Today we drove about 3 hours from El Calafate to El Chalten – another scenic drive with a bunch of photo stops! The drive took us around the east shore of Lago Argentino. El Chalten sits at the base of Fitz Roy mountain – we started to get amazing views of the mountain about an…

At Walichu we saw prehistoric (pre-Tehuelche people) cave drawings found on the walls of an escarpment on the shore of Lake Argentino. The paintings are 4500 years old (upper Paleolithic period) and include human figures, camelids (likely guanaco) and handprints. Francisco Moreno ‘discovered’ the paintings when he was surveying the lake. Iron oxide and ferrite…

Yesterday was just a boring travel day. Direct flights to remote areas are hard to find, so we had to fly 1.5 hours north to Buenos Aires only to turn around and fly south again to El Calafate. The city of El Calafate sits on the shore of Lago Argentino, formed 15,000 years ago and…

This morning we left the wineries behind and drove west for three hours, almost all the way into Chile.  Our destination was Aconcagua National Park. Mount Aconcagua is the tallest mountain outside of Asia (22,825 feet), the tallest in the Southern and Western hemispheres. The mountain holds 5 hanging glaciers. We have seen Andean Condors…

In addition to growing some of the world’s best Malbec grapes, Mendoza is also a thermal area. Today we took advantage and spent our morning at the spa. After a few hours of water therapy, we headed off to Bodega Fogón for another winery lunch. Fogón is one of the oldest vineyards in Mendoza, established…

The idea for this trip was born out of a random statement Kris made to Dave a few years ago while buying his favourite wine in the liquor store. She said ‘I want to take you to Argentina to drink Malbec in Mendoza’ and thus, the vacation planning was started. Obviously many more things have…

This morning we flew from Salta to Mendoza – another quick but bumpy flight. Wine marketing starts right at the airport with a sign that reads ‘welcome wine lovers’. We picked up our nice new rental car (Fernanda the Fiat) and headed to our hotel. Casa de Glebinias is a small property with a few…

Salta is a nice, well preserved Colonial city. Salta comes from the Aymara word for ‘beautiful’. It is often called Salta Linda (Salta the beautiful). Salta claims to be the birthplace of empanadas in Argentina, or at least is rumoured to have the best tasting ones! The region certainly has very tasty ones. We’ve sampled…

We had an early start today which means the light is good for photos and heat hasn’t built up yet. The morning started off a bit chilly but we were sweltering by the time we got back. Our tour guide today is Jose, a new employee and not one of Fido’s sons as expected. Jose…

Today we drove from Cafayate to Seclantas via the Quebrada de las Flechas (Valley of Arrows). The eroded sandstone rocks are gray and spiky like arrowheads. We stopped at the Bodega el Cese in Angastaco. We shared the wine tasting (degustación) with three Argentinians on their motorcycles. All rapid-fire Spanish but they offered us English…