Due South

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.

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.

Ithaca has a bath in La Boca

Buenos Aires dog walker

So on 4^th 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!

Emma moonlighting as a waitress on the first night

Then the next morning – we were off!

Our trusty Ithaca

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.

Ali celebrates being on the road

A rather nice bushcamp

Chris is a fan

Cook group gets busy

Ali, Mike & Dave

Iain, David, Helen & Chris

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.

Elephant seals

More elephant seals

Simon showing off his big lens

Penguin paparazzi

Magellenic penguin 

Steve

Team Whale Watch

Simon, Emma & Paul

Iain

Whale paparazzi

There's one!  A Southern Right Whale

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.

Sealion swimmers head off

The sealions came right over and played with the swimmers

Back at camp - the sad reality of modern day camping...

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.

The endless Patagonian roads

Beautiful beachside camp

A little bit windy

Dave & Jess

David & Helen

Sunset and Ithaca

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.

Driving west on gravel, soon to be tar as Argentina modernises its road system

Toilet & Armadillo sighting stop

From the plains to the mountains

Windy photo stop

Mountains, yay!

Steve & Louisa

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!

Hiking in Chalten

Jess

Paul

Worth every aching muscle for the view

Louisa & Chris

Louisa

Gen cooking back at camp - ok so it wasn't hot and sunny the whole time!

Sarah

Ali hiding from the cold in Ithaca

Microbrewery

Cat vs dog at the horse riding ranch

Bridge to the horses

Not a bad life for a horse

Dogs, chaps and ladies

Our guide, Emi

Crossing the river

Emma & Gen

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!