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Argentina Rock Paintings Patagonia has been inhabited for thousands of years. The last indigenous inhabitants were the Tehuelche people, most of whom have been killed in Argentina's   Campaña del Desierto   (Desert Campaign) between 1787 and 1880. The native people left traces in form of tools and rock paintings. Some of the finest paintings - in all of South America - can be seen in the Cueva de las Manos near the town of Perito Moreno (not to be confused with the   glacier of the same name !).   How to Get to Cueva de las Manos From the town of Perito Moreno, you can either drive directly to the entrance of the caves or you drive to the opposite side of the canyon and walk down to the river and then up to the caves. Actually it's not a cave but a series of overhangs in the 90 meter high cliff face overlooking the canyon of Río Pinturas. This trail is quite demanding but it's absolutely amazing. The landscape is spectacular, the red and brown cliffs and the Pat...

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina El Calafate is not far from Puerto Natales in Chile but the bus ride takes about 5 hours, of which you spend around two at the border crossings. Though not much more northerly, El Calafate is much warmer. The town is beautifully locates at the coast of Lago Argentina, with views of a lagoon with flamingos and other water birds and the snow-capped Andes mountains. It's also the base for exploring the southern sector of Parque Nacional los Glaciares and the famous Perito Moreno Glacier. Perito Moreno Glacier   Our tour to the glacier included a one-hour boat tour on the lake in front of the glacier. It wasn't as good as expected, but you do see the glacier from an interesting perspective. Just standing on the platforms in front of the glacier doesn't sound very exciting but in fact it is amazing: You can hear the ice moving, cracking and bursting when huge chunks of ice (they may seem small but they're actually the size of a car or even a ...

El Chaltén: The Better Torre(s) Patagonia, Argentina A few days after   Torres del Paine   we went to the small village of El Chaltén in Argentina, located in the northern sector of Los Glaciares National Park. We only had half a day there (our bus left in the evening) but nevertheless decided on doing a short hike. Planning a Hike At the park administration office we were told that there was a nice short hike we could easily do in a few hours. OK, let’s do this - but first, I need to use the bathroom. I go and come back and… the plan has been changed. Hossam has decided that we’d walk to Laguna Torre. The views would be much better there and it was only 10 kilometers (one way…!), easy, we have enough time to go, take some pictures, and come back in time to catch the bus. Protesting didn’t help at all. Alright then, let’s go! Laguna Torre Laguna Torre At Laguna Torre, similar to the Torres del Paine lookout, you have a turquoise lake and a mountain called Torre (seriously). To...

Torres del Paine: On the Beaten Track Chile It’s a must when you’re in Chilean Patagonia: Torres del Paine National Park. The famous torres, three vertical rock pillars, each over 2800 meters high, can actually be seen when driving to the park but climbing up to the lookout point and being as close as (I guess) possible to those towers is something else. Be Prepared for the Crowds I must admit it took me quite some time to get to like the park. The closest town, Puerto Natales, is packed with tourists; especially the supermarket, where they (we did, too) stock up on food for the days in the park. And the main entrance of the park… I don’t want to say it resembles Disneyworld or something the like but it doesn’t seem like the entrance to a national park either. Bus loads of people come and are directed to the office where papers have to be filled out, fees paid, and, after you get your map, you have to watch a short video on what you can and cannot do in the park.   To the Mirador L...

Falkland Islands / Malvinas How to Get to the Falkland Islands There are only two ways to get to the Falkland Islands by air: With a RAF flight from England or with LAN Chile from Punta Arenas, which is how we planned to get there. It is possible to go there on your own but it's recommended to book a tour in advance. There's only very limited accommodation on the islands and most places are only accessible by plane. The tours are perfectly organized, from the guesthouses to the activities and flights; no need to worry about anything. From Chile, there’s only one flight a week which means you either stay one or two weeks on the islands. We had the really bad luck that the weather was so terrible on the day we were supposed to fly that the airport on the Falklands was closed. This happens only once or twice a year. The flight was scheduled at noon. Around 2 p.m. we were told that the plane was not going to fly and that we had to collect our luggage. Two LAN employees (of which on...

