Lanin National Park

Our one week in San Martin de Los Andes was spent mostly on our five day camping trip near Lago Lacar in the Lanin National Park. Mark and I set out on a sunny Tuesday morning on a boat headed for Quila Quina, a small town 26km from San Martin. After a thirty minute boat ride, we arrived on the shores of Quila Quina. The tourist season had yet to begin and all the shops were closed, but we managed to find signs pointing to the campsite.

After walking for approximately an hour, we came across the Mapuche ran campground situated directly on the lake with amazing views. We were just about the only campers for the night so we got our first pick on a campsite; we chose the one on the peninsula closest to the water. We set up our tent quickly and immediately changed into our bathing suits ready to jump into the cold lake water. We found a nice rock to sunbathe on and spent the entire afternoon lying in the sun, swimming, and talking.

Mapuche Campsite, Lago Lacar

Dinner that night was one of Mark´s camping concoctions - instant mashed potatoes, hot dogs, corn, onion and cheese. We had to get pretty creative in order to cook for two people in our JetBoil, but after a bit of research and preparation, we feel like we ate pretty well for the entire trip!

One of the campsite managers, a younger guy raised near Quila Quina, asked us where we were headed to next. After telling him, ¨Vamos a Lago Escondido¨, he gave us a worried look and wished us good luck dealing with all of the recent ash from the Puyehue Volcano in Chile. We didn´t think much of it and set out the next morning to Lago Escondido, an approximately six hour hike from our location on Lago Lacar.


The hike to Lago Escondido turned out to be quite the ordeal - with no markers or signs pointing in the right direction, we got turned around a few too many times. The two maps that we had did not match up to the roads that we were on and we had to stop many times to ask the locals which way to go. After being led through people´s yards and to roads that we never knew existed, we finally felt like we were on the right trail. 


We came to a house, with a gate and a sign that everyone had told us to look for. We knew that from there it would take at least one more hour to reach the lake. We came across a deep river without a bridge or rocks to cross, and we thought, ¨There´s no way in hell this could be a part of a trail!¨. But, after checking out our other options, we decided to make the crossing wading knee-deep in water to get to the other side. Again, we came across a Y in the road, and after coming to a closed gate, we backtracked and went the other way only to find another river with no bridge or rocks to cross. 


At that point, we had been walking through the ash-covered roads for over six hours and weren´t really sure if we were headed in the right direction or not. We decided to go back to the house that we saw near the gate to see if we could either sleep there for a night or possibly get the right directions from them. On our walk back, we ran into (almost literally) a man with his two dogs and a horse.


He told us to sleep near the river and that he would come back the next morning to escort us to Lago Escondido. We were so thankful to have found him, but not so thankful to have to sleep in cow country! The entire trail to the lake is surrounded by land owned by individual cattle ranchers. These cows are not the everyday mom n pop dairy cows that you see nicely fenced in and minding their own business. These are big-assed, free roaming, balls and horns attached, bulls that stare you down as if they want to make your day miserable. Needless to say, we will be asking about wildlife on all upcoming trips!

Alberto Casanova is a local rancher who owns over three hundred cattle and fifty horses. As promised, he was at our campsite at 8:00am the following morning and led us, with his horse and two dogs, to Lago Escondido. Turns out, we had been going the right way but the trail was actually almost two hours instead of the one hour as expected.

Alberto Casanova

Lago Escondido is a beautiful mountain lake with crystal clear water and jumping fish. Mark crafted a makeshift fishing pole and spent most of the day trying to catch a mid-afternoon snack. But hikers beware, the most aggressive flies we have ever met live in this part of the woods. At one point, we had about twenty of them circling us. The locals say that the more you swat at them, the more they bug you, but it was so hard to resist!

Sunset at Lago Escondido

We spent one night at Lago Escondido before heading back to Quila Quina. We knew that we would have to face the cows for one more day - we practically ran down the mountain! We saw Alberto on our way out checking on his cows and said hello to him.


We made it down from the main trail and were making our final corner before reaching the campiste when all of a sudden, we saw it - a bull walking down the road! I practically jumped off the road into the bushes below, telling Mark to join me. The bull started to pick up speed and I thought ¨Oh, shit!¨. Around the corner came a little girl, who looked about twelve years old, chasing the bull in her bathing suit. They both ran passed us and the girl leapt in front of the bull bringing him to a halt before wacking it on the ass to direct him up the hill. After witnessing this little girl man-handle the bull, I felt slightly embarassed crawling out of the ditch where I was hiding. The next day we walked past the cows like we had been doing it all of our lives.

