Again we somehow managed to hit darkness before finding a place for the night. The last 5 km was a descending hill with lots of hairpin bends. We ended up right at the shore passing lots of fishing boats and small houses outlined by the small kerosene lights scattered in the dark like a starlite sky. After a short while we more or less were at the end of town and lucky for us there was a hotel.
We went for a walk in the night and found a nice little restaurant. They were about to close the kitchen. Since two expected guests had not arrived we could have their meals. Some time went and the two guest did arrive - so we all shared what was left…
After a night in a poorly bed I was awaken by an amazing music of seabirds, waves and wind. I wrapped the bedlinen around my body and went to sit on the edge of our porch outside the room. With the calming salty wind smoothly touching my cheak I watched some surfers taking advantage of early morning wave breaks.
After leaving Argentina and Chile we crossed the border to Peru. Since we both have had the pleasure of seeing the highlights of southern Peru several times i.e. the Machu Picchu, the Colca Canyon, the Nasca Lines, the Titicaca Lake etc. we were transitting through towards the North. For the first time we drove till coming of darkness - definitely not something to recommend. Hitting the south coast of Peru we were fortunate to find a nice place for the night and were lulled by the Pacific Ocean.
Trujillo
The third largest city in Peru, which we did our best to avoid. However Trujillo outskirts holds some great sites built by the ancient Chimu Empire. First of all the capital Chan Chan, which is a ruined complex of town and palace. The site was for most parts covered in plastic due to renovation hence there was little to see, however the dimensions gave an idea of its prior greatness - up to 50.000 inhabitants at its peak and known to be the largest mud city in the world.
Huaca La Esmeralda is a bit closer to Trujillo and was a temple from same period as Chan Chan. Another temple Huaca Arco Iris - a.k.a. the Rainbow temple or the Dragon temple, is very well preserved with lots of beautiful details.
Fishermen in Huanchaco still use the same old kind of boats that were used for 3000 years ago..! (Incas also used for centuries ago). They’re built with “Totoras” (giant bulrush sedge) and they use them to sail and leave their nets on the sea early in the morning and collect them late in the evening, luckily with some catch on it.
The name of this Peruvian ruins sounds as the start of any ouverture from the 17th century or even the final notes of a tango.
Just as the beer, there is a town called Quilmes, though this is not the place where the beer was originated. In the sixteenth century the Spanish conquistadors deported the last 2000 villagers to Buenos Aires. One of the descenders named an area Qilmes in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Later on a brewery was started to produce the sparkling fresh beverage with the unmistakable blue brand and the beer was named after the area.
The other Quilmes is a location with some less known ruins in the Andean northwest of Argentina. We went there since it was on our way. It appeared that the people from Quilmes had been blocking the entrance to the site for 45 days and were about to lift the block as we came by. The leaders of the blocade, some old women claiming to descend directly from the Quilmes Indians, had strongly requested to the government, that part of the profit from the tourist attraction should benefit the people instead of the current owner, a private company that had bought the location for next to nothing many years ago and still paid the same very low rent for the place even though his profit had risen considerable - Some things just never change..
Some big rectangular strange looking structures along the road through Tucuman caught my eye, they were empty and transparent. I was sure that they were skeletons for constructing new buildings. As we drove forward the structures intensified by hundreds, all stuffed with huge cinnamon coloured leaves filling the air with the sweet odor of prunes, moist, earth and sunshine mixed as perfume created by mother of all things.
Next to tall light-green and dense crops bordering the road, small farmers had setlled. The house was small with bamboo shades and no windows. A woman, young and petit invited us to take photos on her small piece of land and allthough she was lying her arm carefully over her tummy, the tight dusty dress exposed a light swelling, her third already… Her shy smile revealed missing teeth telling us everything. She offered us some of the magnificent dried leaves, emphasizing that smoking those where particulary tasteful and the best way to smoke - tobacco.
After a long day going north we past a place called La Merced, not that theres anything special about this little village, only when lying in our tent with a moscitonet between us and the sky, fire flies with their flourescent green lights were dancing a ballet, accompanied by thousands of crickets all singing with each their special tune. Totally astonished by this fantastic scenery made by nature, we fell a sleep tired and happy.
