ENCARNACION and SAN IGNACIO MINÍ: Jesuit Reductions in Argentina and Paraguay

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The route I'm following on this tour is not fixed; it's a draft that can be changed anytime. After Iguazú I decided to skip Ciudad del Este as the city had little to offer other than big tax-free shopping malls.  Instead, I preferred to visit the paraguayan city of Encarnación, in an area with the most important Jesuit reductions in south america.

IGUAZU: nature's wonder between Brazil and Argentina

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Good bye big city; back to nature!  I was happy to visit Sao Paulo after such a long time, but was even more happy when I left it. Not because it was disappointing, but the next stop is nothing less than Foz de Iguacu, the brasilean city close to the famous waterfalls.

It was Good Monday the day I left and the Easter holidays were just finishing; you could see this in the roads. Fortunately for me, the traffic jams were in direction to Sao Paulo and we could drive in the opposite way without any problems.

ROSARIO: at the shores of river Paraná

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With a population of over 1,2 million people, Rosario is another big city in the north of Argentina. It is also oneof the few cities where it isn't clear who the founder was. However this is not a problem for a city that has Ché Guevara and Lionel Messi as some of its most noticeable sons. Located on the western shore of the Paraná river, Rosario is the third most populous city in the country.

My interest for Rosario came from a combination of its history and its location, on my way from Buenos Aires to Paysandú in Uruguay.

BUENOS AIRES: back to a big city

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The overnight bus drive from Puerto Madryn was quite and easy. The "180º Cama" seat is really wide and comfortable. And the view at the window after sunrise confirmed it: I'm back in a big city. 
Metropolitan Buenos Aires with its 14 million habitants is southamerica's second largest city after Sao Paulo. The city is divided in districts (or barrios) which have developed their own character. La Boca, San Telmo, Recoleta, Palermo and Puerto Madero are among the most known and the ones I want to visit.

PUERTO MADRYN and PENINSULA VALDÉS

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The Valdes Peninsula is an important nature reserve, listed by UNESCO as World Heritage site. The peninsula is breeding and birth place for seals, sea lions, elephant seals and magellanic penguins. In winter (from May to Nov) baleen whales may be seen too. 

But perhaps the most espectacular visitors are Orcas, a dolphin mistakenly called Killer whales. These hunters usually visit the peninsula between Feb and April, when baby seals are doing their first attempts in the sea. They have being filmed intentionaly beaching themselves temporarily to grab their pray.

USHUAIA: at the end of the world

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For over a century, Ushuaia has been considered the southernmost city in earth and was the physical representation of the imaginary "end of the world". And that's how it felt for me. To get there from El Chalten I had to go back first to El Calafate (3h), take the bus to Rio Gallego (4h) and connect there to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego (12h) which includes crossing the Streit of Magellan. If we add connecting times, I left El Chaltėn at 7:30pm and arrived to Ushuaua at 8:00pm on the next day. El fin del mundo!

EL CHALTÉN and Mount FITZ ROY

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Have you heard of a place called El Chaltén? If not you are not alone; I didn't know anything about it until this trip. What I knew was Mt. Fitz Roy and my wish to visit it got me to El Chaltén.

Now I know it is a really nice, small town 3 hours north of El Calafate. It is a convenient stop for all those who want to do some trekking or, like in my case, just visit the area.

El CALAFÁTE and the PERITO MORENO glacier

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El Calafate is a small town located at southeast shore of Lago Argentino. With around 9.000 habitants, it shows a steady growth over the last 10 years, all due to a main attraction located around 80km west of town: the Perito Moreno glacier.

Reaching El Calafate ment a new Chile/Argentina border crossing for me (the 5th in this trip) and a 6 hours bus drive.

VILLA LA ANGOSTURA and SAN CARLOS DE BARILOCHE: Nahuel Huapi National Park

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Villa La Angostura (narrowness-ville) is nicely located between two arms of the Nahuel Huapi lake, inside the Nahuel Huapi national park. The town hosts a regional museum showing the history of this area where mapuche people lived until around 1850. At this time the argentinean and chilean colonization policies and fight for the souveranity over this region opened the door to immigrants from northern regions but also from mid europe (Switzerland, Austria and Germany), giving new and existing towns the alpine character they have today.

Not far from the volcanic Andes, Villa La Angostura was declared a disaster area in June 2011 when a massive layer ash dumped on the community by the eruption of a volcano in neighbor Chile.

SAN MARTIN DE LOS ANDES: and Lake Lacar

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Located at the east end of Lake Lacar, San Martin de los Andes is a small touristic village providing a combination of good accomodation, argentinean steak houses, swiss style chocolate shops and austrian outdoor-wear outlets.

The way out of Pucón back into Argentina was fast. Next to me was sitting Lucas, a 15 years old argentinean boy travelling back home after a couple of weeks training camp by Deportes Temuco, a team playing in Chile's professional league.

MENDOZA: capital internacional del vino

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What happens when a city that calls itself "internaltional wine capital" organizes the yearly wine harvest fest (vendimia)?  that's right, there are no free rooms available.

In this case it was not just the vendimia but also the carneval's weekend; a celebration that is growing in Argentina since the actual goverment made it a holyday going from Shrove Monday to Ash Wednesday. 

CÓRDOBA: a surprising history

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Argentina's second largest city was the next stop. With a long history (older than Buenos Aires) and some large universities, the city has the reputation of being one of Argentina's think tanks.

On the streets however this was not very visible: huge shopping/pedestrian areas and car traffic; a few, small, parks; and museums with very restrictive open hours/days.

SALTA: the Inka´s door to Argentina

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The city of Salta is located at 1.150 meters above sea level in Argentina´s northwest part, closer to Chile and Bolivia than to Buenos Aires. It is the capital of the Salta provincthewith a poputation of around 620.000 inhabitants. In Salta we find the southmost remains of the Inka trail as well as other ruins. Salta is also the argentinian city with the best preserved colonial architecture.

For us coming from Atacama, the way to Salta was a nice change, from the hot and dry, desertic landscape to a more humid and green one. It also ment crossing the Andes once more, and the chilean/argentinean border. This last was not so nice.