• WhorledTravelers
  • WhorledTravelers

South America 2024

Seven weeks — Mendoza, Salta, Northwest Argentina, the ATACAMA Desert, cruise around the Horn and Buenos Aires. Læs mere
  • Start på rejsen
    27. januar 2024
  • Arrived in Argentina

    28. januar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    Flights from Philadelphia to Miami, then to Buenos Aires. In Buenos Aires we drove an hour through the city to get to the domestic airport to fly to Mendoza. Twenty-six hours door-to-door but just a two hour time change. The BA domestic airport sits beautifully right on the Rio de la Plata (the silver river) near the city center.Læs mere

  • Mendoza

    29. januar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    A nice small city. Clean. Hotel Diplomatica was right in the center of everything though the staff wasn’t very nice. Lots of people out and about after the sun goes down. It’s been too hot (95-100F) to do much outside during the day. Many persons of Italian descent, hence the great gelato. This area is desert, just east of the Andes mountains and nothing grows without irrigation from snow melt and deep wells.Læs mere

  • Lujan de Cuyo Wineries

    29. januar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 91 °F

    We went about a half hour south on Route 40 to the Lujan de Cuyo region with our Italian Argentinian driver, Damian. Route 40 is the major north/south route running the full length of Argentina. The Andes and foothills are always to the west. It is still very hot, over 90F. We visited three wineries.

    The first, Huarpe Wines, is a small family run vineyard. Huarpe are the indigenous local people and the wines and vineyard pay homage to them. The owners, Anna and Jose Hernandez Toso, began the vineyard in 2003. Anna gave us a tour and we particularly liked their Cab Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.

    The second vineyard, Budeguer, was larger and more commercial, like the Napa vineyards with a very modern setting, lots of art, etc. A nice tasting.

    Last we visited Bodega Renacer, a lovely vineyard with a great restaurant (voted best in Mendoza). Great food, great wines. An excellent Malbec dessert wine that tasted like an Amarone.
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  • Valle de Uco Wineries

    30. januar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    More wine tastings today but in the Valle de Uco, further south and west than yesterday. In the distance is Tupungato, the second highest peak in the Americas, though some of the peaks in the Silver Range are closer and look almost as tall. The video has a glimpse of the Mendoza River. It has water this summer for the first time in years.

    The Masi vineyard is owned by a family from Verona Italy and specializes in a process which dries the grapes before crushing, aging and blending. They also had a nice display garden of local plants.

    Gaia Winery is French-owned and certified organic and bio-dynamic. Malbec is their primary wine but they also did good natural (no sulfites) Cab and a Shiraz. No cellar or other inside visit because power is out here and many other counties of western Argentina because the grid over-taxed by heat.

    Lunch of traditional Argentinian fare at Azul. Lunch too big and too late for us to have dinner but of course there was room for sorbet from the gelato store! We had to switch rooms in the hotel as our floor still had no power at 9 PM.
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  • Salta

    1. februar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 86 °F

    We flew this morning from Mendoza to Cordoba to Salta. The city of Salta sits in an agricultural valley in the northwest corner of Argentina. The province is between the Andes and sub Andean ranges. It has a population of about 800,000 and is very proud of its gaucho traditions and Incan heritage. We stayed in the area of Tres Cerritos (three hills) in a lovely small boutique hotel, Kkala. Our first day here, our guide took us up San Bernardino hill. Then we went to the nature preserve of Quebrada del rio San Lorenzo in the leafy suburbs of San Lorenzo Village. Last we visited the main square. People are friendly and relaxed, except when driving,

    Rugby is as big a sport as soccer. The highlight was the archeological exhibits at Museum of Archeology and High Mountain of Salta (MAAM). It contains the cryogenically preserved bodies of three children sacrificed on top of a local mountain by the Incas and related indigenous peoples, together with the precious artifacts the children were buried with. Heartbreaking and incredible at the same time.
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  • Humahuaca

    2. februar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    This town was our most northern point in Argentina. Founded in 1591, classically Andean, at an altitude of 9,882 fasl, it has narrow dirt streets and adobe houses. Wonderfully surprising was our entry into town amidst local village “bands” preparing for a parade. It was the town’s celebration of the Virgin Mary. A musical contingent from each local village parades on foot to Humahuaca to participate (some 20 miles and more), families come from the entire province. Equally revered in the culture is Pachamama, Mother Earth, as referenced by the dancers in ostrich feathers preceding the Virgin statues. We watched the parade from a nice little restaurant staffed by friends of Ramiro’s and ate delicious empanadas.Læs mere

