A Month In Transit: Argentina to New Zealand |Month #15 Update

Argentina is a really big country. You realize this when you take a series of busses from the glaciers surrounding its southern-most city all the way to the tropical rain forests at its northern border with Brazil.

During our travels, we’ve never kept track of time spent on transportation, but I would assume this month’s journey would easily be the front-runner of such a stat. Because we spent about 200 hours during our 15^th month in transit! That’s about 8 full days on busses and planes or waiting for them!

Clearly, we’re doing it all wrong. But actually, it wasn’t so bad. The busses in Argentina are actually pretty comfy and we’ve gotten to a point in our constant adventures, where being forced to just sit and watch a movie can be nice.

So come along through Argentina as we traveled Northbound, trading in penguins for toucans; and eventually for kiwis!

Month #15 At a Glance

• Countries visited: 4
  • Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand
• Number of beds slept in: 14*
  *Note: We’re counting overnight bus and plane seats as “beds”
• Miles traveled: 20,301
• Place-to-place transport segments: 14
  • Planes: 4
  • Hiking segments: 2
  • Boat segments: 1*
    *1 vehicle ferry was used as part of bus travel
  • Busses: 8
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites Visited: 1
  • Iguazu National Park
• Breweries Visited: 13
  • Rupestre Cerveza*, Cerveza Lavalle*, Pilker*, Piltri*, unnamed home brewer in El Bolson*, Refugio Araucana, Refugio La Tronconada*, Refugio El Retamal*, unnamed homer brewer in Wharton*, Cerveceria El Bolson, Barba Roja, Breoghan Brew, Antares
    *includes “cerveza casera” (home brew)
• Different Types of Beers Drank: 43
  *Includes samples, does not include repeats from previous month in Argentina

 Month #15 Travel Recap

Antarctic Dreams

Our Month #14 Travel Update last left off in the very far-South port town of Ushuaia. It was there, where we hoped to maybe get a deal on a last-minute Antarctica-bound ship. Unfortunately the seventh continent will have to wait for another time.

The best price we could find during this mid-February timeframe was about $14,000 for the two of us, in which we would share a cabin with a random third person. That was a budget-buster we simply couldn’t shell out for the 10-day journey.

So hopefully those ice shelves don’t completely melt in our lifetime and we’ll have an epic journey to look forward to in the years to come.

Abandoning our dream of visiting Antarctica was tough but it left us with some additional time on our hands to fill in Argentina. And fill we did!

Returning to Argentina’s Hops Land!

During out last update, we mentioned how much we enjoyed the small Andean town of El Bolson. Writing that made us realize just how much we enjoyed it there, so we decided that El Bolson would be the perfect place to return for a few days to recharge our batteries, plan for future travels, and get around to all the awesomeness we never initially had a chance to see during our first short stint in town.

About 36 hours from Ushuaia later, our bus arrived.

El Bolson is Argentina’s primary hops-growing region and hence it is a very beer-centric area set amongst beautiful mountains. Can you see why we liked it?

Just going to the Feria Artesanal (the local artisan market), we found a half dozen home-brewers there selling large plastic cups of their ales on tap. Heather got to walk around looking at all the beautiful handmade crafts while I got to wander around sampling a countless number of brews.

It was a win-win for the two of us and perhaps an undeliberate brilliant marketing strategy!

A True Ale Trail         

From El Bolson, we embarked on an overnight hike up the Cajon de Azul in which there were remote refugios all along the way. In addition to beds, these remote shelters each offered their own cerveza casera (home brew)!

It was so much fun hiking along this scenic trail, stopping along the trail to try each of the fresh and delicious microbrews.

Oh, and there’s really cool, very narrow canyon too!

We’ll definitely be detailing this ale trail in a full blog post to come.

Yet after a few days of relaxing in tranquil Andean mountain haven of El Bolson, it would be time to move on.

Buenos Aires Bound

We were never initially planning to visit Buenos Aires, but now that we had a few extra weeks on our hands, a 28-hour bus ride (among our shortest) would take us to the capital city.

After spending the past few months deep in the wilderness and small towns, it was quite nice to be back in a big city. It was only a quick few days in Buenos Aires but we managed to see many of the main sites around the city center.

And we couldn’t leave town without indulging in some great steak parilla dinners. Yum! Seriously, the steak here is ridiculous.

Carnaval Craziness!

Our next stop was a bit random. We had noticed that just a few hours North of Buenos Aires was the town of Gualeguaychu that plays host to one of Argentina’s biggest and best Carnaval celebrations. And we just so happened to be in the area during their final night!

With the stars aligned, we simply had to journey up there. And, wow, what a party!

We don’t have anything to compare it to, as we have never been to the better-known Brazilian Carnival, but we can certainly attest that the Gualeguychu Carnaval was awesome.

The outfits were super risqué, yet the event was still very much a family affair. There were many small children running around the bleachers while senior citizens sat firmly in their seats admiring the intricate floats & costumes.

Perhaps what we enjoyed most was simply all of the local flavor, as this was not some event produced for international tourists.

In fact, we never saw a single other foreigner throughout the entire celebration. Yet the friendly & festive Argentines couldn’t have made us feel more welcomed. And we partied with them into the wee hours of the morning!

Decisions, Decisions

Ultimately, we needed to get back to Santiago, Chile for our flight out of South America. It would have been an easy return to just slice westbound across the country to get there.

