Adventure Travel in South America

Country Guide: Argentina

May 5, 2010 By Danny

Argentina is a huge country with a plethora of things to do. Buenos Aires itself offers everything you might expect from a large, European city and serves as a wonderful gateway to the rest of the country. Iguazu Falls and the surrounding rainforests in the north, desert canyons in the northwest, wine in the center and the glaciers of the south ensure that there is something for all tastes. The fact that the Andes run the entire length of the country just adds to the splendor.

ESSENTIALS:

Budget: Argentina represents an incredible compromise between modern comforts and 3rd world pricing. One traveler described it as a 1st world country with 3rd world prices and although I don’t think that’s quite the case, some wealthy travelers may feel that way. Other places in South America (everything but Brazil and Chile) are much cheaper than Argentina but lack its charm and comfort. Truthfully I think there is something here for every budget, from $9/night dorm beds to $900 luxury hotels. ATMs are plentiful and changing money should never be a problem. As always, local restaurants are always cheaper than ones geared up for tourism.

Transportation: If you are spending a long time in Argentina you might find that renting a car can be an economical decision. For the two of us we couldn’t make the arithmetic pan out for the month or so we spent there but for a larger group, renting, or more time, buying used, will probably work in your favor.

That being said the bus system here is superb with plenty of comfortable options. Regular coach buses don’t exist, the worst you’ll be likely to find is semi-cama service which is like a standard coach but with more leg room and comfortable leg/foot rests. Cama is similar but with larger seat, only three to a row and then there is the executive/deluxe service which is comparable flying first class on an international airline. All classes generally include food and there is a 50% chance of the Hollywood movie being shown in English rather than Spanish. When covering large distances traveling by night may be your only option…so relax and enjoy the experience.

Planning: The seasons should play into your plan. If you are visiting in the winter months (May-Aug) then Patagonia and the far south are probably out of the question. A loop of the country can be done quite simply but be sure to allot plenty of time.

Buenos Aires: There is a lot to do here if your interested. Weekend markets abound and all are very close to one of the two main ice cream parlors. Museums, tango, nice meals, and historical hot spots are literally all over the place. If you’re in for the tourist thing, be sure to check out Florida Street, otherwise just spend some time mozying around and see what you find. Note that if flying into Buenos Aires there are two airports, one for international flights and one for domestic flights.

Igauzu Falls: Truly magnificent. Especially magnificent when the water is high and you can’t see everything. If the water is low, you can walk out across the water, which itself is a cool experience. If you don’t feel like walking into Brazil for the opposite view, don’t worry, everyone we met agreed that Argentina had the better view. Getting there might be a good reason to use an airplane but if going by bus Resitencia and the Chaco National Park can make a nice stopping point if coming or going to Salta in the northwest or even Buenos Aires and Cordoba.

North West: This land is beautiful. Go for a hike in the canyonlands of Juijui, go for a bike tour of the wine-lands of Cafayate, eat empenadas in Salta, or hit the river for some whitewater. Whatever you choose Salta is likely going to be your starting point for exploration in the area. Bus transportation to some of these smaller destinations can be difficult so if your short on time consider booking a Salta based tour or renting a car locally for a few days. This makes an excellent region for multi-day cycling but be sure to bring lots of sunscreen and water.

Cordoba: The best example of a Spanish colonial town, full of charm and history, in all of Argentina. Also the home of Che Guevarra. We decided to skip as we’d had our fill of colonial architecture already but if you’re looking for more this is the best place to go.

Mendoza: This wine producing region is a must see for many people, but I beg to differ. You can have a lot of fun riding around on a bicycle here sampling the wine but you might be surprised to note that a taste will often cost you 3 times what you’d pay for the bottle in the store not to mention the wines along the bike route aren’t exactly known for their excellence. That being said, you can have a lot of fun doing this if you’re with the right group of people and have the right attitude. There is also some class II-III whitewater in the area, but be sure to inquire about the river levels as they were a bit low when we were there.

San Juan: This is the jumping off point for tours to see Ischigualasto which features several interesting rock formations. This might be a must see if you’re a student of geology but if you aren’t you may find that the effort and money spent getting to the park may make the trip not worth it. You will be able to book tours from both San Juan and the park’s gateway towns but San Juan will charge you more in the end.

The Lake District: Bariloche is your main option here, filled with chocolate and coffee shops be prepared to enjoy this little taste of European dessert alongside the more traditional alfajore. The town is great place to practice kite-surfing or windsurfing on the lake, go for a day or multi-day hike, hit the trails with a nice mountain bike, or just take in the scenery. This is a paradise for the outdoor enthusiast and in the winter it is even a ski town. Prices here can run a bit high but deals can be had if you shop around a bit. San Martin is probably your other option and is generally considered to be an upmarket, and less crowded alternative.