  • Purmamarca

    2. februar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    Purmamarca is the most developed , though still small, town in the Quebrado de Humahuaca. The town is nestled n the colored hills. It was our overnight stop for this day. Dirt roads, a plain unassuming inn for a night, a pretty plaza and many vendors to cater to tourists around the plaza. A meal with gaucho music on a guitar and accordion.Læs mere

  • Great Salt Flats and Altiplano

    3. februar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 43 °F

    Eleven hours in a pick-up on dirt roads today, seeing the sub Andes and the Altiplano (high plains) of Jujuy and Salta. We travelled west, climbing higher and higher through the arid desolate Andes, reaching an altitude of 13,681 feet at Abra de Portrerillos and the Mirador de la Cuesta de Lipán, with awesome view of the valley below. We continued on to the high valley with the Great Salt Flats (where they mine salt). From there we headed south.Læs mere

  • San Antonio de Los Cobres, Quebrada del

    3. februar 2024, Argentina ⋅ 🌩️ 81 °F

    The second half of Day 2 with R was one beautiful vista after another after a brief stop in San Antonio de LC. This copper mining town is also known for its tourist train (built turn of the century by a Philadelphia engineer) called The Train to the Clouds. We weren’t able to fit our schedule to the timetable but interesting nevertheless.
    We stopped in one small village where a local priest is honored for his dedication to the people, building schools and bringing updated agricultural and animal techniques.
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  • San Pedro de Atacama, Travel Day

    7. februar 2024, Chile ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    We were originally scheduled to take a bus over the Andes from Salta to SPdA (Chile) but after experiencing four nights of torrential brief rains, washed out roads and a change to a less reputable bus company that left at midnight, we decided to fly instead. That required last minute arrangements for 3 flights and 8 hours (still a few hours less than the bus ride) - Salta to Buenos Aires to Santiago to Calama. We arrived in Calama at night, seeing only the formidably bright lights of numerous copper mines as we taxied the 1-1/2 hours to SPdA.

    San Pedro is a small town set on a high arid plateau (alt 7950 feet) in the middle of nowhere. It may have been settled as early as 500 A.D. by the Atacamenos, the indigenous people. Now it is a center for astronomical research, a laid back town that has a hippie-ish atmosphere, and a Mecca for desert tourism.

    Our hotel, the Terrantai Lodge, was welcoming and friendly, comfortable and had a great shower. The fountain outside our room trickled merrily and the breakfasts and happy hours were terrific. Right in the center of town, behind a hidden door, it felt like an oasis yet close to everything.
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  • Laguna San Rafael

    18. februar 2024, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

    A ship-sponsored catamaran took groups of cruisers to see the glacier. Interminable waiting because of a passenger accident and then electrical troubles pushed the trip to very late afternoon amidst rain, drizzle and fog. Not very satisfying but still got some interesting iceberg pictures.Læs mere

  • Ushuaia, Argentina

    22. februar 2024, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

    The southern-most city in the world, Ushuaia is the gateway to Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica. It is located between the Martial Mtns and the Beagle Channel. The Yaghan/Yamana natives lived there until 1870 when an English missionary arrived. The indigenous people had all disappeared by 1911. The town was a penal colony from 1896-1947.

    We visited a fort constructed by the British in the late 1800’s and an adjacent nature trail.
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  • The Falkland Islands

    28. februar 2024, Falklandsøerne ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

    We are here to see penguins, specifically the king penguins. Only about half the cruise ships that come here arrive on days when the sea and winds are calm enough to send tenders into port. It’s a long way into the harbor. We got lucky!

    We had arranged a semi-private tour in a 4x4 Land Rover Defender out across the island. The Magellanic penguins are found in many places on the island but the kings are only seen way out across the other side of the island. So it was 3 hours each way, most of it through scrubby fields on barely discernible dirt tracks or no track at all. It seemed our driver, x, was having great fun finding “shortcuts” to challenge his wife who was driving the 4x4 behind us. There are no native trees on the Falklands but lots of big rocks.
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