From El Chalten we had a long bus journey to Barlioche. Eventhough Barlioche is located north of El Chalten, the direct bus route from El Chalten to Barlioche did not open til Nov 15th, well after we'd be gone. So we had to head down south east to a town called Rio Gallegeos to catch a bus all the way back up to Barlioche. We were pretty much travelling for 24h. We have done about 4 overnight buses in total and even at that we didn't get to the southern most point in Argentina, Ushaia. That would have taken another 16-19h and we just couldn't face it.
Instead we opted to head for Barlioche, a town famed for its hiking and water activites on the lake. But unfortunately for us the bad weather followed us and for a couple of days we were restricted to watching DVDs in the hostel. When we did manage to get out, we went on a cable car up to the summit for an amazing view of the surrounding landscape. Described in national geographic as one of the top 10 views in the world. Well it might have been if it wasn't cloudy!!.
After a few days we headed to Mendoza, further north again. This is the wine making region of Argentina and gets mostly sunny weather. What a nice change as we had sun for the three days we spent there. It's funny but since we are following the tourist trail we are constantly bumping into the same people. On a bus or on a hiking trail you come across friends that you met in a bar or in the previous hostel. The same happened in Mendoza where we met up with a Portuguese couple we had gotten to know. They had arranged to do a cycling tour of the wineries and we joined in. It had been recommended to them to rent the bikes from a 'Mr. Hugo' in Maipu town. We were given a map of the area with 5 wineries highlighted and set off. We were a group of 11 and after a few kilometres cycling we arrived in the first vineyard. Wine tasting is the proper thing out here, known of that 'spitting out of the wine' when you have tasted it. You down it all. As you can imagine the cycling got easier as we visited each winery. In addition to the wineries we visited an olive factory and finished off the tour with a visit to a chocolate liquer factory. On return of the bikes to Mr. Hugo, we were invited to sit down in his garden and he proceeded to open 6 bottles of wine for us over the duration of the evening- that is why he comes highly recommended!!
Instead we opted to head for Barlioche, a town famed for its hiking and water activites on the lake. But unfortunately for us the bad weather followed us and for a couple of days we were restricted to watching DVDs in the hostel. When we did manage to get out, we went on a cable car up to the summit for an amazing view of the surrounding landscape. Described in national geographic as one of the top 10 views in the world. Well it might have been if it wasn't cloudy!!.
After a few days we headed to Mendoza, further north again. This is the wine making region of Argentina and gets mostly sunny weather. What a nice change as we had sun for the three days we spent there. It's funny but since we are following the tourist trail we are constantly bumping into the same people. On a bus or on a hiking trail you come across friends that you met in a bar or in the previous hostel. The same happened in Mendoza where we met up with a Portuguese couple we had gotten to know. They had arranged to do a cycling tour of the wineries and we joined in. It had been recommended to them to rent the bikes from a 'Mr. Hugo' in Maipu town. We were given a map of the area with 5 wineries highlighted and set off. We were a group of 11 and after a few kilometres cycling we arrived in the first vineyard. Wine tasting is the proper thing out here, known of that 'spitting out of the wine' when you have tasted it. You down it all. As you can imagine the cycling got easier as we visited each winery. In addition to the wineries we visited an olive factory and finished off the tour with a visit to a chocolate liquer factory. On return of the bikes to Mr. Hugo, we were invited to sit down in his garden and he proceeded to open 6 bottles of wine for us over the duration of the evening- that is why he comes highly recommended!!
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