Southern Argentina

My work sites in Ballester are closed for the month of January, so another volunteer (Chris) and I decided to take a couple weeks to travel around Argentina. The country is huge, so we're not able to see everything, but we're hitting some of the big spots in the south and west. It's too hot, in my opinion, to travel north right now. Last Saturday (Jan 16) we left Buenos Aires late in the evening to travel by bus to Bariloche. After a 22 hour, comfortable bus ride, we arrived in Bariloche. We met the pastor of the Lutheran congregation in Bariloche a few months ago and he invited us to stay at his house.

Bariloche is a beautiful town in the Andes mountains. The town faces a large lake and is surrounded by snow capped mountains. Monday (Jan 18) afternoon, we rode a ski lift to the top of a mountain to see all around the town. The view was incredible! There was a cafe and places to sit at the top of the ski lift, so we spent a couple hours enjoying the view.

Tuesday (Jan 19) morning, we got back on the bus to head further south to El Calafate. This was a 30 hour bus ride, but passed quickly. We stayed in El Calafate 2 nights. El Calafate is a small mountain town, but the place to go if you want to see the glaciers in the southern part of Glacier National Park.

On Thursday (Jan 21) we took a tour of Glacier Perito Moreno, one of the largest glaciers in Glacier National Park. The tour included a 2 hour "trek" on the glacier. It was absolutely incredible!

This evening, we arrived back in Bariloche. We'll stay here until Monday (Jan 25) afternoon. So far, we've spent 82 hours traveling on the bus. I'm starting to catch up on movies after all the movies I've watched on the bus. The buses are very comfortable and you can opt (as we did) for seats the extend to beds. Bus travel is very common, inexpensive and comfortable in Argentina.

The time on the bus has definitely been worth the experiences I've had this past week. Click here to view my photos from Bariloche. I'm still sorting through the many photos from El Calafate and the glacier. I'm sure I'll be ready to post them after my bus ride to Santiago on Monday night.