Valparaiso

After a pretty painless overnight bus from Mendoza to Valparaiso, Jed and I arrived at our hostel around 6am, settling into the lounge and napping on the sofas there, until the hostel guests woke us up as they came in for breakfast. After our quick nap and morning earthquake scare, we walked around the city, seeing Pablo Neruda´s Casa Sebastian on top of Cerro Bellavista, aptly named with beautiful views of the city. We also took the city´s oldest box elevator up the hill to Cerro Independencia, where we looked took in views of the ships and port.

Valparaiso, though artsy, is definitely a run-down port town and while I enjoyed the two days we had to walk around, I don´t think you need much more time there than that unless you plan on doing some of the many day trips offered from the city.

Practical Information: Exchange rate is about 480 Chilean Pesos to the dollar. Elevators range from 100-300 Chilean Pesos, the latter being the more popular ones. To enter Pablo Neruda´s house is 3,000CP but with a student ID, it´s half the cost at 1,500. The jail, which tends to offer a cultural and grafitti museum, was closed while we were there.



Photos from Valpo... written update to come later.

Beach Day in Vina del Mar

For the first time, Jed and I went separate directions today. The reasoning? He wanted to go to the naval museum. I... did not. It was great to be able to talk and have each of us fine to do our own thing, so while he went to spend his afternoon at the museum, I hit the beach with an English guy and Bermudan girl from our hostel. We took the metro to Vina del Mar, a mere 9 km from Valparaiso and I spent the day walking around, and just lounging on the beach and admiring the random jet show in the skies. 

Photos from my lazy beach day yesterday in Vina del Mar...  

Practical Information: Vina del Mar, though there is not much to do there other than beach it, is a great and super easy day trip from Valpo. You can either rent bikes and ride them there (again, only 9km) or you can take the metro like we did. Its a short, probably 7 minute ride, and will run you 350 chilean pesos each way. Depending on what you want to go, check the various metro stops as there are a number of stops in the Vina del Mar area, though the Vina del Mar one is definitely most central. Beaches can get crowded... be on the lookout for pickpocketers and have someone watch your stuff if you plan on getting in the water. 

Wine and Bikes in Mendoza

Imagine a flat countryside, roads shaded by lines of gorgeous trees and fancy vineyards tauting beautiful grapes and an even more stunning setting in the valley. Now imagine biking from vineyard to vineyard on a bike, receiving generous tastings and tours at each over the course of 7 hours. Welcome to Lujan (right outside of Mendoza) and the Bacchus Bike and Wine Tour - how Jed and I spent our first full day in Mendoza. 

The day was lovely and our group for the tour even better - Maeve and Shane (an Irish couple whom we had shared a room with in El Chalten), Simon (the Brit), and Becca and Holly (two awesome girls from British Columbia). A bunch of us from the hostel had gone out for steaks and wine the night before, ending in drunken debauchery of sorts, and I wasn´t quite prepared for drinking wine so early in the morning. But the ride was easy, and the wine tours informative and fun. In total we visited 4, including a stop for lunch: Alta Vista (wonderful premium Malbec!), Weingart (not a huge fan... my favorite was their non-alcoholic grape juice), Cerro Chacras (delicious lunch stop, wine included) and Pullmary, a small, organic vineyard. 

Practical Information: Wine tours are a must if you´re going to Mendoza, and you have two options when it  comes to the bike tours. Going to Maipu or doing what we did, going to Lujan. Both are probably about the same distance from Mendoza (40minutes or so on public bus) The Maipu tours are full of drunken backpackers, offering a large quantity but shitty quality of wine. Lujan offers nicer wines and super small groups, but you won´t get as drunk as the first option. Since, I did the Lujan Bacchus tour, I can offer better information on that. To get to the Bacchus wine tour office in Chacras, you need to take a public bus (#1, sub division 15, 16 to Chacras) and get off at Chacras Plaza. From there the office is right around the corner. The bus costs 1.80 and only accepts change. Bacchus will charge 35 pesos for a full day bike rental, and they arrange all the tours for you prior to beginning. (You must book your tour the day before!) Upon arrival, they´ll give you the bike as well as a map, outlined with your tour times. You then pay each winery, as well as whatever you order for lunch. Winery tours and tastings run 10-35 pesos each, and lunch is about 65 pesos unless you do their pasta option for 30pesos. With a good lunch, plan to spend about 150-170 pesos on the entire day. 

Photos from our bike and wine tour in Mendoza... Write up to come later.

