BA to Rio - Road to carnaval

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Into a big smoke after 7 weeks in tourist towns and camping in random places. On the first day we went to Boca stadium, home of the Boca Juniors soccer team, for a look and then around the area of Boca where tango dancers were dancing in the streets trying to suck money from the gringos as we walked through cafes and markets.

That night was a boys night out in the city. We went to a couple of seedy joints where we were overcharged for drinks and people tried to scam money out of us, so we went for a quick feed on empanadas (pastries filled with meat) and after about 3 hours of people trying to rip us off we went and met up with the girls in an Irish pub. The booze was taking affect on us all and we got kicked out for having a popcorn fight so we went around the corner and drank some more at an all-hours, outdoor café until 7:00am. Then stupidly several of us decided to catch the ferry over to Uruguay to get another stamp in our passports.



Colonia, Uruguay - So with no sleep for about 24hrs, a belly full of booze and bar snacks and a US$70 return ticket we jumped on the fast ferry (1hr) to Colonia, Uruguay. The town was very nice and chilled out and nothing like the hustle and bustle of BA. Some of the group went shopping while I went to the beach with Anna and slept under a palm tree in the beautiful white sand. We went for a couple of swims in the river which looked more like a sea cos you couldn’t see the other side and then walked around town before catching the ferry back to get a good night’s sleep.



The last day was a shopping day and then we lost some more passengers and gained a group that were coming partying with us to Rio.

Camping heading north, Argentina - The next 4 days we headed north towards Iguaçu, camping in mosquito country again. On the way we checked out some Jesuit ruins and spent each afternoon swimming in the pools or rivers closest to the camping grounds and having some quiet drinks.



Iguaçu Falls, Argentina and Brazil - On the Argentinean side we caught a speed boat which took us up the river towards the falls where we took photos. They then advised us to put our cameras into dry sacks because we would be going closer. We all expected to get a little damp from the spray of the falls but we had no idea that they would take us right up the falls where we got saturated. A couple more dunks under the world’s largest falls and then they dropped us off so we could walk around the falls and dry off. We spent the rest of the day in the 42°C heat walking through the forest, checking out the falls from different viewpoints while dozens of different butterflies floated around us and a caiman (South American crocodile) or two swam under us.



Just as I was nailing the basics of Spanish, we crossed into Brazil and where we had to start speaking Portuguese. It is a lot harder than Spanish because the pronunciation is a lot different than how the words are spelt.

The first day in Brazil we went to a bird park next to the falls, full of Amazonian birds including toucans and macaws. I’m not much of an ornithologist but I liked the park a lot. We then checked out the Brazilian side of the Iguaçu Falls to get a different perspective. While there we saw some coatimundi which are like raccoons but with long noses. We were warned not to let them come up to us cos some carry rabies. Then another day chilling out in Foz do Iguaçu before we left towards Rio with less than a week until Carnaval.



Paraty, Brazil - In the small colonial town on the coast we had our last nights of camping of the 3½ month trip. The town was the last stop before Rio and all the overland trucks were there gearing up for the big party. There were 200-300 overlanders in town and much alcohol was consumed. The first day we got on a sloop with the passengers from three other trucks and sailed around the bays in the area. Sas made up a caipiroska punch in a chilly bin and we spent all day drinking that, laying in the sun and swimming in the sea when the boat stopped in several bays. It was a very relaxing day with a lot of sunburn and drunken antics.

Patagonia in Argentina

Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia, Argentina - To the bottom of the continent, back into Argentina and to the world’s most southerly city of Ushuaia where the temperature was in single digits. I chillaxed for most of the time, mainly recovering from drinking games and sleeping off late nights. The Argentineans don’t go clubbing until 1am and finish at around 5 or 6 am. The one activity I did do was go on a tour looking for beavers. After watching a few beavers we went and had another Argentinean steak dinner. By the end of the trip I will have probably eaten several cows worth of steak and chorizos (beef sausages).



El Calafate, Argentina - We left the bottom of the world and headed north again crossing a couple of borders to get through Chile on our way to El Calafate. From here we went to the nearby Moreno Glacier which is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world. The glacier is surrounded by forested hills and calves (breaks off) into a lake. We caught a boat and went close up the glacier to watch huge chunks of ice break and fall into the lake. Only a couple fell while we were out there and we returned to the hostel where we spent the night playing drinking games.



El Chaltén, Argentina - From one glacier area to another we went to the small touristy town and spent a couple of days in the cold. One of the days we trekked a 30km roundtrip up to a glacier to walk on it and do a little ice climbing. I was allowed to wear my jandals up to the glacier but they wouldn’t let me put crampons on them so I had to put boots on again. We each had a turn ice climbing with ice picks up a small 10m part of the glacier before heading back, jumping over crevasses and water pools.