The highlight of our trip was meeting Alberto and getting a glimpse into his life as an Argentinian cattle rancher. We will always remember this trip as our first real encounter with bulls and meeting the most annoying bugs of our lives. But, we will also remember the friendliness of the locals, the amazing scenery,  and the celebration beers.


We are currently in Bariloche celebrating the holidays in our small studio overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi. We will be going out for a Christmas Eve dinner tonight at a Parilla restaurant called El Boliche de Alberto. Christmas day will be spent at the cabin cooking prime rib, mashed potatoes, plus all of the fixings and a nice Malbec. We wish all of our families and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Vino in Mendoza

From Buenos Aires, we took a bus cross country to wine country in Mendoza, Argentina. We decided to try out our brand new, bright red, beautiful Bike 2 tent out during our stay and found a nice campsite called Parque Suizo. Arriving at the bus station midday, we walked across town to find the 114 bus on Ave Sarmiento.

Situated about 30 minutes by bus from the city center, Parque Suizo is equipped with showers, bathrooms and laundry facilities. We settled in quickly and were so proud to be owners of our beautiful new home - the red tent!

Home for the next 4 months

After a quick walk to the local minimarket, we cracked open our boxed white wine and started playing Spite n Malice and Farkle. The night was spent at our campsite playing games, eating dinner, and relaxing.

We woke up fairly early the following morning with plans to take a bus out to Maipu for our bike ride wine tour. Unfortunately, by the time we got everything figured out, it was too late to make the 45 minute bus ride out to Maipu so we decided to stay local in Mendoza and check out the city center.

After reading a few free magazines, two glasses of orange juice and a bottle of water, we felt like we had a good idea of what we wanted to do that day - wine tasting. What else do you do in wine country?

We found a great wine tasting room near Plaza Independencia called The Vines - we highly recommend it! The staff were extremely friendly; they poured us some great wine and talked with us throughout the tasting about the local wine industry. Mark had the Malbec tasting, which Argentina is famous for, and I had an assortment of reds and Torrentes. They told us about their property in wine country where single investors can purchase the land and they will grow the grapes, harvest, etc. for you - a great, fairly inexpensive way for all of the wine lovers to grow their own wine! Too bad Mark and I are on a budget or else we would be grape growing land owners by now...

Mark at The Vines

After a few hours at The Vines, we checked out a bit more of Mendoza before catching a bus back to the campsite.

The next morning, we again tried to wake up really early to get our Maipu winetasting in! We ended up having to wait for the bus for about 30 minutes and then the bus for Maipu as well, so we didn´t get out there until after noon. We were dropped off on the main road and from there you can choose from many different bike rental companies. We chose Orange Bikes - he was a very helpful man who ran the company from his home. He gave us a map, recommended a few wineries and wished us luck!

Our first stop was a chocolate, olive oil, jam and liquor shop that had tastings for 20 pesos. We felt a bit rushed due to our lack of time, but we still enjoyed some delicious snacks and drinks there! We tried the beer vodka liquor mix, which was extremely high in alcohol and pretty awful! We don´t recommend wasting 1 out of your 2 liquor tastings on it.

From there, we pedalled as fast as we could to our first winery, Trapiche. This winery was founded in 1883 and has been recently refurbished.Wine tastings are much longer in Argentina than we are used to in the States, this one took about two hours! The tour took up the majority of the time, with only about thirty minutes dedicated to wine tasting. I think we all would have been happy to just have the wine - it was amazing!

Trapiche Winery

After the tour, we had only one hour left to go before all of the wineries closed! Again, we pedalled as fast as we could to our next winery where we were hoping to get some lunch. Unfortunately, due to it being a national holiday, the winery was closed. By then, we were pretty worn out and knew that all the other wineries were closing shortly at 5pm. A bit disappointed, we began the bike ride back to Orange Bikes stopping off at La Melesca for a late lunch.

Most bike rental companies include snacks and wine after the tour, so we were sure to take advantage of it! The owner greeted us and brought out some chilled red wine (a bit strange for wine country, but perfect for a hot day) and snacks from cheese puffs to some sweet plums! We were joined by two American girls from D.C. and Chicago, who we got along with great. We spent a little over two hours talking and drinking wine before all catching the bus back to Mendoza together.

