On the road again

We left our intrepid travellers a bit stuck down at the bottom of Chile with a very sick truck staying in a hotel that genetically fuses dogs and deers. Well unfortunately despite the best efforts of the mechanics and Simon poor old Ithaca still looked like this

and we soon realised that it was going to take rather longer than we expected to get her sorted so the decision was made to leave Ithaca behind to be fixed up, for Emma to take the group on public transport and for Simon to fly to Uruguay to pick up a replacement overland truck, it was frankly a miracle that there was one sitting around at this busy run up to Carnival in South America, and transit it down to meet us in the lake district! Got it? Good.

So with a brief stop in Puerto Natales and a slightly less brief stop in Calafate Emma scrabbled together some of the last tickets on the public buses and we were on our way, slowly slowly making our way North and out of Patagonia. We were all excited to be moving and excited to be heading in the direction of some fabled 'hot' after a long time in the cold winds, but remarkable beauty, of Patagonia!

Puerto Natales

Bin in Puerto Natales

Roberta's healthy option...

Puerto Natales Mojitos - one is definitely enough...

The joys of public transport

Calafate

Flamingo in the Calafate bird reserve

Austral Flamingo

We were all very excited to be seeing something new when we arrived in the small town of Perito Moreno (not to be confused with the glacier of the same name) at a very unfriendly hour of the morning after an overnight bus. Perito Moreno itself is a sleepy little town but we were here to see something just down the road called The Cave of Hands, ancient cave paintings of hand prints that date back thousands of years. Many of the group did a steep hike to the caves whilst others soaked in the beautiful views of the Rio Pinturas Valley – it's not hard to see why this was a special place for the ancient tribes that lived here.

Rio Pinturas valley

Ali & Jess limbering up

Cave of the Hands is across the canyon

Gen crossing the bridge

Calafate Berries - the legend says that if you eat these in Patagonia you will always return

After finally getting on our way out of Patagonia, Wayne considers whether to try one

Dogs keep us entertained while we wait to see the hands

The cat keeps Mike amused

To the Cave of the Hands

Hand paintings - produced by blowing paint through a straw

Some of these hands are thousands of years old

Iain, Steve & Dave

Not just hands, there are some depictions of animals and this, a strange devil creature

As we set off North again the scenery around us began to slowly changed, after all this time in the South we had grown used to vast open plains and dusty estancias with very little vegetation, but as we got closer to the Lake District, our next destination, we were very excited to see green again, huge green hills of fir trees cascading down in the deep blue lakes surrounded by snow capped mountains. It was a beautiful sight, add to that a temperature of around 25 degrees, it was a much welcome change!

Suddenly not in Patagonia anymore! (Ok technically we are, but it doesn't feel like it!)

After a late arrival in to Bariloche, a pretty, Swiss-influenced, tourist town we were met by our temporary trusty steed until Ithaca was back to health, Matecito, ably driven by Simon, who was a little tired after a 2000km transit! But it was good to be camping again for everyone, whilst we were truckless there was no camping and everyone had missed it.

Our time in the lake district was spent hiking, wandering the town, buying chocolate (a famous local delicacy – must be the Swiss influence!) soaking up the sun and giving Matecito a bit of a spring clean.

Our new trusty steed Matecito looking very dramatic at night at camp

Jess out hiking

Jess & Sarah

Gen & Mike

Paula gets our temporary truck up to Odyssey spec

John gets up close and personal with a Cinereous Harrier

Spectacled Tyrant

All our time down in Punta Arenas had put us somewhat off track so we decided to take a different route up to Mendoza that would gain us a few days. Odyssey's motto is 'exploration and adventure' and we like to find new places so we set off on the fabled Route 40, the road that stretches the length of mainland Argentina to parts of the country not frequented by many tourists. The landscape was spectacular, starting in the beautiful lake district and its blues and greens we headed North and passed volcanoes, valleys of solidified lava, beautiful green river valleys and red rock cliffs.

Change of scene on beautiful Route 40

Good to be flapping again

Jess gathering flowers

Paul

Adapting to this strange new sensation of being hot

Rhea and babies on the road

Beautiful drive north with Volcano Lanin in the distance

Lanin

Ali tries out the bag locker / cage / new sleeping area

We camped our first night at a beautiful lake called 'Laguna Blanca' away from the crowds we had been getting used to in this busy school holiday season in Argentina. It was stunning, peaceful and we were all happy to be bushcamping again.

Back at bush camping again

Laguna Blanca - not a bad spot for a bushcamp

Dave in search of the local bar at Lago Blanca

Dinner at Laguna Blanca bushcamp

Funky Lenticular clouds

Washing up with a view

On the road to Mendoza

Gaucho (cowboy) country

Beautiful scenery in this little known part of Argentina

The further North we got the hotter it got and by the time we arrived in Mendoza we were packing away our coats and digging out the shorts. Mendoza is, of course, wine-country. This is where a lot of the Malbec comes from that Argentina is so famous for. So we set off on a tour of some vinyards that also included a tour of a chocolate factory and an olive oil makers. With lots of tasting to be done it was a good day all round!

