03 Argentina

El Calafate, Argentina September 19 - 21, 2006

2006-10-03T18:01:00Z

After the excitement of whale/penguin/sea elephant watching in Puerto Madryn, we headed south by bus to the town of El Calafate.

El Calafate is as far south in Argentina as we are going to go. It is possible to go a little farther south without being in the ocean headed to Antartica, but you can't go much farther. A number of the shops in the city have signs like "End of the World Gifts" and stuff like that.

We got into town and checked into a nice hotel that Chrissy had booked the night before. Its always nice to be able to clean up in a decent place after spending the night on a friggin´ bus.

We did have to take care of the usual logistics before relaxing for the evening, which included booking a tour to see this glacier thing in the morning. We found a tour company without any issues and still had time to devour some homemade pasta in a local italian place, La Coçina. We even had dessert.

The town of El Calafate has been discovered by tourists just in the past few years. The population in 2001 was 4,000. By 2005, that number had jumped to 15,000. The big draw is that this is where the Perito-Moreno Glacier can be seen. Before this trip I didn´t know much about glaciers and wasn´t quite sure what we would be looking at. For the similarly glacier ignorant, here is a brief rundown:

There are two main types of glaciers: alpine glaciers, which are found in mountain terrains, and continental glaciers, which cover large areas of continents (think Greenland). The Perito-Moreno Glacier I am talkin about is an alpine glacier.
The glacier is constantly moving, with new ice forming at the top of a mountain and slowly sliding down into a river below. This ending point in the water is what we came to stare at.
Note that the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. Meaning it isn´t getting smaller due to global warming or whatever theory you choose to believe. New ice forms at the same rate that ice is getting dumped into the river.

The next morning we had to be up bright and early to be picked up for the tour. I was kind of stressed because we were supposed to bring our own lunch and also needed to buy tickets for our outbound bus trip before being picked up at 9:00 AM.

After an uneventful trip to the closed bus station, the next stop was the grocery store. This is a small town and I couldn't really tell if the local grocery place was open or not, so I just let myself in the front door. It took a few minutes to find a guy back in the produce section and as usual, I couldn't understand what he was telling me in spanish, but I was pretty sure he was saying they weren't open and to get the crap out of the store. No packed lunch for us.

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Chrissy: I like to let Bill periodically venture out on his own. It always makes for good entertainment.

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The bus picked us up at our hotel and we headed out. The tour was an all-day type of deal that had three parts. First part was walking around these deck terrraces on the land which is closest to the glacier. This was pretty cool because you had a great view of the glacier which is slowly sliding down into the water and every few minutes large chunks of ice would break off and crash into the water making a lot of noise. This process is called calving, and is what forms icebergs.

Apparently, a number of unfortunate people have been killed by the falling ice when they got too close. One of the tour guides later commented that he thought this was natural selection at work because you have to be pretty stupid to get near the front of a glacier.

We spent a good two hours walking around on these viewing decks checking out the glacier. Luck was with us and there is a snack stand there where we scored some sandwiches. Part II of the tour consisted of a boat ride to take a look at the glacier from the water. We boarded what was a really nice boat and sped over to a side of the glacier you can´t see from the decks. The boat ride was pretty cool, but you can actually get a better view from land.

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SIDEBAR FROM CHRISSY:

Bill was not exaggerating when he said that luck was with us with those sandwiches. I have to say that I am disappointed with South American sandwiches, but this one was much better than any other thus far. I can´t vouch one way or the other to the warm sandwiches, but I am talking your average run-of-the-mill ham and cheese sandwich. We are talking one slice of ham, one slice of cheese and mayonnaise. What´s up with that? I really don´t get it. Seriously. It truly, truly boggles my mind. I´m thinking about bringing someone from Buffalo, New York to show them a thing or two. I thought that everyone knew that you always have a MINIMUM 3:1 ratio of ham to cheese. And for goodness sake, ripple the ham. Anyway, this place actually put 2 slices of ham and gave us a piece of lettuce and a tomato. As an added bonus, I scored a packet of mustard.

I might further add that they pull the same crap in France and try and act like the baguette is going to make up for the sorry excuse of meat quantity.

OK, I feel better now.

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Our glacier assault continued, and Part III started when the boat dropped us off to one side of the glacier where this kind of wacky guy gave us a pretty good overview of the glacier formation and movement process, then we all put on crampons (if you have followed any of these links you have figured out that cool people think Wikipedia is cool) and took a hike around on top of the glacier. Crampons are basically spikes that you can strap on to your shoes that give you traction on ice. I wasn´t too sure about this idea. They had conviced me that a glacier can be dangerous, so walking around on top of it, not too far from the part falling into a river, didn´t seem like a good plan. But it turned out to be a pretty interesting experience. There are a lot of cracks and crevasses in a glacier, which make for cool canyon like spots that most of the time had water running through the bottom.

We spent about two hours strutting around on the glacier before they brought us over a hill that had some refreshments waiting at the bottom.

