparkling wine maker, Cruzat) and had lunch at a beautiful wine lodge. The vineyards were pretty and the wine delicious with huge mountain ranges visible in the distance.
    On one of our days here, we took a drive back towards the Chilean border through a stunning desert landscape. It made us wish we’d taken the bus here instead of flown so we could have seen even more. We were surprised to learn that the highest mountain outside of Asia is here, called Aconcagua, an impressive 6,962 meters (22,841 ft). Luckily we had a clear day so had very good views on our short hike near the mountain. We enjoyed the city and would recommend it for a visit, but the highlight for us was the nearby mountains and landscapes vs. the city itself or even its’ wine country.    En savoir plus

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    Vinyard lunch
    Vinyard horse cartRegalo por miaVinyard dogCrab at museumSpurs that jangleGold workCooking by fireAnother winery lunch

    Santa Cruz

    10 février 2018, Chili ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Before heading back to Argentina, we picked up a rental car and drove a few hours into the heart of Chilean wine country. We enjoyed some very nice winery lunches, wine tasting and a museum visit. The museum was really well done, but a little crazy. It’s a huge and priceless private collection (from an entrepreneur thought to be a former arms dealer) that ambitiously covered everything from prehistoric times up to the recent Chilean mine rescue where 33 miners were saved after an explosion.
    The climate here is very dry compared to Napa or Sonoma valleys, and is more similar to Southern California’s wine country. The wines have been very good and reasonably priced, but the cost (and quality) of restaurants and wine tasting/tours is definitely competitive with Napa and it feels similarly crowded. Definitely not a secret or bargain travel destination, though it’s very nice - just different than we expected given the cost, crowds and abundance of American travelers.
    We head to Mendoza next so it will be interesting to see if it’s much the same.    En savoir plus

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    1Stairway art
    Fish muralFunicularIndigineous genocide muralHangry?2Ceviche!1Our comfy room1Is that a kiwi? (And wannabe)City view

    Valparaiso

    8 février 2018, Chili ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    A short (1 ½ hour) bus trip took us to this important port city that’s also a world heritage site. Before the Panama Canal was completed, this was a major stopping point for ships bringing products to the Americas from all over the world. While it’s still quite an active port, it’s lost much of its’ former wealth which is captured in the city’s many beautiful, crumbling, old buildings and villas built into the hillsides.
    Famous today for murals and graffiti art, it was an interesting place to walk around up many steep and windy steps, streets and with occasional rides on funiculars. We’re so glad we didn’t try to drive here, it would have been challenging as all of our rental cars have been manuals and the streets are super narrow, steep and windy.
    Our hotel was in a restored villa and we loved our room with its’ wide-planked wood floors, 15+ foot high ceilings and a view out over the bay. We also enjoyed some very fresh fish and delicious salads at cafes and overall preferred the city to Santiago. The only downside was all the free-range dogs meant having to be very careful about where you walked as there was dog doo everywhere (this let your dogs roam free thing is the only real unpleasant part of Argentina/Chile so far).    En savoir plus

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    Park art
    Red House (one of oldest buildings)Murals of city life1Pisco tastingBellas Artes museumCity mural (note smart phone)Pre-Columbian artCentral marketCommunity chessMusic at the museum

    Santiago

    5 février 2018, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Flights were so inexpensive that we opted to fly (~ 1hour) vs. taking an 11 hour bus trip to Santiago, which made for a relaxing travel day.
    In Santiago we were immediately struck with the diversity of restaurants compared to what we’d experienced in Argentina. You can find Thai, Indian, Japanese, Peruvian, etc. and many of the menus are vegetarian friendly and much heavier on vegetables. This was a welcome change from the meat-centric menus that seem to dominate in Argentina.
    While here we visited a few museums (the Pre-Columbian museum was amazing!) and walked through the city’s parks and neighborhoods. While there are some beautiful old buildings here, much of the city is a hodgepodge of ugly-ish modern high rises making it harder to love than Buenos Aires. The people were friendly and we enjoyed ourselves, but probably wouldn’t return to spend more time here.
    Our Spanish is slowly improving, but Christy has been a bit irritated that her high school Spanish has consistently been overshadowed by John’s tiny vocabulary learned from watching Narcos. He simply throws out “Porque No?” and instantly gets laughs, smiles and respect that Christy cannot match with her practical, basic Spanish. At least John hasn’t tried to break out the bad language he learned from Narcos yet – that might bring a very different kind of reaction.    En savoir plus

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    Town waterfront
    Volcano viewHot pools1Relaxing1WalkwaysCute hotel key (volcano)1

    Pucon

    3 février 2018, Chili ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    What should have been an easy travel day from Argentina into Chile turned into a slog because we’d decided to pick up a rental car from the airport rather than going directly into Pucon (a simple 5 hour bus trip from San Martin). Our questionable choice involved backtracking a few hours, having to replace an initially faulty rental car, and sitting in some crazy beach traffic. The city is very busy this time of year as it’s the go-to vacation spot for young Chileans and families who flock to beaches near the area’s pretty lakes.
    The town was a too busy for us, but the setting was beautiful with good views of several volcanoes.
    We’d come here to experience the hot springs that our friend, Christine, had recommended. They were absolutely incredible. The Termas Geometricas were set in a narrow gorge with a creek running through it and featured a series of pools (ranging in temperature from very cold to extra hot) connected by red, wooden walkways. This was definitely a special place and even prettier than any hot pools we’d seen in Japan or elsewhere. We arrived just after opening time so got to enjoy the space before the after lunch crowd arrived.    En savoir plus

