Categories

Argentina

I visited Argentina when cycling from Santiago to Ushuaia. This involved going back and forth across the border numerous times. Some of these albums switch between Chile and Argentina.

Argentina photos are in several albums on Picasa – take a look at these. You may prefer to follow the links to the albums on Picasa.

Around Buenos Aires

  • View from apartment
  • View from Apartment
  • Park in the rich part of town
  • Look at all those lanes
  • Too many roads, normally too many cars
  • Ugly feet, after a days walking
  • View from Apartment
  • Central City St
  • Puerto Madero
  • Dodgy Elevator
  • Protesters
  • Barricades, ready for protesters (they were peaceful)
  • Something lost in translation
  • View from apartment
  • All lawns are cut with weedeaters, not lawnmowers. You then use a rubbish bag to pick up the clippings by hand
  • Filthy docks area
  • Filthy barge, filthy water
  • Wrecks
  • So much rubbish
  • This is where plastic bottles end up
  • Wrecks
  • No more fishing

Puerto Madryn

  • Looking down towards Puerto Madryn
  • Cruise ships stopping for the day
  • Puerto Madryn beach
  • Puerto Madryn beach
  • Drying out the dog
  • Sea lion colony
  • Closer view of sea lions. Unfortunately I don't have the fancy SLR camera and lenses
  • Magellanic penguin, only a couple of metres away
  • Desert fox, waiting outside the parilla for a feed

Around Ushuaia

  • Ushuaia, cruise ships docked
  • Smooth water
  • Smooth water, lots of boats for options for daytrips
  • Or longer trips
  • Exceptionally calm for here
  • Cruising out of Ushuaia
  • Across to Chile (Isla Navarino)
  • The birds and the sealions seem to tolerate each other
  • Puerto Williams. One day it will take Ushuaia's claim of southernmost city
  • 3,000-4,000 penguin couples
  • Mostly Magellanic penguins
  • Waddle on land, bullets in water
  • Estancia Harberton, first on the island (first building on the island!)
  • The Yamanas somehow lived in these, purely as temporary shelter. Madness.
  • I want whalebones over my gate
  • And some Orca skulls
  • Beaver damage - flooded land, dead trees
  • I don't know what it is with Argentines and getting their photo with a St Bernard
  • Alaskan Husky.
  • Ports companies are always stealthily reclaiming land
  • That ship don't fish no more
  • Beagle Channel, looking across to Chile
  • Ushuaia Bay

Punta Arenas to Ushuaia

  • Punta Arenas to Porvenir ferry
  • Boat not seaworthy anymore? Just drive it up on the beach.
  • Fishing huts - hard to say if they were occupied
  • Guanaco
  • Yes, it is windy. Very, very few trees in northern Tierra del Fuego
  • The hut I sheltered in/beside
  • Cyclist graffiti
  • Sleeping in a dojo at Club Nautico
  • Boring flat grasslands
  • Traditional Fuegian name that
  • Inside of my rear tire. Not good.
  • Superb camp shelter at Tolhuin
  • Dunno what the people who live there actually do
  • Mountains again - note the road slowly climbing across it
  • Lago Escondido
  • Ushuaia at last
  • Southernmost rugby club in the world?
  • The end of Ruta 3, 3079km to Buenos Aires
  • Past the end of the road, at the edge of the sea
  • Incoming squall
  • Not quite how I planned my celebration

El Chalten to El Calafate

  • Smooth straight roads ahead
  • Mountains and rain behind me
  • Glacier Viedma, feeding Lago Viedma
  • Turns out this means "photo spot ahead"
  • Marko climbing, Lago Viedma in background
  • Yeah, we know
  • Perito Moreno - note boat in far right
  • Perito Moreno
  • Perito Moreno
  • Perito Moreno
  • Perito Moreno

Villa O’Higgins to El Chalten

  • On the ferry, heading down Lago O'Higgins
  • This was actually an easy part. Note the wide, dry road, even if we did have to push
  • Looking back to Lago O'Higgins. The colour is because it's glacier fed
  • Susan riding up a manageable part
  • The truck stopped just before this bridge
  • Not every day you ride down a runway
  • This was a good bridge
  • Here it started getting ugly
  • Like this
  • Joke of a bridge
  • The ruts got deeper a little further down
  • Woke up the following morning, to realise a glacier was very close to the campsite.
  • Rare clear view of Mt Fitzroy. Too steep for snow to stick to it.
  • Not so nice in the mountains

