Out of Patagonia...
Mendoza, Argentina: From Puerto Montt, Chile, I have crossed the Andes once again, thus heading back into Argentina and to the famous Argentinean party town of Bariloche. After having spent a few days there I have continued my journey northwards along the Andes to the town of Mendoza - the heart of Argentina´s wine and meat production. A good place to stay for a few days to update the blog, upload some pictures, and prepare the next leg of the trip. Oh yes, and to taste some wine. It´s been almost 4 months now since I left Seattle.
After having spent a day in Puerto Montt I came to the conclusion that I wouldn´t have missed an awful lot, had I followed some of the guys from the boat that imediately proceeded on their trip on to Bariloche. Puerto Montt is a little harbor town (about 150000 inha.) whose main connection with tourism is people getting on or off the boat to Puerto Natales, and those people passing through that want to visit the Isla de Chiloé, an island of wild and untamed nature and lush vegetation. The hostel (Rocco Backpackers) that the lads from Kawashkar and I stayed in was clean and not too expensive, run by the females of 3 generations of a family (truth be told, the little one, Kristina, is only 4 years old, so she doesn´t run much there, other than the TV). The town itself, however, is dodgy and even the locals tell you to not go out at night, especially alone. We followed that advice and had a few beers and watched "The Incredibles" for the 5th time.
The other lads that had stayed in the hostel were planning to continue on to Pucón, while I was heading for Bariloche. So before anyone else was up I left the hostel to catch my 8am bus across the Cordillera de los Andes back into Argentina.
Bariloche couldn´t be any more different from Puerto Montt. It´s on the dry side of the Andes, so there was no more of the misty and cloudy weather. And where Puerto Montt shone with run down buildings and a generally depressed mood to it, Bariloche lives up to the image of a party city that it is. Even during this "shoulder season" before the ski tourists start flocking to town, it was filled with tourists that came for rafting, horse riding, climbing, or 4x4 riding. Argentineans and foreigners alike. The heavy tourism in this city makes it more expensive than other parts of Argentina, so I decided to limit my visit to a few days and stay in a hostel again (Periko´s on Morales 555 - named after a dead dog, and it was a great, friendly place to stay).
After a day of hiking in the area and having met a few people from the boat in Bariloche again - and celebrating accordingly at the local Irish Pub "Wilkenny" that had Kilkenny on tab, I decided to go on a horse riding trip the next morning. Severly hung over, but a few hours on the back of a horse riding through the sparse patagonian steppe should be able to cure that. And it did indeed - after a few hours out there, guided by Pablo and his faithful - albeit overweight - yellow lab, we had a great time touring the estancia like real gauchos. I could have purchased my horse - Piñon - right there for only a few hundred peso! Why not? Spending a few weeks more and traveling by horse instead of Bus would be a fine idea. Hadn´t I tried to alternate means of transportation so far?
Of course, instead of taking Piñon on the next leg of my trip, I embarked on yet another epic-seming bus ride from Bariloche to Mendoza, 1276km further north - and for the first time in a few weeks a place outside Patagonia again. So far I had only scratched the surface of bus transportation in South America (7 hours is nothing!) - during this trip I got the full experience of the services offered by the bus companies. Just like Airlines they provide drinks and food, movies, pillows - the 19 hours were goen in a blink.
So here I am in Mendoza. It´s a beautiful little city, located just east of the Andes, on almost the same latitude as Santiago de Chile. The climate is mild, the weather always beautiful, and the people friendly. I could imagine picking up a job here and working here for a while. And let´s not forget it´s the heart of the wine producing region of Argentina, too! What better place to live?
After a first "wine tasting" experiment Susi and I performed (one of the travelers of the boat that seems to have the same route) where we downed 4 bottles of red wine over the course of an evening and got quite intoxicated, today 5 of us (all from the boat ride, reunited here again) are heading for a REAL wine tasting, touring two bodegas and having more wine and some nice food in a third one. As good tourists we won´t spit out the wine we are tasting. Take it all in!
