Argentinian Patagonia

In the Argentinan side of Patagonia, the drier vegetation (because of the rain shadow effect) is evident.

We drove along a lot of gravel roads (really rather remote and seemingly untraveled) in this part of our trip.  There wasn't cell service (even if we'd had "smart" phones along). And our other wireless devices...

But the landscape was amazing, expansive, and incredible.

near Esquel, Argentina (view from the "the Old Patagonian Express")

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Wonderful rivers

We saw so many wild and inspiring rivers and streams in Argentina and Chile (Northern Patagonia).

I thought we lived in the land of waterfalls, mountain streams and wonderful rivers, but these were remarkable.

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Ruta 40 (Argentina)

Jumping ahead in our travels, here's an image on the Argentinian side, from our journey back north on Ruta 40, a legendary north-south route, stretching from far north to south in Argentina.

Ruta 40

It's largely paved now, but we bumped along some pretty remote graveled roads from the Chilean border crossing (without much other traffic) to finally get to Route 40.  Somewhat unnerving, actually!

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Ruta de Siete Lagos

All of the seven lakes were perfectly blue.

After flying to Bariloche, we headed north on the Ruta de Siete Lagos, a truly breathtaking circuit.

Argentina is a (VERY) large country -- it was a two hour flight to Bariloche from Buenos Aires.

The first lake was amazing. My companion had to take a swim (in the very cold water).

The surroundings were quite arid, but filled with interesting plants.

The cushion plants were really interesting (to us botanists, at least).

unusual cushion plants (adapted to arid/alpine conditions)

The first waterfall of many!

Part of an alternative route took us over gravel roads, just a taste of what was to come.

My traveling companion

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Traveling in Argentina

I've been sorting through photos, and thought I'd just post in sequence.

Traveling with my buddy (and best traveling companion) didn't leave much time to fuss with Blogsy postings on the iPad, nor downloading photos, either. 

And dinner after 9 pm!  Hmm, that seems like hours and hours after normal dinner time, and afterwards, time to go to bed, for sure.

We flew to Buenos Aires from Atlanta -- a fairly easy overnight flight, connecting in Miami.  Buenos Aires is a perfectly nice South American megacity; fortunately, we were there when it was unusually cool!

A main interest were the dogwalkers in Recoleta, one of Buenos Aires' upscale neighborhoods.

Professional dog walkers often have even more dogs in tow.

The food in Buenos Aires was also remarkable, being a cosmopolitan city. This salad was notable.

A delicious salad -- I only had one other good one in Argentina!

We trooped around visiting lots of city sights, but were ready to escape to the Argentinian Lake District and the mountains.

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Bariloche, Argentina Lake District, Patagonia

View from Cerro Campanario

Posted with Blogsy

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Traveling over winter break

Holidays are interesting times. We're heading off on Friday for three weeks of traveling, and I've been making sure everything is "battened down" here at home, etc. with house-sitters, mail and newspapers held, plant care instructions, and bills paid in advance, etc. etc.

It's a familiar dance, but is always a bit stressful (an understatement) to make sure everything is taken care of! I'm blessed to be able to travel, for sure.

We're headed to mountains, forests, and streams, with long summer days this time of the year (in Argentina). We'll be in Buenos Aires for a bit, but then mostly in the Argentinian Lake District (Northern Patagonia).

It's always interesting to see how Christmas and New Year's are celebrated in wherever we are; I expect a combination of restrained celebration with over-the-top commercial stuff, too. We'll see.

But most importantly, it'll be fascinating to explore the drier side of the Andes, too.  We visited the Chilean side (the wetter side) 12 years ago on a wonderful trip, which included a much farther south trek through Torres del Paine and Punta Arenas.

Lake Pehoe refugio at Torres del Paine National Park

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