Tierra del Fuego, Argentina Ushuaia attracts all kinds of tourists: from women hiking (or trying to) in high heels to Gore Tex wearing people ready for their trip to Antarctica. Some people come here just to have been here while others come well prepared for some serious adventure. The town itself is not very pretty and there’s not a lot to do here (and almost nothing to eat during siesta time from 3 to 8 pm) so you have to get out on a tour or go trekking. Hiking Around Ushuaia There are actually many trails close to the town (the surrounding nature is gorgeous) but it’s not that easy to get there. For the shorter and easier trails you can take a bus (though they’re not cheap at all) but for the longer and more demanding and interesting ones you’ll need a guide and probably your own wheels. We hiked the 4.8 km trek to Laguna Esmeralda, a really beautiful trail that leads through different terrains up to a green-blue lagoon at the foot of the mountains. The Weather The summer weath...

Argentina From Río Gallegos to the Chilean border it’s only a one hour drive. Passing the border, however, takes a little longer. Formalities are actually straight forward, you just can’t bring any fruits or vegetables or animal products to Chile. Cookies are no problem (good - our breakfast, lunch and dinner is save). An elderly Argentinan couple however, didn’t have valid travel documents. The bus driver told them that this would be a problem (which they didn’t believe) but let them travel to the border anyway. As expected, the Chilean authorities didn’t let them cross the border and the bus had to drive back to the Argentinan side, drop them off and go back to the Chilean border where the luggage was examined. Meanwhile we waited in the bus, listening to 80s and early 90s music (to make things worse) and thinking that 1.5 hours to cross the border might just be normal. Our   Rough Guide Argentina   says that on the Chilean side the road improves. Well, no. It doesn’t. At le...

Argentina Due to some bad planning and a lot of things being closed on Christmas, from Puerto Madryn we went directly to Río Gallegos from where a few days later we’d take the bus to Ushuaia. Río Gallegos is a small town (albeit the capital of Santa Cruz province) that doesn’t hold a lot of attractions for tourists. Apart from a small but very nice museum (Museo de los Pioneros) in the town’s oldest house and an interpretation center explaining wildlife in the estuary of Río Gallegos there isn’t much to do except from walking the main street up and down a hundred times. There’d be tours to penguin colonies or a lake but the tour agencies are closed over the holidays. We spent our days here in hotels (yes, two different hotels - one of them also closed a day so we had to move), planning and sleeping and asking ourselves why we hadn’t taken a different route so we wouldn’t have ended up here waiting to travel on to Ushuaia (why we didn’t go there directly? The weather in Ushuaia look...

Argentina Patagonia seems endless. The distances here are huge and you spend hours and hours and hours in buses driving through the Patagonian steppe and the landscape doesn't really change. I never thought that was possible. Apart from trucks and buses there isn't a lot of traffic on the roads and every town and occasional gas station you pass emits this end-of-the-world-feeling - but you know you're still a lot of hours away from the end of the world.

Argentina Back in Argentina, we went from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn where we rented a car for two days. After some stormy and cloudy days, the weather was finally perfect and we headed for Península Valdés, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Shortly after arriving on the peninsula, close to the village of Puerto Pirámides, we saw two Southern right whales, a mother and a young one. We didn’t expect to see any whales since at this time of the year most of them have already left and headed south. From different viewpoints on the peninsula it’s possible watch sea lions, sea elephants, Magellanic penguins and sometimes even orcas. The peninsula itself is flat, the landscape like the rest of Patagonia: almost only bushes and some grass seem to grow here. There are guanacos, nandus, armadillos and, as the only domestic animals the farmers here keep, sheep and horses. The second day, this time with a new car (we had a small accident on Peninsula Valdés... nothing bad, nobody got hurt,...

From beautiful Colonia del Sacramento we went to touristy   Punta del Este   where half the buildings are empty (at the moment - it's not yet high season) and the other half are just being built. The town must be incredibly crowded during high season. Nevertheless we spent a pleasant time there but left the next day for another beach town that couldn’t be more different from Punta del Este:   Punta del Diablo . It’s a laid back village with small colorful houses, each one different from the other, and they’re strewn across the village like dice. The (still) empty beach is wide with high sand dunes but the water was too cold for me so we didn’t really hang at the beach. A few kilometers from the village is   Santa Teresa national park , a nice place to relax, enjoy the sun and see birds and animals such as the Capybara (they’re so cute!) We took bikes to the park; actually a good idea, since it would be too far to walk but due to the heat and one of the bikes being re...