High and dry in the Andes
We flew from South Africa to Argentina and travelled to El Boson, a small town in central Argentina, up against the Andes. It was mid-May and snow was already falling. Stretching for more than 7 000 km and spanning seven countries, the Andes is the longest mountain range in the world. It also has some of the highest peaks in the world and is home to volcanoes and the ruins of ancient civilizations.
Our plan was to travel north all along the mountain range, staying as close and as high as possible. But we’d stick to the Argentinian side – the passes between Argentina and Chile are often closed by overnight snowstorms in winter.
Bariloche is one of Argentina’s prime skiing destinations, but it was too early in the season to hit the slopes. North of Bariloche is the beautiful Route of the Seven Lakes. We’d travelled in this area before but never this close to winter. It was very cold and there were none of the busloads of tourists we’d encountered the previous time.
The autumn colours were spectacular. We stopped often, braving the cold wind to take photos as we worked our way north to San Martín de Los Andes, another ski destination and probably Argentina’s