Vino and snacks at Orange Bikes

We spent one more night in Mendoza before heading southeast to Neuquen, Argentina. Neuquen was not what we expected so we stayed for only one day, which consisted of eating Parilla and hanging out by the river. For all of those expecting to visit the dinosaur museum in Neuquen, it is not there, but instead 100 km outside of the city. Unfortunately, this was something we found out after we arrived!

From Neuquen, we hopped onto the earliest bus Sunday morning and came here to San Martin de los Andes. We love this little town and are so happy to be near the green mountains and lakes again!

Viva Argentina

From reading the last blog, it appears that we have been in Argentina for almost three weeks now and had no idea that so much time had passed by! We have explored the greater part of Northwest Argentina, Iguazu Falls and currently, Buenos Aires.

We ended up taking Ieuan and Kerry up on the offer to share a rental car for six days. We had the chance to explore the Southern and Northern Circuits that surround Salta on the roads less traveled. The towns along the way in the Southern Circuit were picturesque and the scenery was beautiful! We spent the first three days exploring the small town of Cachi, winetasting in Cafayate, and hiking Rio Colorado.

Wine Tasting - Cafayate, Argentina

Throughout the first three days, we were subjected to extremely bumpy and twisting roads. They were so intense that when we rented the car the saleswoman gave us an estimate of how many curves we would be encountering. We had no idea the extent of the curves, which turned out to be many blind corners and some very slow going!

Road from Cachi to Cafayate, Argentina

Hiking Rio Colorado was a highlight of the Southern Circuit and took approximately three hours. We met a tour guide at the bottom of the trail, negotiated a price and then headed into the mountains. The trails started out gradually until we reached a spot where our guide reached down into some chalk-like substance and motioned that it was ¨for climbing¨. Little did we know, he decided to take us the hard way a.k.a rock climbing because we were ¨young and could do it¨. Looking back, it was a great experience but I don´t think that any of us have ever clung onto a rockwall like that before in our lives! Mark would like to get back into rock climbing when we get home and I´d like to try it out with him, with more appropriate gear next time!

Rio Colorado Hike

After our first three days out, we spent the night in Salta to get ready for the Northern Circuit. The circuit was, again, filled with some crazy, bumpy roads but the ¨Road to the Clouds¨ was great and we really enjoyed the town of Tilcara where we spent two nights playing cards, eating dinner, and drinking wine. Even our day adventure out to Iruya, a small town tucked away in the mountains, was well worth the drive!

Last night out - Tilcara, Argentina

We returned to Salta a bit exhausted, but thankful for the six day trip with Ieuan and Kerry! It´s a trip that we will not forget - thank you both for making it so great!

Our adventure out to Iguazu Falls lasted four days and was worth every penny of the pricey bus ride! We stayed at the Guembe Hostel near the bus station and loved exploring the rainforest town. Our first two days we experienced torrential downpour, the kind of downpour that only seems to happen in the rainforest! We made it out to the falls on our second day and spent the day hiking and viewing the amazing waterfalls. We even saw some crazy rainforest creatures including monkeys and giant bugs!

The falls were better than we expected and made us feel like we were Jurassic Park. The intensity can only be felt when experienced, but we tried to capture it with our camera as well.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Garganta del Diablo

We spent the remainder of the time in Puerto Iguazu checking out the shops, laying by the pool, and eating our first Chinese food since we left home. We were both so excited to find some different flavors and jumped on the opportunity to eat some Yakisoba. It was delicious! 

From Puerto Iguazu, we took an overnight bus to Buenos Aires where we have been now for over one week. We stayed in the San Telmo neighborhood for one night before moving to the Palermo neighborhood where a lot of the restaurants and shops are. We´ve checked out the impressive Recoleta Cemetery, Puerto Madero, and many of the parks. Today we will be going to our first Polo match, which we are both looking forward to experiencing! We plan on checking out the San Telmo Sunday market tomorrow before heading to Mendoza on Monday. And for all of the foodies out there, we have had some delicious Parilla during our stay here as well!

Our tent has been bought and our plans are coming together for Patagonia. We have rented a cabin for two weeks in Bariloche, Argentina where we will be enjoying the holidays in our cozy 250 sq. ft cabin! We are planning on a lot of hiking, camping and adventure in the upcoming months down south.

Happy Holidays to all of our families and friends back home!