Argentina

We spent 10 beautiful days, November 5th - 15th, in Argentina visiting 3 cities: Buenos Aires, El Calafate, and Bariloche.  

After a 6 hour flight from Bogota we landed in Buenos Aires.  We stayed for a day in the city in which we walked through the streets of Palermo and had lunch at La Cabrera for some tasty bife de chorizo, chorizos, and Malbec wine.  We met up with our old friend Derek, aka El Chinito, from our tour in Mexico for drinks and fried empanadas which were delish!  The next day we hopped on a plane to El Calafate, a city in Patagonia, Argentina with incredible sunset views of Lago Argentino.  We stayed for 3 days at Blanca Patagonia just a couple of miles from the center of El Calafate.  The food in the town was fantastic with it's rich Italian influence -- we had homemade pastas, fish wrapped in a buttery pastry and cooked in clay, and empanadas (of course), to name a few. On our first day in El Calafate, we took a trip to Los Glaciares National Park to get an up close view of Glaciar Perito Moreno.  On the next day we took a "Safari expedition" to the mountains just outside of El Calafate to explore Patagonia's native wildlife that include Darwin’s Rhea and Guanaco (similar to llamas).  We also stumbled upon a large fossil deposit, thought to have been deposited by moving glaciers, and had a tasty lunch overlooking the mountains while drinking Malbec wine from the region (of course).  Annika quickly befriended our Safari driver.

We then flew to Bariloche, a city in the province of Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake.  We stayed at the wonderful Lirolay Suites on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi.  The food again was incredible, especially at La Salamandra Pulpería where we had ojo de bife, empanadas, and choripan accompanied with Malbec wine of course.  We rented a car and on our first day we drove to the outskirts of Bariloche around Lago Moreno with incredible views of the mountains and lakes.  The next day we took a longer drive through Villa La Angostura, a small and beautiful town with a nice downtown and a European ski resort feel to it, and later along Siete Lagos road (7 lakes drive).  This road is filled with breathtaking views of snow capped mountains and clear water lakes and goes along the shores of the Espejo, Correntoso, Villarino and Falkner lakes.  Annika especially enjoyed throwing rocks at one of our many stops along the lakes.  

On our last day in Argentina we flew back to Buenos Aires and explored the Puerto Madero neighborhood where we met up with an old high school friend of mine, currently working in BA as CFO of an oil company (dealing with lovely unions) We had lunch there -- one last bife de chorizo and Malbec wine (of course).

We highly recommend this trip to our family and friends and if we continue to stay in this continent, will definitely head back.

To view the entire album click below:
Buenos Aires
El Calafate
Bariloche

El Calafate
El Calafate
El Calafate
El Calafate
Her new friend
Her new friend
Los Glaciares National Park - Glacier Perito Moreno
Julia eating an olive!
On a 'Safari expedition' just outside of El Calafate
Bariloche - Lift in Cerro Campanario
Bariloche - Cerro Campanario
Bariloche - Road trip through 7 lakes drive
Bariloche - Road trip through 7 lakes drive
Bariloche - Road trip through 7 lakes drive
Bariloche

Videos below

Bariloche - Annika throwing rocks
El Calafate - Los Glaciares National Park
Just shy of the end of the video you can hear the sound of thunder from ice falling into the lake
Bariloche - Road trip through 7 lakes
El Calafate - Hiking towards fossil deposit