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    Welcome Lola!
    Ice cream shop!Town's beachTree made of recycled bottlesSushi!Our nice airbnbView over valleyView from deck

    St Martin de los Andes

    27 janvier 2018, Argentine ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    A short (4 hour) bus trip took us to San Martin, our favorite Argentinean town so far. It’s a small town of ~30k people that is also set on a beautiful lake and surrounded by mountains. While the town clearly attracts tourists, it doesn’t feel touristy and has many wonderful local restaurants, delis/shops and a very unhurried pace with many friendly locals. There was also an art festival happening the night we arrived. Fun!
    We highly recommend this town as well worth a visit.
    While here, we’ve observed a few very amusing things about Argentineans.
    • Many people carry very large (3+ liter) thermoses of hot water for their beloved mate (tea) with them everywhere – buses, walks with their kids, etc.
    • Ice cream is so well loved that it is commonly sold by the kilo from the numerous artisanal ice cream shops.
    • Siestas are alive and well with most places shutting down for ~4 hours in the mid-afternoon.
    We had to move places 3 times over our weeklong stay since many things were booked. The good news is they were all fantastic. Two were very central apartments in the downtown area so we were able to spend lots of time exploring the town and cooking healthy food ourselves (eating out here is both expensive and generally not very healthy). Our favorite place was a beautiful villa in a nature reserve ~20 minutes outside of town with expansive views over the mountains and valley.
    The best thing that happened while we were here was that our niece Lola was born. We can't wait to meet her.    En savoir plus

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    Top of mountain!
    Bariloche from the planeDesert landscapeRock formationsView over Argentinean lakesLlao Llao areaChoripan chowdownBariloche's cathedralTown square

    Bariloche

    22 janvier 2018, Argentine ⋅ 🌬 21 °C

    After debating whether to visit the Chilean or Argentinean side of the Lakes District, an area known for lots of lakes set in the mountains, we chose Argentina after reading about some of the scenic drives, chocolate shops and famous trout.
    A short (somewhat bumpy) flight took us to this biggish town of ~100k people often compared to a “little Switzerland” because of the scenery and focus on chocolate making. The town is set on a lake and is very pretty, but we found it extremely touristy (imagine several streets full of souvenir and chocolate shops).
    We had rented a car for two days so spent one day driving most of the famous “7 Lakes Route” which wound around 7 lakes and some small villages and through a stunning desert landscape very much like the US Southwest. Our other day we drove around the Llao Llao Peninsula (another drive highlighting more lakes) and hiked up a mountain to enjoy a nice view of the entire area. The highlight of our time here was finding a small town down a dirt road that was serving up some excellent choripan (grilled chorizo on grilled bread). Delicious!

    After a few days walking through the touristy town, we opted to mostly cook for ourselves and did some trip planning with our remaining time. We ended up not trying the trout after learning that all of it is farmed since regulations prohibit restaurants and supermarkets from selling the fresh, natural lake trout – a treat reserved for fisher(wo)men.    En savoir plus

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    1Wanted poster
    La Leona - aka The Hideout

    El Calafate

    21 janvier 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We returned by bus for an overnight here before our flight to El Bariloche. We opted not to do the famous Route 40 bus trip because 30+ hours was just more than we could stomach. The buses are comfortable, but not THAT comfortable.
    Route 40 is a road that runs up most of the country and is famous for it’s beauty and inspiration for epic road trips – the Argentinian version of Route 66 in the US.    En savoir plus

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    Laguna Torres hike
    Laguna Torres1Unknown cutieMagellanic woodpeckerGlacierUpland goose at rest1Town viewEl Chalten4Double trouble1

    El Chalten

    16 janvier 2018, Argentine ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    On the bus ride here – about 3 hours – we stopped at a small café with a sign saying it was a historical site. Not initially aware what the historical significance was, Christy hunted around and found out that this was where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid out for a month back in 1905 while on the run after a series of bank robberies. John’s dad would have absolutely loved this place. We’ll be stopping here on the way back to Calafate so will try and look at the small museum next to the café.
    We’ve found this town, situated in a wide canyon bordered by two rivers running from the mountains and merging at the town’s entrance and offering great views to the mountains, to be much more charming. There’s great access to Glaciers National Park and many of the trails start just a few minute’s walk out of town. Surprisingly, there are no park fees. The only downside is the hiking trails are absolutely packed with people – more than any other place we’ve ever hiked except maybe Mount Fuji in Japan.
    This seems to be not only a busy tourist town for casual hikers like us, but also a center for serious mountaineers and rock-climbers with the trails and town full of folks carrying serious climbing gear up towards the rock faces and snow.
    We’ve experienced the ever-present Patagonian wind and totally unpredictable weather, but this is all well worth it. We’re lucky to be able to spend a few days exploring these Patagonian towns as it seems most tourists spend just one or two days in each place before moving on.    En savoir plus

