From El Chaltén I had to drive southeast about seventy miles out to the main highway, Route 40, and turn north. So far so good. Little did I know that not only is the drive in this part of Argentina one of the longest and loneliest drives in the world, but they also haven’t gotten around to paving any of the roads out here, not even the main highway. I didn’t know it yet, but it would be about four…
You would think that driving from Argentina to Argentina would be easy, but you would be wrong. Getting from the Argentinian mainland to my next destination on the Argentinian side of Tierra del Fuego was an adventure in itself. The drive requires transiting through Chile and the big hang up is that I was trying to do it with an Argentinian rental car. I read that about 40% of people who show up with rental cars aren’t allowed to cross….
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…
My flight from Puerto Iguazu to my current stop of Córdoba was quick and painless, though the change in weather was another brutal shock to the system. The hot humidity of Iguazu was suddenly cold again, even colder than Buenos Aires. Luckily, as the days wore on it warmed up a bit, but the first couple of days took some getting used to. Anyway, the city of Córdoba was founded in 1573 by this guy, Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera. I’ve…
Hola and welcome to my latest adventure, Argentina! Get comfortable, folks! If all goes well and I see this trip through to the end, this will end up being the longest trip I’ve ever done. Argentina is a really big country, so let’s get started. I arrived pretty early in the morning, which means day one’s struggle is to try to stay awake to beat the jetlag. I checked in to my hostel and decided to stay relatively close today…
After a ridiculously short flight of fifty minutes, I’m now on the island of Rhodes. This particular group of islands right off the coast of Turkey is known as the Dodecanese islands. Flying was a much better option than an eleven hour ferry. Rhodes is best known for its almost completely intact medieval old town. Most of what you see in Rhodes today was built by the Knights Hospitaller in the 14th century. It was a very important base of…
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 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…