Bush camping, Southern Patagonia, Argentina - It was then a couple of long drive days as we headed north through the very flat and unexciting part of Patagonia. In between camping in a quarry and a campsite in the middle of nowhere for 2 nights we visited a petrified forest which is actually a number of logs that have turned to stone but look like wood and even have rings and knots still.



Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Back to civilisation again to stay in a hostel for a few nights and air out the sleeping bags. Puerto Madryn is near the Valdez Peninsula which is well known for its sea mammals so we took the truck out for a look at the animals. The peninsula is one of only two places in the world where a family group of 10 orcas deliberately beach themselves, grab a sea lion pup and then swim back into the sea to devour it at their leisure. Unfortunately for us the tide was well out and we were about a month early but we did see the thousands of sea lions and their pups who will become an orca feast in the future. In the car park we met a bunch of friendly armadillos that scampered around not caring about the people. Further along the peninsula we checked out a group elephant seals but they were in the process of shedding their skin so didn’t move much on the beach. We also came across a large penguin colony before heading back to town where we had more drinking games and a night on the town trying to salsa in the nightclubs with the locals to no avail.

Down Chile and through Bariloche, Argentina

Santiago, Chile - After another bush camp on the Argentina-Chile border and a 2 hr border crossing we got into Santiago, the capital of Chile where we stayed in a hotel in the middle of town. We spent a couple of days catching up on sleep and walking around town. Santiago is a very Americanised city. This was where we also lost 5 passengers and gained another 10: 6 English, 1 South African, 1 Scot, 1 Aussie trainee driver, 1 Argentinean.

Pucon, Chile - With half a new truck we headed south to Pucon along the 4-lane highway over a couple of days to get to our New Years spot early enough to set up camp, then get on with the partying. We camped at Pucon in the Chilean lake district with 8 other overland trucks and got on the booze early in the afternoon. After mingling around we all headed to the main beach on one of the lakes and watched the fireworks display at midnight. 10 minutes before the display, the heavens opened up and we got saturated but lucky for us our Argentinean passenger, Irina, sweet-talked some locals into letting us squish under their umbrella. After a 20 minute display a group of 5 of us headed into town to a nightclub and partied hard with the locals for 3 hours.



The next day was a recovery day with lazing on the beach and not doing much at all. The day after we decided to climb the local active volcano, Villaricca. Along with about 200 other tourists we completed a 4 hour climb through snow to the crater at the top. We couldn’t see all the way into the crater but we could hear it and every now and then we saw magma get thrown up high enough for us to see it. After a lot of photo taking and lunch it was time for the fun bit of sliding down the mountain on our butts. The pants we were given had reinforced backsides especially for sliding down the mountain. We slid in stages pretty much from the top to the bottom car park and even though we had sore and cold bums it was really fun. The next few days we chilled out and went to hot pools.



Bariloche, Argentina - We crossed the border again into Argentina and went through some really beautiful mountain scenery. We camped a couple of kilometres out of town and spent the time strolling the tourist town. I booked a paragliding flight for one day but due to a miscommunication I missed out on doing it so spent more time wandering town and eating free chocolate samples from all the chocolate shops.



Navimag ferry, Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, Chile - Back to Chile again so we could catch the four day ferry through the Chilean fjords. Travelling to Puerto Montt from the border was very similar to New Zealand with dairy farms everywhere on gently rolling, green countryside and mountains in the background. We saw off the truck at Puerto Montt because there was no room on the ferry so Skank had to drive it down through Argentina. After a delayed start, due to South America time (like Island time), we got under way and started heading south through the fjords. Luckily the sun decided to come out as we set sail after our first morning of bad weather for over 4 weeks. As we watched the sunset from the bow on a pretty calm sea we saw 4 dolphins swim underneath the boat which was pretty special.



The second day’s weather wasn’t too flash, being overcast and very windy but the scenery was beautiful and we saw some seals. At about 5pm we had to leave the fjords for the open ocean for 8 hours. The seas were very choppy and half the passengers including me got sea sick so I spent the rest of the day asleep until we got back into the fjords the next morning. Day 3 didn‘t bring good weather but at least the seas were calm. We had a stop at Puerto Eden where most passengers got off to touch land again and in the afternoon we went sailed up to a glacier that came to the sea. We then had a few drinking games which got a bit raucous and we basically became the most hated on the boat because of the noise we made. The night’s entertainment was a couple of rounds of Bingo before we hit the sack. On the final day we didn’t get to Puerto Natales until late in the afternoon and it took several hours to dock while they waited for the weather to calm down. We rejoined Mo and headed north to Torres Del Paine National Park.

Torres Del Paine, Chile - Into Chile’s most famous National Park and we had to wear thermals all the time which was a weird thing for me to do in December. We spent 3 days camping in the park and on the first day we trekked up to the famous towers only to find they were surrounded by mist and it started to snow. The next 2 days were clear but windy and we relaxed and went for a horse trek around the park. We saw numerous Patagonian animals including foxes, guanacos (another relative of the llama), rheas (like small ostriches) and a couple of skunks.