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    Perito Merino glacier
    Balcony viewGlacier grindsTourist shopsAnother balcony vista2

    El Calafate

    12 janvier 2018, Argentine ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Another short-ish (5 hour) bus ride took us back into Argentina, to the windswept town of El Calafate. The town is set on Lake Argentino and is a typical tourist town made up mostly of hotels and restaurants. Not too much to love, in our opinion.
    The main function is to serve as a base to the gateway to Glaciers National Park and the famous Perito Merino Glacier. We’d considered doing a hike on the glacier, but were deterred when we learned the cost is nearly $300 USD/person for 90 minutes on the ice and the group sizes are huge with up to 20 people. The longer ice hike was even more expensive and John was restricted from participation because he’s now over 50! Shocker!
    Instead, we opted to take a bus to the section of the national park where you can get very close to the face of the glacier. There’s an extensive network of walkways and viewing platforms along the front of the glacier – it’s incredibly well done. We spent a few hours walking up and down the walkways, watching and waiting for some calving action. There were lots of small icefalls and one big one that we managed to catch on video. Very interesting experience.    En savoir plus

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    Ceviche (with pickled green strawberries) and foam!

    Puerto Natales

    10 janvier 2018, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We returned to town for a few days to enjoy a few more good meals and sleep-in days before heading back to Argentina to visit their Patagonia.

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    Loving the landscapes
    Closer stillCaracaraGlacierPeak of the peaks1Sleepy foxGuanacos on alertApproaching1Young guanaco1

    Torres del Paine National Park

    7 janvier 2018, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Because we didn’t book months ahead, all accommodation in the park was sold out. While it’s possible to drive 2+ hours each way to/from the Puerto Natales to the park everyday (and many people do), we weren’t up for it and instead paid an insane amount to rent a car and stay at a hotel just outside the park gates.
    While our budget didn’t appreciate the decision, it turned out to be worth it as we enjoyed three fantastic days in the park.
    The mountains look just as you expect and are jagged, snow-capped and stunningly beautiful. We did 3 different day hikes while here (2 easy, one very difficult) and took a boat on Grey Lake to observe the glacier and icebergs up close. The colors were remarkable.
    Adding to the experience was seeing lots of guanacos up close and occasional condors flying. Incredible.    En savoir plus

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    Bigwheels keep on turnin'
    1Pier beautyCrooked house (x crooked man)2Mylodon found

    Puerto Natales

    5 janvier 2018, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    A short (3 hours), pretty bus ride took us to this gateway town to Chilean Patagonia and the national park. On the way we saw flamingoes and several more guanacos.
    The town is relatively small and set on a pretty bay and is jam-packed full of surprisingly good restaurants, lots of hotels/hostels and shops selling high-end hiking gear. Apart from wandering around the town, we took a trip out to the nearby Lake Sofia where we did a short hike to see our first Andean condors flying above the cliffs.
    Like other towns in Chile and Argentina, people seem to let their dogs roam free. The dogs are clearly well fed and looked after (in stark contrast to feral dogs we saw all over Asia and Africa), but they are everywhere. Unfortunately, they are not all friendly and one seemingly very cute sheep-dog type unceremoniously bit John on his calf as we walked by. Quite a shock! Christy used her best ‘Narcos’ Spanish to let the owners know we were not happy to be bitten by their dog. Luckily, the bite only bruised, but didn’t break skin. This is the last place we’d have expected something like this to happen after many harrowing experiences with dogs in Asia and Africa. We’ve definitely been wary of dogs since this incident.    En savoir plus

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    The HMS Beagle
    Magellan's shipView of museumDowntown Punta ArenasBraun PalaceJohn and Magellan both looking for choripan!Choripan at last!Shacketon's original ad to find a crewJames Caird lifeboat

    Punta Arenas, Chile

    3 janvier 2018, Chili ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    The trip to this charming town, our first stop in Chile, was a 12 hour bus ride from Ushuaia. Historically significant in the exploration of this part of the world, the town has been visited by Magellan, Darwin and Shackleton, to name a few.
    The weather was wet and windy as we drove through some very desolate and beautiful farmland that looked much like Southern New Zealand - except for an occasional llama. During our ferry crossing (on the bus), we saw some very cute white and black dolphins - which we first mistook for penguins.
    In Punta Arenas we’ve spent our time walking through the very sweet downtown packed with grand, somewhat crumbling buildings. Finally we stumbled across some choripan – bread with chorizo – which we were hoping to try. Delicious!
    We also visited the Braun Palace Museum -set in a beautiful old mansion - and the quirky and wonderful Nao Victoria museum. The Nao museum was out of town overlooking the Strait of Magellan and had 3 full-size replicas of famous ships including: Shackleton’s James Caird (the lifeboat that miraculously made it from Elephant Island to South Georgia), Darwin’s HMS Beagle and Magellan’s ship. It’s crazy to see how small and basic these boats were that accomplished such incredible journeys.    En savoir plus

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