Bariloche: Circuito Chico and Cerro Companario

Getting out our picnic lunch

Running short on time, and wanting to make it up to Mendoza sooner rather than later, Jed and I decided to spend only two days in Bariloche (referred to as the Switzerland of the South). We arrived at about 10am to our hostel (Hostel Bariloche) and had breakfast, unpacked, and then took the bus out to Cordillera bikes where we had rented bikes for the afternoon to partake in one of Bariloche´s most popular activities – biking the Circuito Chico, a 35km ride that offers stunning views of the numerous lakes and mountains. The ride was an absolute killer – we´re talking constant uphills and then downhills, but the views you were rewarded with were definitely worth the work.

Enjoying a nice break at Gilberts Cervezeria

Towards the end of our ride, Jed and I detoured to Gilberts, a brewery with an awesome ambience of high ceilings, wooden beams, and great beers for pints and a delicious chocolate and waffle covered raspberry.  I also have only wonderful things to say about the father and son that run Cordillera bikes – they were professional, helpful, and offered insider tips about places to stop, and were willing to pick you up should you run into any problems on the road. The son even gave us a ride back to our hostel when we had finished!

More photos from the two days:

One of our many detours...Playa Trunca

Beers and waffles... what more could you want after 30km of biking?

Mirador lookout

At the mirador

cafe lookout at Cerro Companario

Beautiful sunset over Lago Huapi on our way back

Chairlift ride up to the top

View from Cerro Companario

view from Cerro Companario

At the top of the Cerro Companario lookout

Practical Information: Bus from the bus station to most hostels (3pesos), bus from hostel to place to rent bikes (6 pesos, one way), full day bike rental (70 pesos, 65 during off-peak season), chairlift to Cerro Compananrio (40 pesos, roundtrip). The bike ride of Circuito Chico is said to take a max of 3 hours moving, but definitely allow yourself more time for that - you will want to make some detours from the main route, as well as make stops for food, drinks, and photo ops. I would say 6-7 hours to be safe.

Lago Puelo and El Bolson

Jed and I arrived in El Bolson today – the renowned hippy and artesian beer capital of Argentina. 

We spent our first evening celebrating Jed´s birthday: eating regional Bolson trout, drinking wine, and stuffing ourselves on the best ice cream I have ever eaten (Jauja Icecream, I will miss you).

Lago Puelo

on top of the mirador

Jed´s a joker

mirador lookout

Lago Puelo

We made it!

We finished our evening with an awesome asado (typical Argentine barbeque) at our hostel, complete with over 8 different meats and cuts.

Our last day, we went to the El Bolson market, which I think can be best described as a gathering of dirty yet beautiful hippies selling everything from wooden wares, wired jewelry, to artesian chocolates and cheeses. Jed was, no joke, the only guy there without dreads. We enjoyed homemade waffles, delightful tubs of raspberries, and walked around just admiring all of the handiwork. 

Chocolate and raspberry covered waffles

food at the market

delicious waffles

From El Bolson, we took a quick 2 hour bus ride to Bariloche.

Practical Information: El Hostel Pehunia, I strongly recommend – a family run place with a just wonderful and cozy atmosphere. The wife, Valentina, could not be friendlier, and her two children couldn’t be more adorable. The husband also cooks up a mean asado. Doubles there will run you about 60pesos pp and the dorm, I believe, is 50p. To get to Lago Puelo, you need to take a city bus from the main avenue to the last stop. The whole ride will last about 45min-1hr depending on how many stops the driver makes and will cost you 5 pesos. The entrance to the park is 20 pesos but we found that they don´t charge you during off-season (after March 6-ish) and the park has a number of walking trails. The hike up to the mirador is not at all difficult and will take you about 30 minutes one way (despite the ranger saying it will take 2 hours). The famous market in El Bolson is hosted on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (the best is on Saturday) from about 10am-430pm. The bus from El Bolson to Bariloche leaves every hour with Andesmar and costs 23 pesos, each way.

So I just want to apologize for the lack of photos... Jed and I have been in small, trekking towns with pretty horrendous Internet. Once I get back to a main area I'll be sure to post them. And trust me... There will be lots.

2 Day Bus Ride

We left El Chalten at 9am and boarded a bus with Chalten Travel for the highly dreaded 2 day trip along Route 40 (a semi-paved, semi-gravel road) to El Bolson. We were prepared: charged Ipods, food, books, etc. The bus was like a Greyhound, with seats that reclined maybe 35 degrees, no AC but fans, and no bathroom. We stopped about every 2-4 hours for a 15 minute break and finally rolled into Perito Moreno around 9pm where we would be spending the night at the Belgrano ¨Hotel¨. I put hotel in quotes because I have never before seen a hotel that has dorms. Ours did. And they weren´t so pretty. But what was even more of a let down was the town - a seedy, one street area, kept alive by what must be people who need somewhere to spend the night on the journey. The second day was equally long, but we managed with reading, playing a lot of angry birds, and just listening to music. We arrived in El Bolson, renouned as Argentina´s hippy and artesian beer capital, around 6pm, dropped our stuff at the hostel, took showers, and headed into town for Jed´s birthday.... downing wine, regional trout, and later, huge ice creams in celebration.