Mendoza city

Where's the wine?

Waiting for the chocolate factory to open, one of the first signs of addiction

David at the chocolate shop

Olive oil tasting

Queuing up for the oils and oil-based toiletries

Wine time!

Where wine comes from...

Where wine goes...  David and Wayne demonstrate

Chris is delighted having spotted the refill coming around

Mike enjoying it too

Iain

Barrels

Tour of an old winery using its original equipment

All this wine is hard work - time for beer o'clock back at our camp

Or wine for those that prefer, whether from a cup or bowl in Roberta's case

Washing time in Mendoza - Wayne and his washer-women

Drying time - this hot weather has its benefits!

From Mendoza we made our way across the wide North of Argentina stopping our first night in the little town of Achiras, which also happened to be having a week-long festival. Argentina is a camping paradise, Argentineans love travelling in their own country and love camping, and with a country as beautiful as Argentina I can't say I blame them.

Stowaway at camp

Achiras Festival - Emma, Simon, Gen & Sarah + Minion

Our second night we planned to stay at a pretty campsite Emma and Simon had found on the previous South America trip, a peaceful little place on the banks of the Rio Parana. However when we arrived we realised it wasn't going to be the peaceful retreat we remembered, it was in fact a full on camping fiesta where locals come and camp for the weekend and stay up late, drink, dance, play loud music and generally have fun. This happened to coincide with Lee's very important birthday/ becoming unemployed party so when we arrived everyone had been enjoying cocktails on the truck and the big beach party seemed to fit nicely! It was a great night, not necessarily the best night's sleep ever, but a lot of fun! Oh and hot and sticky, which was a bit of a shock to the system but a great chance to dig out the bikinis!!

Lee's birthday breakfast

Wayne's fuel pump

Drinks for Lee's birthday

Paula onboard the truck

Chris & Simon

Louisa

Jess, Louisa, Sarah & Gen

Helen

Ali & Jess

Kaye & Emma - Cook Group Extraordinaire

Paula & Iain

Wayne & David

Next up was the stunning Ibera Lagoon, a natural wetlands that boasts a huge variety of wildlife, often right on our doorstep. It's a stunning place, with a camp right by the lagoon, Capybaras wandering past your tent, parrots in the trees and Caiman floating in the water. A sunrise boat ride offered a great chance to enjoy the weird and wonderful animals and birds before the heat of the day kicked in and after a couple of days in Ibera our memory cards were full of colourful pictures. Recent rain which, luckily, hadn't hit us, had made the road in to a bit of a slip and slide, though Simon's great driving got us out in one piece!

Capybaras on the road

Driving across the Ibera lagoon

Sunset at Ibera

Steve & Louisa at sunset

Somewhat rainy in Colonia Carlos Pelligrini town 

Early morning sunrise boat trip

Mike gets the only camo life jacket

Capybara

Caiman

Capybara

The drive out proved to be a little more challenging than the drive in

Our next stop was the San Ignacio Mission ruins, the rain that had made the Ibera road somewhat interesting decided to follow us and we were in for a very wet night in this tropical area where we discovered that Matecito's tents weren't quite as waterproof as Ithaca's! The trip to the missions was a little damp but very interesting, telling the story of the Jesuits who came here to convert the indigenous people and protect them from slavery.

San Ignacio

Braving the rain

Next up was our final stop in Argentina, well at least until the end of the trip when we come back here for our final few weeks, the mighty Iguazu Falls! The water winds its way down from the Amazon in to the Iguazu and Parana rivers and at the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay it falls, in style, in a series of incredible waterfalls that we had the chance to experience from both the Argentinean and Brazilian sides.

Refuge drying camp

Mighty Iguazu

Rainbow at Iguazu

John at Iguazu Falls

The best way to see the falls

Macaw's eye view

Boating to the base of the falls

Iain, Sarah & Gen

John & Paula kayak the Iguazu River

Crossing the border to Brazil we waved goodbye to Argentina and enjoyed the delights of the Brazilian bird park, enormous Itaipu Dam, and safari-ing around the jungle. It was an excellent few days.

Dragonfly

Cute coati

Malachite butterfly takes a fancy to Paula

Coatis on the prowl

Itaipu Dam

Gen

Power

The starship control room

Team Dam

Ahead of us lay the huge expanses of Brazil, behind us the great lands of Argentina and Chile. Two countries with an immense variety of landscape – all of it big, dramatic and impressive. We have been delighted by how welcoming the local people have been and had our fair share of adventure with poor old Ithaca and her injector pump. She is currently being fixed up by Pete, Odyssey founder, who has flown over from South Africa to get her sorted while Emma and Simon continue the tour with the group with the temporary truck Matecito. Once Ithaca's fixed we'll meet up with her again somewhere in Brazil when Pete comes to find us on a 7,000km transit! The show goes on, spirits are high and our sense of adventure is still well and truly intact! Gracias Argentina and Chile for everything. Hasta Luego!