San Pedro de Atacama and the Dark Side of Travel

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Leaving Mendoza early our last morning, we hopped on our last Andesmar ride for the scenic trip over the Andes to Santiago, where we planned to catch a bus that night to San Pedro de Atacama. The bus ride was typical of that route - beautiful scenery with an absurdly long wait at the border. We had to have been there at least three hours before we made it through, but other than getting to Santiago a few hours later than expected, all was good...

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Wining it up in Mendoza

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Wining it up in Mendoza

We stayed in Mendoza for 4 days but only ended up venturing out on a tour one of those days. After more than 2 weeks of hiking in Torres del Paine, El Calafate, El Chalten and Bariloche, it was time for some well-deserved rest. And what does one do when resting? Drink wine, of course! There are many companies in town offering tours to the famous wineries of Mendoza but being the travelers we are, we decided to go on our own. It's cheaper and we liked having the freedom to go to the places we were most interested in. After a bit of online research, we decided to try 3 wineries and 1 olive oil factory. We'd heard from people at the hostel that the olive oil factory had weird hours and closed for a few at lunch time so we stopped there first. It was the farthest one too, which worked out well, as we started there then made our way back into town.

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Hiking and Biking in Beautiful Bariloche

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Hiking and Biking in Beautiful Bariloche

We continued our trip with a stop in San Carlos de Bariloche, which most people simply refer to as Bariloche. The city rests at the foothills of the Andes so stunning views of mountains and alpine lakes abound. Step outside and you'll have the unmistakable feeling of having been transported to a small town in the Alps, even in the middle of spring. Turns out the city center was redesigned in 1930 to have the appearance of a European alpine town so many buildings resemble small chalets, constructed out of wood and stone.

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36 Hours in El Chaltén

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36 Hours in El Chaltén

After our recent Torres del Paine success and our relatively relaxed time in El Calafate, we were feeling the itch to do some more hiking. Luckily for us, El Chaltén is just north of El Calafate. So, we hopped on a bus early one morning and headed north for two more hiking-packed days in Patagonia.

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