After driving rough and rugged on Ruta Cuarenta (rute 40) we were hopelessly behind in updating the website, so we confined ourselves with aircon and WI-FI at a super hotel in the centre of Mendoza.
This is the wine district of Argentina, and we have enjoyed some fine speciments while being there. Even though it is in the middle of the dry country with up to 40 degrees in the summer, the abundance of big old trees are arching their green and lush branches over the streets like arms in a pirouette making the town bearable to stay in.
North was calling and we sat off for a long ride through arrid, dusty and unwelcome flat lands, through hundreds of bends elevating the green hills. We cooled ourselves at the many springs and filled all our bottles with crystal clear spring water. What a treat!
Please meet our greatest piece of equipment: “The Wise Cow”
Whenever we are in doubt of taking one road or the other, or whether we should stay in one town or not, we just ask the cow, then if she nicks her head up and down there’s not doubt. On the contrary if she waves her head from side to side then we just don’t do it.
Trust me, it’s fantastic… never wrong…!
We drove through the famous Nazca lines and of course had to stop just to look at them (we both knew them from previous travels)
You can’t just stop wandering what were the people thinking when they built the Panamaricana road just cutting the some of the lines in two, what a disaster..!
Then it was time to cross the Andes mountains at 5000 meters a.s.l., I never had problems with altitude but you never know, time goes and last time I’ve been so high was 8 years ago, now I’m 42 (and fat..!)
Of course we both felt dizzy and tired, we had to drink a lot and eat sugar things and at certain point we were both considering to drive back and head to Rio instead and enjoy the carnival (why suffer…?) but we kept going and after a long day we managed to reach Chile and we were down at 2400 mts.
Ok…, I’m old… you win.
After seeing my self in pictures and realizing the fact that I am fat I started the fruit diet, mango, bananas, peaches and all those disgusting things from nature.
Just some pictures from the road with no text (my head is totally empty after 7 days driving..!)
Arriving in the north of Argentina one can clearly see that the landscape and the people change drastically, one can almost feel the nearness of Bolivia and Peru. The Inca imperium once included these lands and the culture still is similar.
The “Quebrada of Huamahuaca” is maybe the most popular place to visit (eventhough we think the Cafayate was far better and less known)
Just driving north of Argentina we came across some very beautiful landscapes and amazing people as Rubina Maria who is 95 and still fights for the rights of letting the people from Quilmes to run the business of exploiting the museum and entrance to the the sites (today ran by private capitals)
We also saw the tobacco drying farms who harvest the plants, dry them in 45 days and sell it to the tobacco companies (I can’t believe I once smoke…!)
Cleanest water ever… and free…!
What a great feeling…
What an unexpected surprise…! This has to be one of the most impressive canyons I ever drove in my life…! and the beauty is that we didn’t even expected it as it’s a secondary road and we took it just by chance.
Enjoy these pictures…:
As we approached some of the most popular spots in Argentina, everything was getting more fresh, green and very crowded. We went for a stroll in both Bolson and Bariloche and to be honest, those really neat and beautiful places were not for us, but aparently appealing for thousands of other people - which of course makes you think….
Mario had always told me about the beautiful lake district which should be a maqnificent drive from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes. The lakes were incredible - no doubt! The authorities made sure that you had to stop at each one of them, because otherwise you could not see them for dust.
It was a nightmare drive, and we could not wait to get through the area.
We found, however a very nice spot with campsites right down at the shore of the lake… It definitely made up for all the prior misery.
There is something uncontrolable and passionate about fire, once started you will never know where it will end. Even though you know it is dangerous you want to come close and feel the heat as long as you are sure to retreat safely.
Entering Esquel we saw some smoke high up on a hill - it was not obvious if it was an “old” fire or one just started. Mario had just mentioned to contact someone when a pick-up with an insignia on the side of the car saying: “Incendios Forestales Chubut” meaning fire fighters of the forest in Chubut. Mario was not late to catch their attention, since he made a quick u-turn and chased the pick-up down a dirt road with more holes than dirt leading to the hill. I could feel his adrenalin rise as he took off with his camera towards the firing hill.
