25 de Mayo, Mud Brick Oven and Patagonia Trekking

Sunday Sunshine on the Autopista.

A sun-drenched Sunday in Buenos Aires, and our mini-bus filters through the inner barrios and onto the autopista, carrying us to the freedom and seclusion of the Gil-Miranda farm. Displaying an ability to create their own sense of privacy, and also possibly the lack of public spaces in BA, the porteños have come out in numbers and crowded into every green space possible. Thousands of small groups are tucked onto the sloped grass verges of the autopista, sharing mate, kicking a futbol, even flying a kite (on a short line, so as not to connect with the transmission wires). Somehow they appear oblivious to the roaring stream of traffic just metres away, content to enjoy the warm Spring day. I’m saddened at the relative poverty of the `family picnic area´, but also ecstatic, seeing people adapt so completely in order to spend time together outside. But I’m very glad to be on my way to paradise.

'In Argentina we are poor, but we have farms...' 25ino

'In Europe, when they eat a meal with their family, they look at the price.' Alejandro G

A talented builder, fireside guitarist and singer, and mate-drinking fellow, Chino (so-called cause of his asian-like eyes - he´s part indigenous Mapuche Indian) showed us how to build an oven from mud, bricks and bits of iron at Facundo and Carolina´s place.


Basically you build whatever structure you like out of bricks, using mud (soil and water, plus a bit of grass) for mortar, then cover it in lots more mud, and finally with a layer of clay.

He´s a cruisy guy and had to keep saying ´Tranquilo, Jamie´ all day as I raced around digging up soil and tripping over bricks

Steel bands to support the top

And reflective sand cement inside

Lots of mud

Katie build the fireplace next to the oven, for regular fires and for putting all the coals etc in once the oven is heated enough to cook in.


After two weeks of drying, we tried it out for the first time. The technique is to heat the oven over an hour or so, and then to pull out all the wood and coals, put in your food, and cover the door and the chimney up. The oven was dangerously hot after a while (and a few cracks appeared on top - needs more mud!) but it cooked the empanadas (meat pasties) and calzone in no time. MMmm!

Video (click play above) of Chino and Martin singing an Argentine folk-type song round the fire

Katie on the wee boat we took through the Tigre delta en route to Uruguay for a short ´visa trip´

Opossum in the grapes on the farm

I think they´d come out second best in a scrap with a brushtail possum - a bit slow and prone to freezing up under stress!

After leaving the farm, we have headed south to the mythical and much-talked about Patagonia, in search of nice treks, climbs, and hopefully some volunteer work

Sweet campspot we found the first night of a 5 day trip in the Nahuel Huapi National Park - half the snow had disappeared the next morning because it was very windy during the night

Beautiful reds of the Beech forest in the valley below

Valley we were supposed to camp in the first night

Refugio Jakob

More beech forest - ´Nothofagus´ trees like at home, but very different with the beautiful deciduous leaves

and more

Ridge scramble from Refugio Jakob - very glad it wasn´t icy

Refugio Italia

In the morning at Refugio Italia

Native bamboo under the beech trees - odd. We hooked up with a cool Alaskan couple on the trek and had a fun few days walking with them.

Beautiful, beautiful lakes

Fire - illegal, naughty Jamie

Wicked reflection which we destroyed by throwing stones in

Another beautiful lake and last day of the trek...very hungry at this stage as we were down to one bag of mashed potato

We had perfect weather the whole time, not at all normal for this time of year. Now we´re back in Bariloche and looking for volunteer positions. Yesterday we visited a rural school with the English Language Institute here. I´m not convinced working with children is either of our greatest talents, but the kids seemed to think we were pretty funny!