Mar 3
After trekking in El Chalten, we took a bus back to El Calafate. El Calafate kind of sucks but unfortunately it's a major hub in Patagonia and is a gateway to the southern part of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (El Chalten serves the northern and free part of the park) and you usually have to go there to transfer to other places you want to travel to.
Did you ever have the feeling the universe was conspiring against you? No matter what you do, things just keep going wrong like some spirit of all the bad karma in the world was suddenly in control of everything that was happening. Is this what being in mercury's retrograde felt like? If so, it described our first days in Esquel perfectly.
From the northwest of Argentina we traveled south to Argentina's other (and more famous) wine country in Mendoza. Mendoza is a fairly large city in Argentina, located in the north west part of the country. It's also easily reachable from Santiago in Chile. Mendoza is located in the desert Cuyo region making it an arid, hot place and even though it's a desert, a startling number of trees have been planted all over the city, providing some much needed shade especially in the summer months.
Visiting the northwest of Argentina was one of the highlights of our trip in South America so far. However, I found it a bit daunting when planning our time in this region. There is so much to see and do, where do you start? We knew we wanted to rent a car for sure to give us freedom and flexibility but for how long? Where would we rent the car? I scoured the internet and guide books for answers.
Infused exposures 