Mar del Plata I spent one night in Salta after finishing up my adventures in north Argentina before hopping on a plane back to Buenos Aires the next morning. I immediately rented another car at the airport and drove about five hours south to Argentina’s surfing capital, Mar del Plata. It’s time to start exploring the southern half of Argentina, also known as Patagonia. Mar del Plata is just a very pleasant and convenient stop on what turned out to…
After driving most of the day, I finally arrived at my next stop, Calilegua in Jujuy Province. I’ll be starting in Calilegua National Park, but this first day all I had time for was to check in at my hotel in the town of Calilegua. I would describe the town as exceptionally uninteresting. It’s not a bad place, just boring, but it’s the most convenient base for my next round of exploring, so here we go. Calilegua National Park is…
After returning my rental car and spending one obligatory night in Córdoba, I jumped on a plane to Argentina’s far northwest. I’ll be starting in the city of Salta, but this post will be about all of Salta Province. It looked like the weather was going to be quite nice for my stay, 70°’s mostly, but on my main exploration day the thermometer jumped all the way up to 98°! Yowza! It was a sweaty day. I also think I…
After one quick night in very non-touristy San Luis, it was a relatively short drive west to Mendoza, the gateway to the Andes Mountains. Miraculously, I found a place on the street to park the car just a half block from my hostel. Awesome! I checked in, got settled, and then decided to walk a few miles to the Monument to the Army of the Andes high up on the hill in Parque General San Martín. If you guessed that…
I drove west from Córdoba in a ridiculously small Renault with, as it turns out, horrible gas mileage and a teeny tiny eight gallon gas tank. I rented a mini instead of an economy car because it was cheaper. Lesson learned. Anyway, after several hours of driving I’m now in the very small and very very remote Villa San Augustín, my base for the next few days. There really is not much at all in San Augustín and there’s hours…
From Buenos Aires I hopped on a plane for a quick flight to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina’s far northeast corner. Most of Argentina is pretty dry and arid, but this tiny little panhandle of a province is the exception, extending into the jungle region. It’s hot! It’s humid! I went from the refrigerator straight into the oven. Puerto Iguazu, my base for the next few days, is situated right at the confluence of the Iguazu and Paraná Rivers, forming the…
Making my way east across Crete, my next stop is the town of Rethymno. This city was built almost entirely by the Venetians in the 13th century. Even though it’s a bit sprawling, it feels like more of a small town to me. There’s not a lot going on here, but there were some interesting sites in town. My first stop was the Archeology Museum. Right outside was this, what I assume is a Venetian Gate. There was no information…
The ferry times to and from Milos are not at all convenient. I left at around 2pm and arrived on the the next island at 7pm, checked into my hostel, grabbed dinner, and got ready to explore the next morning. Now, welcome to Chania on Greece’s biggest island of Crete. I’m starting my exploration of Crete on a Sunday, everything is usually closed on Tuesdays, and it’s Christmas week, so I’m making a mad dash to all of the places…
The airport in Athens is about twenty miles out of town. Thankfully, they have a good metro system and a train that goes all the way to the terminals. I hopped on a little plane and was off to explore some of those famous Greek islands, starting with the Cyclades. I’ve already been to a few Greek islands on this trip, but the remainder of my Greek adventure will be all island hopping. Naxos Greece has a total of around…
I know, that was my first thought too. That’s a lot of vowels! Ha! Heading east from Delphi I made my way to the big and narrow island of Euboea. Access to the island is really easy, you just drive across a short bridge into the city of Chalcis and there you are. I’m not staying in Chalcis, but I did stop for a minute to check out the archeology museum there. The museum focused on the culture of the…