Off to Prague

We ate our last steak dinner, walked around Buenos Aires, had some ice cream, and now we’re moving on to Prague…

Buenos Aires

Tango dancers in the street- will dance for tips

We have been lucky to have been to this great city before, so this time we didn’ t spend as much time (or money) as we did our first time here.  It is Santa Semana here, and many people have the entire week off, so it is fairly busy.  We walked the major pedestrian avenues, went out to the massive Julio 9 Boulevard, walked through the artist area of San Telmo, saw performers dancing the tango in the street and had our final steak dinner in Argentina.

Córdoba

Modern mixed with old

We made a quick stop in the city of Córdoba on our way to Buenos Aires.  It’s the second largest city in Argentina well known for it’s mix of modern art and the historic downtown that has some important Jesuit buildings.  The Jesuits founded the first University here in 1610, and have an old library we toured with the rest of the block (including an old church and the original university).

Maipú

Wine press

We went to the town of Maipú outside of Mendoza to do a fairly standard bicycle trip through some wine tasting areas. The area is similar to Lodi, in California. It’s a working vineyard and agricultural area, yet also common for tourists to do the cycling wine tours, and the city has done a nice jobs of providing way-finding signs and some good bike lanes (separated from the traffic by a wide, two-inch tall curb).

Mendoza

Mendoza streets

Mendoza is a nice city with many large trees providing good shade for the wide streets and sidewalks.  It is arid and hot here, but the street trees help keep the streets cool.  The city is well known for the complex irrigation ditches which run throughout the city and provide water to all the park and the street trees.  It is a nice experience to walk around in the shade on the wide sidewalks, while listening to the ever present irrigation waters flowing by.

Nahuel Huapi

The hikers

In our whirlwind visit with Paul and Christine, we made some short trips to see different parts of the awesome Nahuel Haupi National Park around Bariloche.  Our first trip was to Pampa Linda, to see the massive Mt. Tronador (it means thunderer in Spanish).  We camped in Pampa Linda (it froze at night, our water bottles had ice in them in the morning!)  and made a few day hikes from our base camp there.  Pampa Linda has great views of the mountain.

Bariloche

Nahuel Huapi Lake

We arrived in Bariloche to meet up with Jason’s mom Christine and her husband Paul, who flew down to visit for a week.  Bariloche is a pretty mountain town famous for its scenery, alpine architecture, and chocolate. Architect and designer Alejandro Bustillo built the landmark Llao Llao hotel, which embodies the stone and wood alpine design that is so common in Bariloche.  The town was founded by Germans and Austrians in 1895, which helps to explain the alpine architecture and famous chocolates.

Alerces Park

Alerce

From Esquel, we took a trip to the Alerces National Park. Alerce trees are often cited as being similar to the giant sequoias in California (huge and old), but they are technically members of the cypress family.  Like redwoods, they are valued for their red-colored wood that is resistant to decomposition and are favored for use in decks and any other construction requiring durability.  Due to the desirable quality of the wood, they have been heavily logged and now the limited remaining stands of alerce trees are protected in Chile and Argentina, where they slowly grow in limited temperate rainforest regions.  We went into the park to camp and do a few hikes to see these protected trees.

Esquel

Esquel train station

We made it to Esquel, back up north in Argentina.  It’s a laid back little town in a small mountain valley, in the Chubut region.  They’re known for making Chubut cheese here, which was quite tasty.  They have an old steam train and a river running next to the town.  It’s dry and windy with dry hills on either side of the town.

Leaving Puerto Natales for Esquel

We have left behind the volatile and blustery weather of southern Patagonia and we are headed further back up north to the Argentine town of Esquel. We hope to see the Welsh town of Trevelin and the Alerces National Park in that area. We are headed back out to Río Gallegos, and hopefully we’ll catch a bus up north sooner rather than later. We’ve had to spend two extra days here in Puerto Natales for the next bus out of here and back over into Argentina, so hopefully we can move on without too many more layovers.