Argentina Grand Tour & Chilean Patagonia

1 to 23 March 2008 in a nutshell

Pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/inmyfootsteps

Marta and Andrew flying mainly with Aerolineas Argentinas. Has been on Marta’s wishlist for 12 years but we started booking it months ago to ensure we could get the time off work and to secure rooms in far flung national parks which get booked up months in advance during tourist season altho’ technically we are just out of high season. You can travel cheaper by choosing overnight buses rather than flights and by selecting cheaper accommodation (apart from Torres Del Paine where all accommodation costs an arm and a leg unless you camp and that’s definitely not our cup of tea) but we like to stay some of the time at well rated reasonably priced boutique hotels. We hate group tours but we’re not sporty outdoor types either – we use 4 wheels to have an adventure. At the crack of dawn we’re fast asleep, not preparing for a hike! For food we’re happy with cafes for snacks or a restaurant meal and perhaps we’ll go for one swanky meal in Buenos Aires if they do something for Andrew who is a vegetarian. Prices given in currency of country it was paid in unless otherwise specified. Various details added to blog that may help those planning a similar trip.

Itinerary

London to Madrid to Buenos Aires by air (approx 24 hrs from leaving home to arrive at BA hotel)

1 night at Bobo Hotel (approx £100 per room per night)

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia by air

3 nights at Tango BnB (approx £30 per room per night) visiting Tierra Del Fuego

Ushuaia to Punta Arenas in Chile by air with LAN airways then rent 4x4 pickup truck to drive to Puerto Natales

1 night at Aquaterra Hotel (approx £50 per room per night)

2 nights at Hosteria Las Torres (approx £130 per room per night) in Torres Del Paine National Park checking out the deliciously sculpted peaks of this mountainous terrain

1 night at Aquaterra Hotel

Puerto Natales to El Calafate back in Argentina by bus

3 nights at Esplendor (approx £85 per room per night) visiting Perito Moreno Glacier hoping to hear it crack and floating past Upsala Glacier which is nearest thing to being in Antartica without doing the 80 hours sailing across stormy seas there from Ushuaia

El Calafate to Bariloche by air

3 nights at Sol Del Nahuel (approx £75 per room per night) visiting the lake district and relaxing in the spa

Bariloche to Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu by air

3 nights at Jungle Lodge (approx £47 per room per night) visiting Iguazu Falls from Argentine and Brazilian sides

Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires by air

4 nights at BoBo Hotel (approx £100 per room per night) to enjoy the tree lined streets of Buenos Aires plus a day out to a traditional cattle ranch to see where my beef came from

Exchange rates

UK£1 = 5.74 Argetine pesos

UK£1 = 823.25 Chilean pesos

UK£1 = 1.89 US dollars

Travel cost per person

• Hotels £870 (average price per hotel room double occupancy was £80)
• AA flights £866
• LAN flight £94
• 3 days 4WD Pickup hire in Chile US$420 (£107 each) total plus 20,000 Chilean pesos for petrol
• Bus from Puerto Natales to El Calafate 11,000 Chilean pesos (£12.50 each)
• Helicopter over falls £50

• Ferry to Uruguay £37
• Food, taxis, airport transfers, 3 days small car hire and entrance fees £715 (between us we took £450 in Argentine, Chilean and US currencies + £680 as cash withdrawals includes fees as good way to avoid having 100 peso notes if you withdraw X90 pesos + £300 on the credit card which was mostly meals which worked out at under £12 for two just about everywhere).

• Total holiday cost £2,750 each all in and we did it in style over 3 weeks and a bit

My big Argentinean dream

Marta Moo and Pillow embarked on their trip to Argentina on 1^st March 2008. Marta had dreamt of glaciers, tango, penguin and windswept pampas for many years. Pillow was big, white, squishy and also known as Andrew.

So my dream is to visit the end of the earth aka Tierra Del Fuego. It holds an allure for me which is difficult to explain. I once woke up in front of the TV when I was a university student and a Spanish language film had started. I got completely engrossed in it and the images from it never left me. It was the story of a young man living in Tierra Del Fuego who decides to set out and find his real father. There are tremors in Ushuaia which make paintings of officials fall off the walls in his school which looked more like a prison. He visits his grandmother but her village is flooded, eventually he finds her on a boat looking for his grandfather’s coffin as everything is floating. There is also a girl that keeps appearing. If anyone can tell me the name of this film I would be ever so grateful. I’ve tried asking in Ushuaia but apparently there are loads of these kinds of films so I am no closer.

I bought a book on Argentina and discovered there was a hell of a lot more exciting once-in-a-lifetime stuff to see so the trip itinerary grew to be nearly a month long. Actually doing this trip is a major milestone for me. Then there was finding someone to go with. I had given up and was going to go alone with an organised tour but then amazing Andrew came along, a guy literally willing to go to the end of the earth with me. We’ve been organising it a while and as the departure date got nearer I started to get very nervous. Will it live up to my very self hyped expectations? How will I feel given I had an adrenal exhaustion burnout a month ago and this is a long trip and an awful long way to travel? Why do I have to have wait all this time and have an energy low?

The first day, which was mainly travel, was one of heightened emotions which started as I shed a tear saying bye bye to my beloved cat Ophelia who as I write this, a week into the holiday, is playing up weeing in the living room! My separation anxiety fortunately only extends to peeing between the doors of the car at roadsides after carefully judging the direction of gale force winds. Anyway I guess it’s normal to feel some emotion when you achieve a major ambition in your life.