IMGP6020

Patagonia: There is a reason a clothing company calls themselves Patagonia…this is a foreboding, windswept, uninviting place. The trip south from Bariloche to the southern end of the continent is a long one and there are two ways to do it: go back toward the coast and down along the main road (boring) or with a tour along Ruta 40 through the Andes. If you take the Ruta 40 option you will cross into Chile in a few places and you will see beautiful scenery but don’t be fooled, most of your time will be spent in the car. These trips do not begin until mid-November and usually run until around March.

El Calafate: The reason to go here is to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier and possibly El Chaten as well. El Calafate is a tourist town and only is open in the summertime. Once in town it is simple to arrange for a tour to the glacier but if you are with a group of 4 or more people you can save a few dollars on entrance by taking a taxi or a car rental into the park before the gate is open. The glacier itself is rather impressive and if this is your only sighting of one you will probably enjoy the boat ride to get closer as well. Adventure treks on the glacier are available as well but can be costly. Be advised that one trekker said it felt as though they were just walking on snow. You can also fly between Calafate and Bariloche with several airlines for about double the price of two days spent in the bus going via the coast and Rio Gallegos. It is very simple affair to hop on a bus here in Calafate for the ride to the Chillean Tierra del Fuego

Ushuaia: If you’re looking to go to Ushuaia its likely for one of two reasons: bragging rights or a cruise to Antarctica. Either way you won’t find much there besides a place to have your passport stamped with the words fin del mundo but save your money on Penguin viewing for Punta Tombo near Peninsula Valdez.

Peninsula Valdez: This is the oceanographer’s dream. Guaranteed sightings of the Southern Right Whale, beautiful scenery filled with elephant seals and sea lions, and the chance to see an Orca Whale swim up on the beach as part of a wave and snatch one up for the kill. Take a day to head down to Punta Tombo for more penguins walking around you than you would have ever thought possible.

Review: Kayak Pucon (Pucon, Chile)

April 3, 2010 By Danny

We chose to do our Chilean whitewater kayaking with Kayak Pucon for a few reasons, but mostly because it was owned and operated by locals. We actually didn’t know it existed originally and walked into another whitewater shop in Pucon only to be turned off by the rather cold, business-like attitude of the proprietor. Had we not literally stumbled onto Kayak Pucon, we would have skipped kayaking in Pucon all together.

For starters their gear was some of the best we’ve rented in our travels, (we’ve had awful) complete with everything we could want for cold water paddling with the exception of gloves…but we didn’t want those anyhow. We had our choice of boats and aside from our guide we were the only ones on the river. Our guide, the owner, spoke his native Spanish as well as fluent English. We not only chose which river we wanted to run, but also which section and how much time for warm-up we wanted. In short, it was our own, privately tailored trip all for less money than that original gringo wanted to charge us. We had a great time on the river, no incidents to report despite the unusually high water, and hope to kayak with them again someday.

I do really want to stress the quality of the equipment. This was the first time we were in cold water and with were provided with farmer john neoprene wet-suits as well as dry suits. Several times on this trip we’ve kayaked in cold water with none of this made available to us.

South American Report Card

December 17, 2009 By Danny

With a few weeks back in the states to “relax” a bit before continuing to Africa we’ve had a bit of time to take stock of how we’ve done and, almost as importantly, how our budget has done.

A reminder of how all this works. Every dollar amount represents how much the two of us, combined, spent on the average day in a given country. Airfare to and from the continent is included in transportation in the totals line and aren’t applied to any specific continent. Even with the airfare this is less than we used to spend living in the US. For more information visit our spending page.

Colombia: Coming out of Central America, this beautiful and friendly country was a breath of fresh air. Modern yet still off the tourist track it was overall very friendly to our budget. That being said, we skipped on most of the country (fewer buses means less $$$) because of its proximity to the USA.

Ecuador: From our budget’s standpoint Ecuador was very similar to Colombia, both economical and close to the USA so we saved our time and money for later excursions. High season (summer on the US academic calendar) meant that last minute rates on the Galapagos Islands were no special price so we decided to skip.

Peru: We spent a lot of time in Peru, partly because there was a lot to do and partly because we had a comfy place to stay to stay in Lima. Staying put helped to keep both our transportation and lodging costs down despite traveling through most of the country. The big money we spent here were for the big ticket items like Machu Picchu and trekking in Huaraz, experiences we were more than happy to fork over a few bucks for when the incredible food was so cheap to begin with.

Bolivia: This is the cheapest country we visited in South America, despite the expensive visa. The reason it cost us so much money is that we had a multi-day tour of the Amazon, another multi-day tour of the salt flats, and then we topped that with a bike ride down the death road and a rural airplane ride from the jungle to La Paz. Activities did our budget in, and that’s more than OK with us. Food didn’t cost so much because it came free with the activities and other than the airplane the buses were cheap because they were missing windshields…and road-safe roads as well.

