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Capital: Buenos Aires
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Little changed for the ordinary man when Argentina became independent from Spain in 1810. The local Criollo elites just stepped into the shoes of their previous masters and set about to milk the country just like the Spanish had done before them... and sometimes even more ruthlessly. That was perfectly compatible with the Spanish Catholic Absolutist beliefs that power came from above, preferably from God and King. |
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I did not make a special Argentina page for the three photos I showed of my short hop from Santiago to Mendoza but my second side-trip in that country warrants doing so for I have 18 pictures to show you.
In Valdivia, I took a bus going all the way to San Carlos de Bariloche at southern end the 200 km Lago Nahuel Huapi.
I hope you like lake scenery as much as I do because I have posted four of these.
Here is the third.
And finally, this fourth one of the wide expanse in front of Bariloche.
Argentina is more expensive than other South American countries. I got on the phone and had to a number of places before finding the Residencial Godec, up the hill in this photo, where I paid 16 dollars a night.
Bariloche is a very clean resort town with a marked German flavor. Its central square would not be out of place in Switzerland or the Austrian Alps.
It was actually a quite pleasant place and I was surprised to see there were not more tourists enjoying it. Apparently it is more popular in winter when people come here to ski in the neighboring mountains (Cerro Otto, 1405m. and the 2388 m Cerro Catedral).
There were very few tourists when I was there in February but the town looked quite prosperous. I guess they must be doing alright in the winter to afford an impressive Cathedral like this one.
What really made me come here was not Bariloche but the trip to Puerto Varas in Chile by boat through the three glacial lakes, Nahuel Huapi, Frias (aguas?) and Todos los Santos. Unfortunately the weather was terrible when I went through and I saw barely a tenth of the beautiful scenery I would have enjoyed so much had it been nice.
This picture might be striking but it was a great frustration for me that the clouds had blocked the dramatic view of Volcán Tronador's sheer rock face rising to 3491 meters. It's called Tronador for the thundering noise its ice avalanches produce in winter.
This bus took us from Puerto Blest on Nahuel Huapi to Puerto Alegre on Lago Frias.
Everyone was complaining about the bad weather. It made me feel better that I had company.
At the other end of Lago Frias was Puerto Frias where we took another bus to cross the border by the Perez Rosales pass to get to Peulla.
There was a great hotel at the border crossing but it was empty.
At Puella we boarded a third catamaran to cross the Lago de Todos los Santos.
According to all the publicity, the views from this lake are just fantastic!
The low ceiling prevented us from seeing the 2493 metre Cerro Puntiagudo on the way but when we got to the other end at Petrohue, the ceiling at lifted a little and we had a glimpse of the base of the 2652 metre Volcán Osorno.
From Petrohue, a third bus followed the shore of Logo Llanquihue from Ensenada to Puerto Varas on the way to Puerto Montt.