Relaxing Day in El Chalten

We had planned to do a hike to the mirador today, about 2-4 hours each way, depending on how far in you want to go, to get amazing views of the valley. But the wind was absolutely vicious and our legs sore, so we decided to take the day to hang out. We did a very late breakfast (more like lunch) at a Waflereia in town, where we got delicious waffles, eggs, bacon, and hot chocolate. We then spent the afternoon just doing some research and trip planning, emailing, and relaxing. For dinner, Jed made a delicious spread of pumpkin ravioli, salad, and wine, and we went into town for artisan chocolates for dessert. Tomorrow we begin a two day bus ride to El Bolson. Yikes.

Thetas Around the World

After Jed and I returned from our hike, we headed to the hostel to shower and get a good dinner at neighborhood Como Vaca, a small parilla or restaurant grill, that had been recommended to us from other travelers. When we were walking to our table, I noticed a guy wearing an atheletic William and Mary shirt. I nudged Jed and then headed to their table. ¨Did you go to William and Mary?¨I asked, expecting the typical, Öh yeah, I graduated in the year blah blah... good to meet someone else from there¨response. But after he said yes and we talked about when we had graduated, one of the two girls sitting across from him exclaimed, ¨Wait! Aren´t you in my Theta family?¨And sure enough, in a tiny trekking town with just 100 souls that live year round, I had run into Joanna, my littleX5 in the sorority. I had only met her once before, at a family brunch during homecoming, but that was enough to get us talking and excited over running into each other so randomly.


We ate dinner there, an amazing restaurant that I highly recommend for anyone that visits the area. Jed, per usual, got a steak, and I got the lamb ravioli and we sat for over an hour, just enjoying our food and sharing a nice bottle of wine. It was not the last time we would eat there during our stay in El Chalten. :)

Wind, Camping, and a Perfect Gentleman

Jed and I arrived in El Chalten, trekking capital of the nation, around 5:30pm. We were arriving a day earlier than expected and as such did not have a hostel booked until the following evening. We dropped our things off at the hostel, reorganized bags, and took only what we would need for the next 48 hours. We headed to Patagonia Hikes where we rented sleeping bags, mats, and a tent and then next door for empanadas. After we loaded up on snack food for the hike and our meals for the following day and at around 6:30 finally set off on our hike for the evening. Our plan was to go to Laguna Capri, which the woman at the Patagonia rentals had said would be about 1 1/2 hours away, and from there, if we thought we could make it in daylight, would continue to Poicenot (another 1 1/2 hours) where we would camp for the night. We made our way out of town to the trail entrance in about 20 minutes, started off and were welcomed with a 15 minute, very steep incline right off the bat. When we reached the top, the path became flatter and about 10 minutes later when we reached the sign, realized we had followed signs for Laguna Torre, not Laguna de los Tres, and if we continued on our current path, wouldn´t make it to a campsite before nightfall. So we turned around, back downhill, and headed in the right direction. The winds were crazy, often so strong that it would cause Jed and I to drift off the path. When we finally reached the trailhead of the path we wanted, it was a bit after 7 and the hikers who were reaching the bottom looked at us as if we were insane: not only beginning a hike so late, but in such windy conditions. We just kept trekking.

The hike up to Laguna Capri, all 1 1/2 hours of it, are straight uphill. Jed, being the gentleman he is, took the backpack the entire way, complete with our mats, bags, and the tent, despite our agreement to switch off periodically. We reached Capri at dusk, set up the tent, and headed off to the Laguna for water and a gorgeous nightly sky over Fitzroy. In the morning, we left our gear at the campsite and headed off to Poicenot (a completely flat trail to get there), Piedras Blancas, and El Pilar before returning to the site to pack up our gear and head back down (Jed, once again, carried everything). The 36 hours, despite the rough start, where perfect. It was awesome to hike after so much time spent on buses and an even better feeling to be out in nature, playing Tom Petty in the tent, amidst a stunning landscape, and hearing the winds howl outside as we slept.

Practical Information: To rent equipment from Patagonia Hikes it is 30p for a sleeping bag (which comes with a mat) and 30p for the tent. They charge per night when you return the gear. There is no entrance fee for El Chalten, and you can camp at one of their many sites in the park for free. Check at some hostels before renting your equipment: many have a 15% off coupon for Patagonia Hikes. There are also 2 other places to rent from along the main street, San Martin, but Patagonia Hikes is the first you will run into after getting off the bus.