What we did not know at the time was that the fire had been smouldering since the day before, and that there were already several fire fighters there, meaning that they had not been able to extinquish the fire for a while.
I followed Mario’s every move on the hill and saw him go dangerously close to the licking flames. It did not seem to bother him, he was in front of the fire monitors, between the fire and the firefighter, on top, below, on the side - he was everywhere.
After a while several other fire fighters entered the scene and I saw their equiptment and clothes up close. Mario had only a t-shirt and jeans!
After a couple of hours “he came down from the mountain” smothered with coal dust , a tired look in his face, bruises and scratches allover, but safe!
New Years on a campsite - you can, just by listening to the different tunes finding their way through the pinetrees, define who you are spending it with. The place we were, was no exception. There were locals, tourists from Argentina, Germans, Italians and us. The “winner” was an Italian exceeding everybody else by playing Eros Ramazzotti tunes all night.
Beaten after the experience on the hill of fire we hoped for a peaceful evening. It might have been a bit optimistic, since New Years in Argentina traditionally is eating very late, party all night till dawn. Not much different than in Denmark - only it is winter at New Years! We could have done worse.
We tossed some lamb on the asador (barbeque) and enjoyed the crystal clear nigth in the exquisite company of a bottle redwine. Because of the silence - a part from our neighbours that is - we assumed that fire crackers were not allowed, due to risk of fire. Wrong! At exactly 12 the town of Esquel went crackers. Happy New Years!
This incredible creature (the one standing on four legs) habitated Patagonia for 100 million years ago.
If you think that you know Patagonia without driving the Ruta 40 then think again. Everybody should try this route at least one in their lives (well maybe I’m exaggerating a bit). This route starts down the Santa Cruz province and goes thorugh the whole Argentina and ends in La Quiaca (the northernmost city of the country).
It is simply an experience to drive for days without meeting many other cars or people, the towns you cross are very small and with not much habitants and you have to calculate very precise between gas station.
After being in Patagonia for several weeks and looking at thousands and thousands of sheeps we decided that it was about time to kill one of those bastards that made us brake constantly when crossing the route, and eat it of course.
So here it is the recipe:
We usually spend New Year’s Evening faraway from home, this time it was a city called Esquel.
This fire on the mountains I spotted when driving south through Esquel, it lasted for three days and it took three holds of 12 people hard work to kill it for 72 hours, non stop. An enormous piece of work from all these brave folks that are all voluntary.
Thanks again.
In a perfect world this is how I should spend every siesta of my days.
But reality is cruel and this is how I spent many of the last days driving on Ruta 40.
If spelled by the Torres del Paine, this totally comatized me. The Perito Moreno Glaciar is by far the most gigantic phenomenon I have ever seen. Its greatness embraced me like lianas twirled tightly around my body preventing me from falling. I saw huge chunks drop and heard the music of the white power pressuring against the gap between the mountains. For two whole hours I was grounded at the same spot with my eyes fixed at the ice cube. The white mass caressed my cheek with the wind sweeping lightly over its surface and I finally came out of the doze.
There’s is no way to fix this greatness in a photo, we had to try though and let you be the judge.
The Walker
So we been in Torres del Paine and besides its extreme beauty this National Park also offers one the best place for trekking in the whole South America. The problem is that I hate to walk or trek (call it whatever you want), I always prefered to move myself with something that makes noise under my ass (call it bike or car or quad). But Helle insisted in that “we have to” do this trekking (7 hours), “we simply must…”. So I accepted the challenge and bought fruit, 2 liters of the best water I could find (my body deserves only the best!) putted my sneakers instead flip-flaps and we embarked to the “adventure”.
Well it didn’t went so well, the faces of the people coming back from the path weren’t very encouraging, all pink/red faces totally wet made us think again and after only 45 minutes of insane use of our bodies outside our vehicle we decided to go back to the campsite and drink some dodgy argentinian liquor (Legui).
Cheers.
The Drunker
I must admit that I always saw myself as a young Robert de Niro walking nonchalantly through New York. That’s a typical thing for an Argentinian, we suffer from a high self esteem. But when your girlfriend takes constantly pictures of your self then sometimes you get a shock.
There’s a high risk that you open a picture and ask her: “…who’s that man you took pictures of…? ”
