Argentina has also one of the richest variety of landscapes and climates. Our trip has already gone through almost anything imaginable:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Humid and tropical arriving in Buenos Aires (where we arrived dressed with winter down and fleeces clothes thinking immediately of the Cape Horn<\/li>\n
- Being in the pampa a few hours later: a gigantic agricultural area producing most of Argentina’s cereals and meat. If Martians are observing that area, they’d probably imagine that cows have managed to enslave a few remaining humans there to produce cereals for them\u2026<\/li>\n
- Being on a dry and rocky, almost arid desert plateau a few hours later<\/li>\n
- Freezing and fighting to pitch the tent in furious wind gusts the next day<\/li>\n
- Tundra-like landscapes afterwards before spending a few days in dense forests between snow covered mountains and alpine lakes (and chocolate producing almost Swiss villages)<\/li>\n
- Getting lost on dirt roads surrounded by glaciers (not Europe type of dirt roads, more like \u201dwell, if we’ve got a car problem here, we may reach a town within a few days with the satellite phone and lose probably less then a week\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n
- Enjoying the views of pristine lakes in fjords going further south<\/li>\n
- Somehow loosing the Andes for over a thousand kilometers continuing down through dry steppes<\/li>\n
- To arrive in amazing mountain shaped like towers, and possibly the world’s most difficult climbs (we stayed at the bottom wondering how we could even begin)<\/li>\n
- And enjoy the zenitude of landscapes at the end of kilometer- and decades-long glaciers (also called by me \u201cthe spirit of the mountain\u201d, or also kinda my only almost-spiritual moments \ud83d\ude0a<\/li>\n
- Feeling like reaching the end of the world while getting closer to the Tierra del Fuego and almost touching Antarctica just a little bit further across the ocean<\/li>\n
- But nevertheless finding the lively city with petroleum exploration, duty-frees, malls and night clubs in Punta Arena (humans are really spreading their crap everywhere\u2026)<\/li>\n
- Walking on an asteroid \ud83c\udf20 while scrambling into the volcanic region of Pali-Aike.<\/li>\n
- Observing giant sea mammals and other birds in a UNESCO wildlife reserve probably bigger than several European countries with only a handful of people in it and wondering which animal we’d be. Cassie thinks more Magellenan penguin, I’m more Guanaco cause you can just walk randomly anywhere in the continent and nobody cares, or maybe a sea lion cause you can burp anywhere, walk over others and piss off the entire colony just for fun\u2026but we both agree that being an Orca is definitely a better idea in the food chain positioning)<\/li>\n
- Wondering if kilometer 980 just didn’t look exactly like km1432 or km1758 on the Ruta 3. I swear there has to be some kind of hyperloop-quantum-worm-hole experiment on that road\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Randomness about Argentina:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Life is crazy expensive, luckily for the budget wild camping is very easy. We kept on wondering how people live here with regular 3$\/h wages\u2026 Argentina is in my very top of most expensive countries, some travellers met saying it more expensive than Australia (usually a top reference). It appears that the Gini index is high here, with very important disparities. Hiking alone in a natural reserve may cost you more than a concert of an international band\u2026<\/li>\n
- But as a result, hotels and restaurants are mostly empty (and therefore probably even more overcharging anyone daring to enter\u2026)<\/li>\n
- By the way, if anyone reading this post has possibly positive ideas about protectionism, blocking imports, currency rate decided by governments, etc. like it’s the trend in some western countries\u2026you should check out Argentina! They’ve tried all of that and have greatly succeeded in destroying all their industry, made everything overpriced (and thus affecting only the poorest, others go abroad), and finally by playing with the pesos and having a continuously unstable economic situation Argentina is a rare country where Argentinian investments abroad are more important than in the country\u2026if you have a tiny bit of money you simply protect it abroad. Whichever country anyone comes from, there are always 200+ others available. Argentina has managed to make the poorest poorer, and the richest simply using $, \u20ac and other foreign financial instruments.<\/li>\n
- Argentina is huge, Buenos Aires about as huge\u2026result: the land is mostly empty (therefore nice, clean and photogenic), and the capital a 100x100km concrete nightmare with a third of the country’s population (the very center \u2013 about 3x3km – is nice enough though). Maybe it’s actually a good solution: humans compacted and more nature around.<\/li>\n
- Driving in general isn’t so bad, road are mostly everywhere okay even with the tiniest car, including dirt roads. There isn’t much traffic anyway so it’s easy to pass trucks, avoid potholes and drive basically anywhere on dirt roads<\/li>\n
- Not much religion in the country, not many churches in town (or none at all), especially compared with Mexico (or Europe\u2026but European ones are more monuments than anything). Buenos Aires seems a bit different though. However Argentina has thousands (millions?) of shrines for a famous Gaucho Antonio Gil\/local Robin-Hood\/unofficial saint. We thought at first that those red shrines on the side of the road were for car accidents\u2026but we figured out that it was way too much!<\/li>\n
- Food (my opinion) isn’t particularly amazing\u2026a lot of meat with meat, nothing elaborate, not vegetables, even less fruits, and every single restaurant propose the same menu pizza\/sandwich\/pasta\/steak\/milanesa. We cooked and it became better and better over time on the camping stove!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I’m done with the most disorganized post of the trip (so far!).<\/p>\n
C\u00e9dric<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/talkie-walkie.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/wp-1489863812745.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"