El Chaltén
Coodinates: 49°19’44” South 72°55’48” West C haltén is this little hamlet 90km off the famous Ruta 40 that traverses western Argentina, crossing thousands of kilometres of bleak and windswept Patagonia in its southern reaches. For seven months of the year Chaltén is locked in snow and idles with a skeleton crew off the...
Read MoreGlaciar Perito Moreno
Coodinates: 50°29′ South 73°03′ West El Calafate as a town has not one touristic attraction. Its raison d’etre is to support the tourism to the nearby Perrito Moreno glacier in the National Park ‘Los Glaciares’. They say it’s one of the worlds remaining ‘healthy’ glaciers experiencing a consistent ice flow progressing at about...
Read MoreUshuaia & the Tierra del Fuego
Coodinates: 54°48’26” South 68°18’16” West There are a number of couchhosts in Ushuaia but only about 2 that are actively participating so I count myself fortunate to have had my request accepted by Carlos within about six hours of sending it. I always read the profiles of those to whom I send...
Read MoreSalta – A Trip to the North
Part of the reason I stayed as long as I did in Salta was because of my hosts Rubén, Nellie and their son Rubén Dario. They picked me up from the hostel and I spent a week with them. I’ll deviate here to expand briefly upon the couchsurfing experience as a whole. Traditionally, a...
Read MoreSalta
Salta contrasted with Iguazú and the Misiones region of Argentina quite spectacularly. After only 1:40 in the plane, I went from a moist, Darwin-like climate to a dry autumn Mediterranean one. Situated in Lerma Valley in far north-western Argentina at an altitude of 1,200 meters, Salta is home to over 550,000 inhabitants and is...
Read MoreIguazú
The word ‘Iguazú’ in the local indigenous language of Guaraní means ‘Great Waters’. The falls are situated in far north eastern Argentina where the Río Iguazú floods a large area of bushland before falling off a plateau in 288 separate waterfalls. The river marks the boundary between the two nations with the majority of...
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