A Woman Traveling Alone is NEVER Alone

Traveling in Argentina: Travelogue of a One Woman Exploration

Multi-faceted Argentina – the world’s eighth largest country, is ideal for women traveling alone, who are actually, never alone!! This is the land of football champion Messi and his victorious World Cup team; accordion-driven, sensual tango milangos; aromas of expresso coffee; world’s tastiest asado beef;  Italian homemade pasta and brick-oven pizza, el Teatro Colon – South America’s world class European-styled opera house, and most important to me — Patagonia’s cattle grazing grasslands, with its gaucho culture, arid deserts visited by the likes of Butch Cassidy & Che Guevara – those endless horizons of the world’s soaring jagged mountain peeks such as Monte Fitz Roy and glacial lakes as the Perito Moreno Glacier. — This is but a slight peak to this European transplant in South America!! If it wasn’t for the toilet water swirling clockwise instead of counterclockwise, you would be convinced that you were indeed in a European country!! 

Destination — Patagonia.  I await my annual travels to Argentina and specifically, Patagonia with much glee.  My friends admire me and keep wondering how and why I choose to travel alone. Some might even feel sorry for me. As for myself, I just can’t wait to set on the road again and let the adventures unfold!  Patagonia, over 400,000 miles squared, is strung by the Andes Mountains as a dividing borderline between Chile and Argentina.  The romanticized and much travelled National Route 40 parallels the Andes Mountains also made famous by world motorcyclists of all ages, including Che Guevara.  I am driven year after year to return – the crimson red sunrises and sunsets; the endless landscapes of mountain peeks; forests of differing shades of green; the tasty natural springs flowing into rivers to quench your thirst; and the chirping birds, the industrious woodpeckers, along with rabbits, fox, deer and if you are lucky, a puma.  they all abound!!  And once you return to your lodgings, dinner awaits your well earned appetite — the delicious lake trout, the grilled asado beef and all the season’s vegetables, to be washed down with world famous Argentina wine and locally brewed artisan beers.

It’s always most comforting to travel to the megalopolis of Buenos Aires and stay with family like hosts.  Decades old friends, Monica and Carly are professional psychologists of European Jewish heritage who welcome me in their home as if I was always a member of the family!  I particular make an effort to arrive on Shabbat Friday where we meet at the family table with their children and family friends feasting on the varied Shabbat dinner Argentinian meat, fish and vegetables. 

Bariloche is the entry point to Patagonia, while Ushuaia, located on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, known as the End of the World and the gateway to Antarctica is at the tip of Patagonia and the South American continent. During this last trip to Patagonia I chose to visit Patagonia’s Santa Cruz province – El Calafate, home of the world’s wonder Perito Moreno Glacier and El Chalten to hike the challenging Fitz Roy and other daylong trails. 

Calafate is the name of the delicious red berries you find in the regions which I gorge on while I hike! Rich in antioxidants, they give you the burst of energy you need in your dawn to dusk trail of sometimes 25 kilometers of trails.  Lunch and snacking is often shared with other hikers spanning all ages and countries sharing stories and photographs of which trails to follow, birds and animals sighted and were to meet up at the end of the day! 

El Chalten, which means “Smoking Mountain” right next to the Chilean border is the hiking and rock climbing capital of Argentina, if not the world.  Part of Argentina since the mid 1980s, with only 400 permanent inhabitants, the otherwise sleepy town with its numbered chic, homey restaurants and sleeping accommodations to match is teeming with world travelers of all ages ready to hike mountains trails for days, sleep in tents whilst carrying all their provisions on their backs. No sherpas to hire!!! Also famous as one of the world’s rock climbing destination, professional and amateurs gather for a few pints at the end of their day to share their day’s harrowing yet exhilarating experiences. 

I frequent youth hostels when I travel in Patagonia learning everything I need to learn about the hikes from the world’s youth who are certainly over 30 years younger than I!  Traveling in January or February is the best season as the days are long and one can take advantage of the daylight to start out early and return late,  often experiencing four season of weather changes in the course of the day!  One must bring along everything from bathing suit if you dare to plunge in the cool turquoise streams to woolen hats, for the evenings’ dropping temperatures  to rain gear! One turn of a mountain and gusty bellowing winds can turn the peacock blue sky into a sinister looking monster with low lying grey clouds and torrid rains to keep you shivering under the first sheltered tree or shrub, until it passes over, if it ever does!  

As there is a respected hiking code, even as I hiked alone, I was always asked by my fellow hikers if I needed assistance, food, guidance in direction. Sometimes I would hike in silence for hours while other times I felt I was in Times Square hiking central with fancy tour groups chattering nonstop in single file. 

And, the golden rule is – hikers who ascend have right of way.  Descending is most challenging for my weary knees and I had numerous lucky encounters with handsome Argentinian gallant young men who basically picked me up and saved me from trying to figure out the next stable step on the slippery rocks! Another reason to hike alone as an older woman! I was often told by my new young hiking buddies that even their parents wouldn’t find themselves on these trails! 

As if that wasn’t enough, i even crossed the border to Chile in a 6 hour bus ride to challenging myself to trek the epic 50 mile W Trek in the Parque Nacional Torre de Paine.  More on this Chilean version of Patagonia next time!!!

by Dina Pinos

Dina Pinos is a Canadian-born Greek, former UH graduate student and EastWest Center grantee. Thriving world traveler, seeking to uncover passionate stories to share with and serve the community.