Yet the renowned Iguazu Falls were calling us.

Unfortunately, the famed Falls were quite out of the way. Venturing up towards this area would add several days worth of bus travel, not to mention the extra costs of the tickets, which are actually pretty expensive.

Would it really be worth all the extra time and costs? We tried to justify not going, saying “its just a another waterfall.”

Do Go Chasing Waterfalls

Thankfully, we decided to go. Let me tell you, this was not “just another waterfall.”

This place absolutely blew us away.

In fact, I’d say it was a top highlight of our nearly two months in Argentina. I can’t even begin to describe the enormity of Iguazu Falls. There are literally scores of falls spanning across an area of a few kilometers long.

It was an incredibly powerful site that you just have to experience.

To add to its remarkableness, all that water is flowing from a lush tropical rain forest. The songbirds chirping combined with the distant roar of the falls provided for a most pleasant soundtrack to the wildlife viewing.

There were monkeys, coati, and even toucans who all call the area their home. The wildlife and jungle surrounds were truly amazing.

It was all just enough to momentarily distract you from what lay beyond the forest. Then with a break in the tree line, the raging Iguazu Falls would remind you why you’re really here, and you’re in awe all over again.

Leaving Some Time to Celebrate Wine!

By this point it was nearly time to leave Argentina but we simply could not exit without a stop in wine country. Another 40-hour bus ride would eventually get us there, just in time for the city’s Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia, celebrating the region’s wine harvest.

A popular day trip in the region is to cycle around the Maipu bodegas to sample each of their different vinos. There are about 15 different wineries in the area, all in cycling distance from one another.

We made it to about 5 tasting rooms where heavy hands seemed to make our return journey on the bikes all the more difficult.

Hello, Goodbye Santiago!

Our three months roaming around southern South America would finally come to an end back on the Chilean side for a quick overnight stop back in Santiago to catch our flight out. But we just couldn’t leave without a final trip to a market and one last drink.

So we met up with our friend and Chilean travel blogger, Nomadic Chica, for a few terremotes (a boozy young wine and other spirits, topped with pineapple ice cream) to send us out of the country with smiles on our faces accompanied with a little buzz.

Yikes! The 5-Day Flight!

This farewell to Santiago kickstarted our 5-Day Flight. In our last blog post, you can read about why the heck we embarked this insanely long flight to New Zealand, when its very possible to take a perfectly good 13-hour direct route.

So how’d it go? The flight itself turned out to be a bit of a blur. We had forgotten just how small airline seats were. The full recline of the bed-like bus seats we utilized throughout South America seamed down right luxurious compared to the cramped legroom we now dealt with during this series of flights.

The first night (SCL to ATL) was sleepless. Combine that with free flowing booze from the airport lounges we splurged to have access to, and that was a recipe for us to become delirious.

Our plans to leave LAX and explore the beach were botched due to logistical issues plus aforementioned delirium. Instead I sipped a half dozen or so gin & tonics in the Sky Club for hours on end, watching planes take off and land as business folk conversed on how to improve profit.

Almost no sleep for 40+ hours now on our #5DayFlight. Switching from #beer to gin, and from exhaustion to delerium. pic.twitter.com/CkMId3LQHq

— John & Heather (@RoamingDaWorld) March 12, 2015

 It was finally on the flight from LA to Sydney, where we finally got some solid sleep. That was so wonderful! This got us into Sydney nice and refreshed, with the entire day at our disposal to finally escape the airport.

Lordy, Lordy, Now Entering Country #40!

Entering Australia marked a milestone, being our 40^th country visited. We made the most of our day here by hitting up many of the main sites. During are quick self led tour through the city we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Harbor Bridge, and the famed Sydney Opera House, of course. We even left a few minutes to sample some Australian craft beer down in the cool Rocks district. Then it was back on one final flight, onward to New Zealand.

Dude, Where’s Our Bags?

We finally arrived to Christchurch, but unfortunately our bags did not. A few days later Heather’s turned up. I waited yet a few days more before reuniting with my bag.

Reunited & it feels so good! After being separated for 7 days, my bag is back (and w/ a lot more tags). #5DayFlight pic.twitter.com/I0uKONrOG1

— John & Heather (@RoamingDaWorld) March 16, 2015

Christchurch will begin our next month update, so stay tuned for that, which will pack in our month long trip in New Zealand!

Where to Next?

Since this update was initially drafted, we’ve embarked on an epic month long adventure in New Zealand and dipped back into Australia. From there it’s onward to Thailand where we’re hoping to recharge for a bit and figure out what’s “next.”

What’s New on The Blog?

Sadly, not much. Take our recent super speed of travel and insane itineraries and combine that with a lack of Internet. That pretty much made for blogger blackout. Our apologies to any faithful readers out there on the interweb.

While we’re doing fantastic on some of our 2015 Travel New Year’s resolutions, we’re totally failing at the ‘slowing down’ thing and keeping up with weekly blog posts. But now that we are really slowing down (for at least a few days anyways) we’ve got a whole slough of new posts half written and others in the hopper that we can’t wait share!

Meanwhile, we have been leaving some decent breadcrumbs of our adventures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. So you can always keep up with the latest and see what crazy escapade is keeping us away from writing our next blog entry.

So with that, its time to finally hit “Publish” on this long overdue post and we hope to see ya back here soon!