Trevelin to Coihaique

  • Teasing me, with a paved road on the Chilean side. It wouldn´t last
  • Plenty of kayaking and rafting on these rivers
  • See to the left of the rack, the sheared off bolt?
  • And the fix - lasted for a week so far
  • Its a big river - note the fisherman
  • So many waterfalls here
  • Lago Yelcho
  • Campsite, plus cyclists. First company on the road
  • First day on the Carretera Austral proper
  • See this bug - it would fill the palm of my hand
  • Hospedaje - very cramped room for us, but warm clean and dry.
  • The Carretera Austral
  • Interesting strata
  • Lunch stop, at a dodgy bridge, where one end had collapsed. Seemed strong enough for us though.
  • Casa Ludwig. Very German.
  • Puerto Puyuhuapi
  • A Samson-like dog. There is a better one in Coyhaique
  • Puyuhuapi. The mist/rain is typical
  • Puyuhuapi
  • Minor mechanical problem
  • Hanging Glacier
  • Hanging Glacier
  • Hanging Glacier
  • Walking trail. Duck.
  • Dirt roads again
  • Pavement! And not raining for once
  • I think this was a rodeo area
  • The rope was broken, so I don´t think anyone crosses the river this way anymore.
  • Fine day, smooth roads, such a change
  • You choose, 62 or 72km to Coyhaique. No indication as to which way is shorter (it´s the gravel road, but that would take longer on the bike)
  • Rio Manihuales
  • Looking down to Coyhaique. Long downhill to town...and a nasty uphill just before getting there

Bariloche to Trevelin

  • Just south of Bariloche
  • I´m not quite sure why you should leave a plastic bottle at this shrine
  • Looking up the valley
  • 10km dirt road detour
  • Lago Steffen, view from the tent
  • Lago Steffen detour, steep dirt road
  • Looking back down to Lago Steffen
  • Big loose rocks == no fun for riding
  • See the road going down the valley?
  • I liked that the shanty knew what it was
  • Beer plus camping. Perfect.
  • Hoping the rain front stays over there
  • Changing scenery, much drier
  • Random large house in the middle of nowhere. Someone has money.
  • Not far from Butch Cassidys ranch, terrible road
  • Villa Rivadavia
  • This stray decided to follow me for several km
  • Parque Nacional Los Alerces
  • Round and round the plaza in Trevelin
  • It had been an interesting night
  • Casa Verde Hostel - highly recommended
  • It looks innocuous in the daylight
  • Note the detail on the sign - speed lines, wheel nuts
  • Gravel road on the way to the border
  • Rio Futaleufu

San Martin to Bariloche

  • Building in San Martin - note the European style
  • On the way out of San Martin on Christmas Day
  • There's going to be plenty more shots of lakes like these
  • Near the top of the pass - you can just make out the road winding back down
  • Note how the river splits in two - one side goes to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific.
  • That's what I want to see - downhill, smooth road, clear sky, mountain scenery
  • Or this will do
  • Waterfalls along the way
  • Random stop
  • That's where all the cars were going - to spend the day by the lake (just to the left of the trees)
  • Only the second lot of cyclists I've met on the road
  • Cold, wet, narrow dirt road. Good times
  • It looks a bit grey, because it was that kind of day, but it was pretty
  • Note all the wet weather gear on
  • Lunch stop
  • Clear(ish) skies again, on the road to Bariloche
  • I can see my destination, unfortunately there's a bit of lake to get around first
  • Odd architecture here
  • I like this house, nestled amongst the bland modern buildings
  • They only make the main streets nice.
  • Steep streets in Bariloche

Villaricca to San Martin

  • Heading out of Villaricca, to Lican Ray
  • Coming into Lican Ray - everywhere around here is scenes like this
  • Villaricca Volcano - note the clouds of sulphuric gases coming out of it
  • Lagos Calafquen
  • Lagos Calafquen
  • Lagos Calafquen
  • Random sign on side of road
  • The crossed rifles emblem disturbs me a little
  • Map of the "Termases" (thermal pools) in the region - there are many
  • The end of the pavement, and the beginning of ripio - there will be a lot more of this
  • Random riverside lunchstop
  • Bridges are not the strongest-looking structures
  • Steep+loose stones = slippery = pushing the bike
  • Looking down to my destination, Eco Termas Pellaifa
  • No rails or anything, just a bit of loose dirt between me and slipping down
  • Encamped at the Termas
  • A bit of an exaggeration, but not always
  • Random bridge, a few metres of blessedly smooth concrete
  • More pushing. Just too steep and slippery, couldn't get traction
  • Looking down over the valley
  • More dodgy bridges
  • And I guess that was the old one that fell down
  • Some sort of fair going on - couldn't work out what.
  • Ferry across Lagos Pirihueico - only two cars on this sailing
  • On the ferry
  • Plenty of clean rivers like this, easy to get water around here.
  • Wild camp site
  • Roads up the border are usually bad - notice the large loose stones on the Chilean side
  • Entering Argentina. The road improved immediately, to a hard, reasonably smooth surface
  • At the top of the climb, along the north of Lago Lacar
  • Luckily a tailwind for this exposed section
  • Note the sign pointing right, but the road going left
  • San Martin de Los Andes - all downhill!