And so it begins, our 6 month epic
expedition around South America, this is the first of many blogs
which will detail some of our adventures (and misadventures) around
this amazing continent.
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| Team Odyssey South America 2014-15 |
It all started in Buenos Aires, capital
of Argentina and meeting point for 20 excited travellers and 2 crew
and one great big orange and blue truck. Buenos Aires is a fabulous
city full of passion, history, steak and tango. Most of the group had
given themselves a few days pre trip to explore and practice their
Spanish in preparation for (most of) the next 6 months.
Everyone came from different corners of
the Earth and converged on the lovely little area of San Telmo with
its flea market and cobbled streets. The crew, Emma and Simon, had
been busy preparing Ithaca for launch, checking her over and filling
her with food and a fair bit of alcohol, getting her thoroughly
scrubbed up by some street kids in La Boca, the dodgy bit of town,
and stuffing themselves with steaks to build up energy for the trip
ahead.
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| Ithaca has a bath in La Boca |
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| Buenos Aires dog walker |
So on 4th December we all
finally met each other and sized each other up, everyone was
interested to know what their new adopted family for the next 6
months would be like! Emma and Simon tried to explain exactly what
everyone had let themselves in for and then we all ate steak and
drank wine – well it's rude not to in Argentina!
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| Emma moonlighting as a waitress on the first night |
Then the next morning – we were off!
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| Our trusty Ithaca |
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| Loading up the truck |
We travelled down through the 'Pampas'
the rich verdant agricultural land that surrounds Buenos Aires and
everyone got an idea of just how vast and empty this continent can be
as miles and miles of fields passed by the window. We were blessed
with the weather, the sun shone and the Southern Hemisphere summer
was very kind to us and our first night camping was an absolute
pleasure at a beautiful little spot near a fishing lake with no one
else around.
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| Ali celebrates being on the road |
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| A rather nice bushcamp |
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| Chris is a fan |
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| Cook group gets busy |
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| Ali, Mike & Dave |
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| Iain, David, Helen & Chris |
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| Sunset |
We were heading South to Puerto Madryn,
en route the next day we entered the vast steppe of Patagonia, miles
and miles of scrubby brush and nothingness with the occasional
guanaco (the llama's Southern cousin) or armadillo spotted by those
with keen eyes.
Puerto Madryn was settled by the Welsh
who managed to survive and thrive in these harsh conditions, mostly
by making friends with the local indigenous people, the Tehuelches.
Today the town is a big tourist attraction for its wildlife, the 2
natural gulfs create a perfect home for Southern Right Whales,
Sealions, Seals, Penguins and much more and we went out on a wildlife
tour to get up close and personal with them.
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| Elephant seals |
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| More elephant seals |
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| Simon showing off his big lens |
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| Penguin paparazzi |
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| Magellenic penguin |
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| Steve |
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| Team Whale Watch |
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| Simon, Emma & Paul |
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| Iain |
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| Whale paparazzi |
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| There's one! A Southern Right Whale |
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| The money shot |
The next day many of the group opted to
get even more up close and personal with some sealions and headed off
to swim with them, they played around like puppies (the sealions that
is) and charmed everyone! It was also a good opportunity for our keen
scuba divers to go diving at a local wreck, with beautiful weather
all round it was a great time to be in Puerto Madryn.
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| Sealion swimmers head off |
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| The sealions came right over and played with the swimmers |
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| Back at camp - the sad reality of modern day camping... |
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| Around the campfire |
But onwards and downwards, we headed
South along the East coast of Argentina with the Atlantic glittering
in the distance, more long days driving through the semi-desert
broken up by a lovely bushcamp by the coast where a friendly local
sealion found us very interesting, and another night at a pretty
little camp by a river in a town called Piedrabuena, tucked down and
sheltered from the sometimes brutal Patagonian wind.
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| The endless Patagonian roads |
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| Beautiful beachside camp |
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| A little bit windy |
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| Dave & Jess |
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| David & Helen |
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| Sunset and Ithaca |
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| Dramatic mode |
With all the vast expanses of flat
empty land the next day brought us some light relief – literally,
in the form of the Andes mountains! We crossed from one side of
Argentina to the other on gravel roads, bumped around and covered in
dust but then on the horizon appeared the stunning sight of
snow-capped peaks and the excitement was infectious! Our destination
was El Chalten, a little mountain town and hiking haven! We were
greeted there by unbeliveable winds as we passed by the beautiful
glacial lakes as the air funnelled off the mountains and whipped
across to batter the Patagonian plains behind us.
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| Driving west on gravel, soon to be tar as Argentina modernises its road system |
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| Toilet & Armadillo sighting stop |
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| From the plains to the mountains |
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| Windy photo stop |
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| Mountains, yay! |
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| Steve & Louisa |
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| Beautiful Chalten & Mt Fitzroy |
El Chalten was a chance for everyone to
stretch their legs and get out in to the mountains, many people
pushed themselves to do hikes they never thought they could, others
went off horse riding down glacial valleys or rock climbing, or
checking out the local microbrewery in the sunshine – we were
amazingly lucky with the weather, El Chalten is not known for its
settled sunshine but that's exactly what we had the whole time we
were there! Luxury!
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| Hiking in Chalten |
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| Jess |
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| Paul |
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| Worth every aching muscle for the view |
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| Louisa & Chris |
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| Louisa |
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| Gen cooking back at camp - ok so it wasn't hot and sunny the whole time! |
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| Sarah |
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| Ali hiding from the cold in Ithaca |
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| Microbrewery |
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| Cat vs dog at the horse riding ranch |
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| Bridge to the horses |
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| Not a bad life for a horse |
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| Dogs, chaps and ladies |
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| Our guide, Emi |
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| Crossing the river |
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| Emma & Gen |
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| Sunset in Chalten |
So in the glorious sunshine we packed
up to leave town and piled in to Ithaca and headed down the road,
200m later we stopped again as Ithaca was making some very odd noises
and she stalled and wouldn't start again. We had broken down, a very unusual occurrence on an Odyssey trip but always a possibility,
overland trucks are mechanical beasts, and add to that the fact that they take a beating on some long bumpy roads and poor old
Ithaca had just had enough that day. Simon began pulling apart the
engine and came to the conclusion he couldn't fix it on the roadside
so our lovely Ithaca remained in El Chalten on her own
waiting for a new part. As many members of the group pointed out breaking down in a town, in the sunshine, outside a coffee shop and 500m from a bus station wasn't necessarily the worst thing in the world and in true Odyssey style, the show goes on, and we were soon boarding a bus to El Calafate, our next stop where the mighty Perito Mereno glacier awaited us.
Journeys are full of adventures and
things going wrong are part of that. As we always say, a positive attitude can get you through anything, and spirits are high as we continue our journey... I'm going to leave you on a cliff hanger here – I (Emma) and the group are continuing our journey South using some of Argentina's excellent bus network, Simon is running around Rio Gallegos going to workshops
and trying to get Ithaca patched up before everything closes for
Christmas, and Ithaca is sitting on her own in El Chalten – will we
all be reunited for Christmas?! Tune in next time to find out!
