Don't cry for me Argentina

The end of the trip was nearing, we waved goodbye to beautiful, breathtaking Bolivia and hopped across the border to Awesome Argentina, the land where the trip had begun. It was a slow process, Argentina is a country that does nothing quickly, usually stopping to have a BBQ for a few hours in between, but eventually we were in and the change was immediate. From the chaos of Bolivia we got to the peace and tranquility of the Argentinean siesta, from a country that often felt 3rd world to one that felt like Southern Europe.

Ithaca goes back to Argentina

Si and Em have fun with Argentinian bureaucracy

Forget Tipperary - it's a long way to Ushuaia!

This part of Argentina is very different from the South we had travelled through before, this is the land of canyons, red rock, big blue skies and vast valleys. We travelled down with a brief couple of nights in the beautiful city of Salta (where a few of us found the best steak in Argentina - as rated by Odyssey South American Explorer 2013-14!) and Southward through the stunning Quebrada de las Conchas valley.

Quebrada de las Conchas

Devil's throat

Our drives were leisurely and we made a few very pleasant stops en route, we even found time to head to a vinyard just outside Cafeyate for a spot of wine tasting!

Wine tasting

We were in the Calchaquies Valley now, a large wide plain surrounded by mountains, and very pretty it is too! What it is most famous for is its wine, the area is second only to Mendoza as Argentina’s biggest wine producing area and up this way it mostly produces Torrontes wine, a lovely white wine perfect for drinking in the sunshine! We drove through fields and fields of vines which were beautiful shades of autumnal colours interspersed with huge areas of chillies drying in the sunshine while the sky was full of parrots swooping around and making a racket.

Autumn vines

Parrot plague

San Carlos chillies

Our destination was an Estancia (Ranch) just North of the little town of San Carlos called La Vaca Tranquila (The Quiet Cow) a beautiful hotel on a working dairy farm run by Belgian couple Anne and Alain who welcomed us warmly and it was a very happy group who checked in to their beautiful rooms. With the stunning scenery, horses wandering around in the fields, homemade yogurt, bread and jams for breakfast and the peace and tranquility of the countryside it was as near to Argentinean perfection as we could have hoped. Add to that the fact that our Belgian hosts also happened to brew their own beer on site, well, it wasn’t a bad spot really!

Enjoying the beer

Kitchen with a view

Ann relaxes at the ranch

The owners had their own breeding of beautiful horses and many of the group went out on a ride around the valley, Toby’s horse briefly decided it must be time for a nap and had a sit down, but the break for beer halfway around soon made up for that!

Got to catch the horse first

Ellie gets on her horse

Siesta time for Toby's horse

Beer break

Just when we thought our stay couldn’t get any more lovely Anne and Alain put on an asado for us (Argentinean BBQ) with a sheep they’d sacrificed for us from the farm which they baked in a traditional round oven, followed by homemade tarts and all washed down with their own beer, their homemade wine and even a beer/wine concoction which was 40% alcohol and Alain claimed, with a glint in his eye, it had mostly been snapped up by the Rothschilds!

Alain prepares the sheep

Asado time - Belgian style

Lamb chops for a starter

Simon, AJ and Em enjoy the beer

There was also time to head back to Cafeyate down the road to try some more wine, relax in the laid back little town and even have a taste of the local wine ice cream - MUCH better than it sounds, it is amazing!

Cafeyate

Meanwhile back at the ranch on our final evening Wayne and Danielle along with Ellie and Johnny offered to repeat their hugely sucessful pizzas with the help of a giant pizza oven.

Wayne

Pizza Cook Group

Wayne and Johnny supervise the fire

Anne and Alain join us for pizzas

It was a wonderful few days and we really had to drag ourselves away at the end of it!

It was time to continue our journey South, we were heading down to La Rioja province to visit a high altitude lake called Laguna Brava just outside of the town of Villa Union. We drove South down Route 40, a road we had got to know well down in the Western parts of Patagonia many months before which took us through tiny towns complete with Gauchos in berets and dust and roadside BBQ grills - it was about as Argentinean as you can imagine!

We bushcamped en route in a big plain with, lo and behold, lots of bushes! Which our regular readers will know are not easy to find in Argentinean bushcamps, the fact that they were rather spiky bushes just added to the fun of wild toilets! It was our final bushcamp of the trip and with the fire going we sat around full of tasty sausages and made the most of the bushcamping experience, something everyone in the group had learned to love over the 6 months.

Last bushcamp

Cook group

Bushcamp

Steve & Mike (or is it Mike & Steve?)

