LWB123
11th February 2011, 11:25 PM
Hello from Brisbane.
Heading off to Argentina and Chile next month for some work related activity. Have been to North America and Southern Africa plenty of times and driven extensively on bitumen and gravel roads, but never been to South America before.
Has anyone driven the Seven Lakes Route between San Martin des Andes and Bariloche in northern Patagonia and know of a particularly good spot to overnight? It is gravel for most of it still (I think) but I don't believe this is really rough stuff. It is meant to be fairly spectacular scenery and fishing wise.
Perhaps Ruta 40 down the spine of the country - especially in the south near El Calafate? Guide books tend to make it sound like somewhere extremely arduous, requiring heaps of safety and recovery gear, but looking at various blog photos it looks little different to anything that you might expect of a graded country road in western NSW or Southern Africa. I have belted hire Corollas and Golfs quite extensively around the latter without incident and was looking for any local experience of it that might suggest the road would tax a conventional car or small ute.
Finally, has anyone been to Puerto Iguazu lately and can recommend a good hotel - hotel web sites invariably say they are all excellent, while the travel blogs give a lot a fair old caning. I realise that Iguazu is in the tropics and that Argentina has had its' economic issues, so keeping up the maintenance on a lot of these places has fallen behind. Nevertheless, the accommodation is not being given away so some local feedback is always welcome.
Incidentally, has anyone actually bought a Land Rover in Argentina or Chile, and is there an owners' club?
Cheers,
Heading off to Argentina and Chile next month for some work related activity. Have been to North America and Southern Africa plenty of times and driven extensively on bitumen and gravel roads, but never been to South America before.
Has anyone driven the Seven Lakes Route between San Martin des Andes and Bariloche in northern Patagonia and know of a particularly good spot to overnight? It is gravel for most of it still (I think) but I don't believe this is really rough stuff. It is meant to be fairly spectacular scenery and fishing wise.
Perhaps Ruta 40 down the spine of the country - especially in the south near El Calafate? Guide books tend to make it sound like somewhere extremely arduous, requiring heaps of safety and recovery gear, but looking at various blog photos it looks little different to anything that you might expect of a graded country road in western NSW or Southern Africa. I have belted hire Corollas and Golfs quite extensively around the latter without incident and was looking for any local experience of it that might suggest the road would tax a conventional car or small ute.
Finally, has anyone been to Puerto Iguazu lately and can recommend a good hotel - hotel web sites invariably say they are all excellent, while the travel blogs give a lot a fair old caning. I realise that Iguazu is in the tropics and that Argentina has had its' economic issues, so keeping up the maintenance on a lot of these places has fallen behind. Nevertheless, the accommodation is not being given away so some local feedback is always welcome.
Incidentally, has anyone actually bought a Land Rover in Argentina or Chile, and is there an owners' club?
Cheers,