Brazil: This was our most expensive country by far. The pricey visa and the exchange rate didn’t do us any favors (to the nickel a subway ride within Rio was the same as a subway ride in Washington, DC) and the huge distances had us paying top dollar for an internal flight. The amazing part is that between wonderful couch surfing friends and winning a free tour of the Pantanal we only had to pay for lodging for 3 nights.

Argentina: For the “typical” traveler, Argentina represents the best value in our opinion; a fully first world country with a favorable exchange rate and just tons to do. While in Argentina we biked, hiked, toured, couchsurfed, whale-watched, penguin hunted , enjoyed 30 of 32 consecutive hours in a bus, and who can forget wine touring. Couchsurfing and spending a week with the Tobias padres helped to offset the expenses of Patagonia and treating ourselves nicely for our 3 year wedding anniversary in the southernmost city of the world. Patagonia was expensive and if we did Argentina again, we’d probably skip it. The Lake district was supposed to be very expensive but we managed to find incredible value doing our own thing and touring the north in the care of others was a pleasant change of pace.

Chile: This is not a cheap country to travel in and unfortunately we left most of it for next time., partly on account of price and partly because we’d hit the seasons wrong. We had a good time kayaking where we could and couchsurfing in Santiago. Torres del Paine was also a big attraction that we didn’t skip despite the hefty prices just to go camping.

Tobias Index

December 15, 2009 By Danny

Now that we’re off to Africa we figured it was about time to get our Latin America summary out there. Epic bus journeys in the south and more than a month of nights sleeping on buses…its been a real adventure.
Here’s a summary of the most “fun” statistics for the last 9 or so months:

8.5 – Months spent on the road

33 – Nights spent on a bus (Jillian’s note: We should have calculated our total hours on the bus!)

23 – Nights spent couchsurfing

20 – Hours of longest single bus ride

4 – Viewings of Transporter 3 on the bus

2 – Bathroom breaks from the bus where there was no bathroom present

15 – Countries visited

41 – Passport Stamps

2 – Hemispheres enjoyed

2 – Gastro-intestinal lab tests

4 – Ferry crossings

1 – Train

11 – Planes

6 – Most consecutive nights in the same bed

6 – Volcanoes hiked

2 – Active volcanoes hiked

6 – Rivers kayaked

4 – Guidebooks

4 – Countries where we bought and paid for a local telephone number

3 – Largest continuous amount of time, in hours, between March 13th and November 30th we spent apart…

Foodie Friday: The Quest for Beervana

December 4, 2009 By Jillian

It should be no surprise that along with lots of ruins, whitewater and trekking, our tour of the America’s also included beer. Lots and lots of beer. From Mexico to Argentina beer seems to be the local beverage of choice, and almost always its cheaper than soda or sometimes even bottled water. It was not unusual for us to find a liter of beer for less than $3. When it’s that cheap you just have to try it. So we did.

On what is now called our quest for beervana (thanks to our friends for the name), we’ve sampled the local brew in every locale, from ice-cold Salva Vida in Honduras to an amber Beagle down in Ushuaia. There have been some good beers, some beers good for the moment, and even one green coca beer in Peru. Most beers produced in the America’s are lagers or pilsners and it seems the hotter the country the colder the beer. The coldest beer we’ve seen was in Honduras and fortunately at the time we were sweating to death. According to the thermometer on the refrigerator the beer was stored at -9 Celsius (about 15 Fahrenheit). It was perhaps the most refreshing and delicious pilsner in the world, or at least at that moment.

Our quest for beervana has turned into challenge to create a substantial beer label collection. We’ve taken the labels off all sorts of bottles, many of which have been mangled in the process. Just for the record the sticker labels are the hardest to take off. Our quest to build a collection has resulted in choosing our selections by the label not the actual beer, which in some cases has led to mistakes such as the coca beer. It has also led us to some delicious Colombian micro-brews and copious amounts of Brazilian chopp (draught beer), err… maybe not the chopp. That might be our own fault.

Our quest for beervana continues while we’re on “intermission” at home. This week we headed to the Yuengling (my home brew) in Pennsylvania for a factory tour and tasting. Danny and I have been trying to get there for years, but for one reason or another it never worked out. Fortunately the quest for beervana took precedence this time and we finally made it. It was by far the best factory tour ever and not only because it ended in a beer tasting, actually truthfully it was because it ended in beer tastings, two in fact.

Anyway, as we head to Africa have no fear, the quest for beervana will continue. Fortunately we’ve spent enough evenings at Brickskeller to know which African beers to avoid, but we’re always open to suggestions. Anything out there you think we should try or avoid? Where do you want to share a beer with us?

Salud!

Country Guide: Argentina

Review: Kayak Pucon (Pucon, Chile)

South American Report Card

Tobias Index

Foodie Friday: The Quest for Beervana

Recent Comments

Banking on the Road

Adventure Guides