The trip was winding down and Emma and Simon had begun to relax and think that with so few days left what could possibly go wrong, but South America is always full of surprises, we turned on to the Cuesta de Miranda, a beautiful mountain pass through red rock, the rain was spitting down and we were driving in and out of patches of cloud hoping that the other side of the mountains would be blue skies, the road got worse and worse, from gravel to mud to water, until we suddenly realised that the road was in fact shut for resurfacing (apparently putting a sign up to tell anyone the road was shut didn’t cross anybody’s mind!) So rather than going on a 300km detour we cut our losses and headed East instead to the city of Cordoba for a couple of nights.

Cordoba

Steve has an ice-cream - a pretty regular occurrence 

We were definitely on the final leg now as signs to Buenos Aires, our final destination, began to appear with smaller and smaller numbers of kilometers next to them. But we had one final stop to make and that was for our last night together under canvas in a small municipal campsite in Rosario on the shores of the Parana River.

It wouldn’t be right to camp our last night in Argentina without cooking up some steak so we whipped up a final camp feast of chunky Chorizo Steaks over the BBQ before tucking up in our tents for the last time.

Last cook group dinner

Steak time!

The next day we had what is known as a truck cleaning party to get everything all spick and span for the next lucky people who will head off on Ithaca - it was truly a thing of beauty and the group worked tirelessly to scrub and soak off every last bit of dust from Bolivia, sand from Peru and mud from Brazil that told a story in themselves.

Emma cleaning - it's a big job on your own!  Thankfully we had a group to help!

Cleaning tents

Tee does a wonderful job of cleaning out the boxes

Then we trundled on back down to where the whole adventure had begun, Buenos Aires. It was hard to believe that 6 months had passed and even harder to get our heads around everything we had seen and done.

We went out for a meal at the same restaurant we had been to our very first night and reminisced about our highlights and less than perfect moments, there were plenty of the former and not so many of the latter, some of the group’s favourite moments were some of the hardest times, slogging to the top of a mountain or camping in 120kmph winds, getting rained on, being tired, none of it seemed to matter anymore. Overlanding is an adventure shared with other likeminded people and everyone agreed that it had been the people that had made it, we have had the honour to travel with some wonderful people and experience and see things we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. We have survived the winds of Patagonia, ants of Brazil, dust of Peru and altitude of Bolivia. We have danced and drunk with the Colombians, hiked through Chile and Argentina and marvelled at the wonderful creatures of Ecuador. It has been an adventure for everyone and we will have lots of stories to tell back at home to all our loved ones waiting for us. But for now it’s don’t cry for me Argentina, adios South America and on to the next adventure!

Thankyou to everyone who joined us on the trip and all of you who have been keeping up with the blog, South America has shown us its warm heart and opened our eyes to this fascinating part of the world. It has truly been an epic adventure!

I’ll let Danielle have the last word with another fantastic poem...

It's been 27 weeks,

Precisely 189 days,

That we've travelled together,

Putting up with each other's ways.

From sunny Argentina

The land of steak and red wine,

To chaotic Bolivia,

We've survived just fine!

From the picturesque mountains

Of Torres del Paine,

To the Brazilian Pantanal

And buckets of rain!

As Ithaca clocked up the miles,

And our passport got more stamps,

We've enjoyed sunsets and salsa,

And learnt the art of a bush camp!

To the top of Villarrica,

An achievement for all.

To the 'end of the world' in Ushuaia,

Where snow began to fall.

Setting up the tent,

On Patagonia's cold, windswept plains,

There were times when we grumbled,

But it was all fun and games!

From Carnival fever

With foam, frills and feathers,

To throwing on the back pack,

And hiking in all kinds of weathers!

We've indulged on Patagonian lamb,

And Colombian chicken and chips,

Not forgetting Christmas dinner

From 'Cook Group 6'!

Pizzas, empanadas, sausages too,

As well as ice cream,

We've had more than a few!

From riding dune buggies in the desert,

To getting soaked under Iguacu Falls,

To drinking and dancing with the locals

On many a bar crawl!

We've fell in love with llamas

And the simplicity of Peru,

We've shopped out in Ecuador,

And now have an extra bag or two!

From ruins to waterfalls,

We've experienced it all,

But which one was the best?

It's a tough one to call.

We've shared laughter and tears,

Future dreams and hopes,

As well as many a late night,

Getting to know the ropes.

If we weren't 'overlanders' at the start,

We certainly are now,

We can cope without a shower,

But Wi-Fi, we're still not sure how!

Alas, 'All good things

Must come to an end'

But what we take with us

Are treasured memories...

And new friends.

Farewell Odyssey Group 2013-14!!!