The others are heading on to Santiago or Buenos Aires tomorrow again, while I have decided to stay for a day or two more to tour the Aconcagua mountain and the sights on the Chilenean border (The Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas and the Western Hemisphere, over 6900m high. Can´t miss seeing that one). After that I´ll head over to Santiago as well and make my way further up north.
After having spent a day in Puerto Montt I came to the conclusion that I wouldn´t have missed an awful lot, had I followed some of the guys from the boat that imediately proceeded on their trip on to Bariloche. Puerto Montt is a little harbor town (about 150000 inha.) whose main connection with tourism is people getting on or off the boat to Puerto Natales, and those people passing through that want to visit the Isla de Chiloé, an island of wild and untamed nature and lush vegetation. The hostel (Rocco Backpackers) that the lads from Kawashkar and I stayed in was clean and not too expensive, run by the females of 3 generations of a family (truth be told, the little one, Kristina, is only 4 years old, so she doesn´t run much there, other than the TV). The town itself, however, is dodgy and even the locals tell you to not go out at night, especially alone. We followed that advice and had a few beers and watched "The Incredibles" for the 5th time.The other lads that had stayed in the hostel were planning to continue on to Pucón, while I was heading for Bariloche. So before anyone else was up I left the hostel to catch my 8am bus across the Cordillera de los Andes back into Argentina.
Bariloche couldn´t be any more different from Puerto Montt. It´s on the dry side of the Andes, so there was no more of the misty and cloudy weather. And where Puerto Montt shone with run down buildings and a generally depressed mood to it, Bariloche lives up to the image of a party city that it is. Even during this "shoulder season" before the ski tourists start flocking to town, it was filled with tourists that came for rafting, horse riding, climbing, or 4x4 riding. Argentineans and foreigners alike. The heavy tourism in this city makes it more expensive than other parts of Argentina, so I decided to limit my visit to a few days and stay in a hostel again (Periko´s on Morales 555 - named after a dead dog, and it was a great, friendly place to stay).After a day of hiking in the area and having met a few people from the boat in Bariloche again - and celebrating accordingly at the local Irish Pub "Wilkenny" that had Kilkenny on tab, I decided to go on a horse riding trip the next morning. Severly hung over, but a few hours on the back of a horse riding through the sparse patagonian steppe should be able to cure that. And it did indeed - after a few hours out there, guided by Pablo and his faithful - albeit overweight - yellow lab, we had a great time touring the estancia like real gauchos. I could have purchased my horse - Piñon - right there for only a few hundred peso! Why not? Spending a few weeks more and traveling by horse instead of Bus would be a fine idea. Hadn´t I tried to alternate means of transportation so far?Of course, instead of taking Piñon on the next leg of my trip, I embarked on yet another epic-seming bus ride from Bariloche to Mendoza, 1276km further north - and for the first time in a few weeks a place outside Patagonia again. So far I had only scratched the surface of bus transportation in South America (7 hours is nothing!) - during this trip I got the full experience of the services offered by the bus companies. Just like Airlines they provide drinks and food, movies, pillows - the 19 hours were goen in a blink.So here I am in Mendoza. It´s a beautiful little city, located just east of the Andes, on almost the same latitude as Santiago de Chile. The climate is mild, the weather always beautiful, and the people friendly. I could imagine picking up a job here and working here for a while. And let´s not forget it´s the heart of the wine producing region of Argentina, too! What better place to live?
After a first "wine tasting" experiment Susi and I performed (one of the travelers of the boat that seems to have the same route) where we downed 4 bottles of red wine over the course of an evening and got quite intoxicated, today 5 of us (all from the boat ride, reunited here again) are heading for a REAL wine tasting, touring two bodegas and having more wine and some nice food in a third one. As good tourists we won´t spit out the wine we are tasting. Take it all in!
The others are heading on to Santiago or Buenos Aires tomorrow again, while I have decided to stay for a day or two more to tour the Aconcagua mountain and the sights on the Chilenean border (The Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas and the Western Hemisphere, over 6900m high. Can´t miss seeing that one). After that I´ll head over to Santiago as well and make my way further up north.
posted by Mark Peters @ 8:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home