Mendoza, Cordoba, Patagonia

The sense that you get on leaving Buenos Aires via bus is of driving forever through suburbs - it takes at least an hour and a half to leave the city limits. When you do, though, you come face to face with Argentina´s most prominent feature - nothingness. Most of the country is basically empty, and many parts of it could aptly be described as desert. I took this photo when our van broke down on the long road between Malargue and Mendoza, but there´s similar landscape in any number of places. I completed a 48 hour bus ride yesterday, which was less fun than it probably sounds...

In Mendoza, I spent two weeks studying Spanish in a local institute, which was good, and also a good way to meet people here. I´ve also studied a bit from CDs. He aprendido un poco, pero dispacio... There´s some cool stuff around Mendoza, too, like horsetrekking in Cachueta (pictured below; Andrew from England features); rafting; and a weird and slightly undignified (but fun) activity called canopying, which is kind of like being attached to a giant flying fox. I also went up into the Andes a couple of times, to see the sights up there and to day walk a bit too. It´s strangely difficult to arrange to do overnight hiking around Mendoza, though.

From Mendoza, I headed to Malargue, famous for its outdoor pursuits, apparently. I took a mountain biking day trip out to Castillos de Pincheira (pictured below), and we also headed up to the thermal baths at Las Leñas, which was an odd experience - more like being admitted to a run down hospital from the 1950s than the relaxing experience of somewhere like Hamner Springs in New Zealand. After, we walked in the mountains there, too, and saw some other minor sights. Malargue was kind of a bit of a write off though, I had really wanted to visit nearby (100km, nothing by Argentine standards) Parque Provincial Payunia, but there were no trips running - at this time of year, it is the off season for everything except skiing.

After returning to Mendoza for a few days and catching up with friends there, I headed to Cordoba. Cordoba is a large university city with some nice colonial architecture, and was good for an explore.

The blatantly missing steeple of this Cordoban church symbolises the imperfections of man.

In Cordoba, I also met with a friend from Malargue, who persuaded me to make a trip down into Patagonia. It´s a long way to Patagonia, and then again between different places once you´re there... lots of 24 hour bus rides, so I´m glad that I managed to go with company. Once you get down there, though, there´s some really nice things to see.

Perito Moreno glacier, definitely one of the most amazing things I´ve seen in my travels. It dwarves the glaciers in New Zealand.

Penguins, and a Southern Right Whale, near Puerto Madryn, on the east coast of Patagonia. The whale watching was really good, there were a lot of whales, all really close to the boat, and quite a few did some jumping out of the water, too.

Hiking near El Chalten, Patagonia. This was really good, too, it´s a very beautiful area.

Another photo from the same hike... this one shows what I think is Mt Fitzroy, plus you can see the little glacier in the background.

I might add some more photos to this section if I manage to obtain them from my travelling companions.