Posts Tagged ‘mountains’

I’d been warned about Bariloche.

Bariloche

Having lived in Switzerland for the best part of 5 years, people told me that I wouldn’t find the scenery that special, and I wouldn’t be seeing anything I hadn’t seen before. The town is on Lago Nahuel Huapi which is about the same size as Lake Geneva, surrounded by mountains and ski resorts and has a Saint Bernard in the main square that you can have your photo taken with. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The shops all sell mountain gear and chocolate (not usually at the same time to be fair). But somehow it didn’t real feel Swiss. It surely felt richer than the rest of Argentina, all very smart and chalet style houses, but still had the nice relaxed feel of the rest of the country.

And of course the scenery which is fantastic, but I won’t whitter on about that, here’s a couple of pics and the rest will go up soon..

Cerro Catedral

Yes, yes I’ve missed you too…

Haven’t been able to write an entry for the last few weeks as I’ve been travelling round and the internet in the house is a little temperamental. I left Buenos Aires for a well deserved break after Christmas to go to the falls at Iguazu, which are said to be better than Niagara and I can disagree with that. On the Argentine / Brazilian border they’re made up of over 200 individual falls, all in the middle of a national park. The national park is all jungle and there are lizards, toucans, cayman, turtles and huge butterflies all around you. After that I spent a few days in Paraguay, staying with a friend who is there for two years with the Peace Corps. I’ve never felt more in the middle of nowhere than there, but it was all very relaxing, although the heat (42 degrees on New Year’s Eve) was a little bit too much to be honest.

Iguazu Falls

A week back here, most of it spent on my bed with a cold and stomach troubles and then off to Salta, Jujuy and the Quebrada de Humahuaca in the Northwest on the Chile / Bolivia border. Only got back yesterday so I haven’t done the photos yet, but the scenery was incredible, jungle and desert on the same road. A fair bit was on gravel roads which were one hell of an experience to drive on, through amazing coloured rock formations and enormous cacti as far as the eye could see…

Mountains of Purmamarca