One of the objectives of our move to Uruguay is to travel in other South American countries. After our first four months in Uruguay, we finally ventured out. Neighboring Argentina with its incredibly varied landscape offers quite a lot to see and do. It dwarfs Uruguay in variety of climates, terrain and sheer size, being over fifteen times larger than its tiny neighbor to the northeast.
I had been feeling a little fenced in and was getting bored with the flat landscape in Uruguay. Cesar and I were both antsy to get out and see something new. We had planned on going to Córdoba, a province in the northern part of Argentina and within driving distance. However, a friend had just come back from Santa Cruz province in Patagonia and was just glowing with happiness about what she saw there. I had a dim understanding of Patagonia and had it listed in the back of my mind as a place to visit someday. However, after our friend’s trip, we could not wait to see it for ourselves. And, it has mountains, real mountains – the perfect antidote to Uruguayan flatness! It occurred to us that we only had about a month left to see that particular part of Patagonia before winter, when hotels and restaurants close and roads become impassable with snow.
So, we quickly booked a flight with LAN from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, in Santa Cruz province. We spent four nights there then took a bus to a town to the north called El Chalten, Argentina’s self-styled national capital of trekking. It deserves its title. We spent four nights there and went on day hikes each day, all of them spectacular.
The first words that come to mind when describing Patagonia are immense and expansive. It struck me as a playground for giants – everything there, from the mountains to the rivers to the steppes is huge and impressive. Usually I keep a journal when traveling, but had difficulty putting pen to paper on this trip. This bothered me a little, was I experiencing writer’s block? – but then I realized what the problem was, I didn’t want to take my eyes off the landscape for long enough to write. In the evenings, we were either tired from the day’s adventures, nursing sore feet or planning our activities for the next day. We saw glaciers, turquoise lakes, savage electric blue rivers, snow capped mountains, lush emerald green forests and steppes that seemed to go on forever.
We are back in peaceful Uruguay now, with many photos, sore legs and memories of a great trip. Here is a teaser photo until I get the others uploaded:
I had been feeling a little fenced in and was getting bored with the flat landscape in Uruguay. Cesar and I were both antsy to get out and see something new. We had planned on going to Córdoba, a province in the northern part of Argentina and within driving distance. However, a friend had just come back from Santa Cruz province in Patagonia and was just glowing with happiness about what she saw there. I had a dim understanding of Patagonia and had it listed in the back of my mind as a place to visit someday. However, after our friend’s trip, we could not wait to see it for ourselves. And, it has mountains, real mountains – the perfect antidote to Uruguayan flatness! It occurred to us that we only had about a month left to see that particular part of Patagonia before winter, when hotels and restaurants close and roads become impassable with snow.
So, we quickly booked a flight with LAN from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, in Santa Cruz province. We spent four nights there then took a bus to a town to the north called El Chalten, Argentina’s self-styled national capital of trekking. It deserves its title. We spent four nights there and went on day hikes each day, all of them spectacular.
The first words that come to mind when describing Patagonia are immense and expansive. It struck me as a playground for giants – everything there, from the mountains to the rivers to the steppes is huge and impressive. Usually I keep a journal when traveling, but had difficulty putting pen to paper on this trip. This bothered me a little, was I experiencing writer’s block? – but then I realized what the problem was, I didn’t want to take my eyes off the landscape for long enough to write. In the evenings, we were either tired from the day’s adventures, nursing sore feet or planning our activities for the next day. We saw glaciers, turquoise lakes, savage electric blue rivers, snow capped mountains, lush emerald green forests and steppes that seemed to go on forever.
We are back in peaceful Uruguay now, with many photos, sore legs and memories of a great trip. Here is a teaser photo until I get the others uploaded:
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At Laguna de los Tres midway of a challenging 25 km trek. Fitz Roy towers behind us.
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