Nothing like whiskey chilled with glacier ice. That is a wooden table which served as bar and the guy in the top left is hacking away at the glacier to fill our glasses.

The boat then took us back to a waiting bus and we snoozed while being driven into town. This was our last night in Argentina and we thought one last round of Argentine parrilla (grilled meats) was in order. We found a nice place that was packed with locals and ordered up some wine and steaks. We are going to miss Argentina.

- Bill

Puerto Madryn / Peninsula Valdes, Argentina - September 18 - 19, 2006

2006-09-23T00:28:00Z

We left San Martin and began our descent towards the bottom of the world. This route would initially take us to the eastern coast of Argentina to Puerto Madryn - the jumping off point for trips to Peninsula Valdes.

After yet another 24-hour bus ride (we are over a dozen at this point), we arrived in the early manaña to the bus station. There were 3 other pairs of weary travelers and we all wanted to make good use of the day and get out to the peninsula. The frazzled lady behind the tour company counter assured us that we could, but there could be no hesitation on the decision. It was now or...tomorrow.

Mauricio, our guide, picked us up and we were off on the journey. His obvious interest in animals was infectious; it took only moments to realize he was going to be a good tour guide. He could hardly turn his head around fast enough to tell us something whenever he thought of it.

Our first stop was to the nature center to learn about the landscape, flora and fauna that we would be observing was clearly lost on him. "Maps." Mauricio shook his head and said, "Do the penguins coming from Antartica have a map?¨ Fortunately for him, it was just a quick stop.

Next we went to visit the sea elephants. If no one else was going to admit it, I was. "What is a sea elephant?" It turns out, it is a type of seal. They look quite similar to sea lions but have a few distinguishing characteristics, most noticeably they use only two of the four "flippers" that they have. Sea lions, by contrast, use all four. You will need to remember this, as there will be a test at the end.

A seal elephant hard at work

I could both appreciate and relate to the seal´s laziness and desire to sit in the sun and do nothing. Bill, too, could appreciate both the sea lions and the sea elephants, but for a different reason - the male forms substantial harems, often with 20 or more females. Perhaps in another life...

The sea elephants were cool, but I was growing restless. I wanted to see something a little bit cooler - I mean no disrespect to sea elephants.We drove on and then approached another beach where we "might" see some penguins. Imagine our surprise when we saw hundreds!

The Magellinic penguin is smaller in size to many species of penguins. It migrates each year between Brazil and Antartica. The male and female always travel together and annually return to the same place to mate. Punto Tombo, just two hours to the south of Puerto Madryn, is the host to a million of these penguins each year. These animals are just now starting the migration and will begin to lay their eggs within the next month. I picked out a friend and spent most of my time watching him waddle right in front of me. They were so cute, I just wanted to hold one. I didn´t, I promise. Check out my buddy, Fred, below:

My buddy, Fred, the Magellanic penguin

For the grand fnale, we went to the dock in Puerto Pyramides on the peninsula and boarded a boat that was hauled by a tractor to the neighboring bay. We had already seen a couple of Southern Right Whales from the shore in the distance and were expecting more of the same.

The guide quickly went through the rules, the most important being that if the whales are on your side, you kneel. If the whales are on the opposite side, feel free to stand on the seat or wherever you can to see them. So much for safety, but we were glad for the permission.

The tail of a Southern Right Whale

Immediately bulls and calves started to dive before our eyes. We all started to frantically take pictures thinking that this might be our only chance. To our delight, these playful animals seem to love company and like to stay in the bay. They do not seem to be even slightly distracted by boats. Twice, in fact, one of these beauties swam directly underneath our boat.

A Southern Right Whale swimming under the boat

The animals can grow in size up to nearly 17 meters and have very different characteristics from the Orcas that also share this area (we did not see any of those, unfortunately). The tail forms a majestic ¨V¨and is often lingering in the water long after the rest of the whale. The faces of the whales often look as if they have barnacles around the eyes and mouth. Rather, this is hair - it is a most unusual sight.

As expected, I ended up taking tons and tons of photos. And I may have gotten a little carried away with video. Bill looked nervous as he rapidly watched hundreds of potential pictures dissipate as I continued to take video. He may be uploading pictures and video for the next few weeks.

A really cool video that we shot of the whales. This is a very large file that may take a while to load. Please make a comment or send us an e-mail and let us know if it worked.

Needless to say, this day was certainly a highlight of our trip thus far. Words and pictures could never accurately portray how amazing these animals are. To be constantly surrounded by five whales at a time is truly a sight to behold.

The ride back was filled with other untamed animals, this time on land. Rheas, which are slightly smaller, but look exactly like an ostrich, crossed our paths. They were followed by vicuñas, sheep and cows. Again, no disrespect, but these animals were lame compared to what we had just witnessed.

Our exciting day was coming to a close, but we needed to rest for future adventures. We were continuing south the next day, to El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno glacier.

- Chrissy

San Martin de Los Andes (The Argentina Lake District) - September 14 - 16, 2006

2006-09-22T18:14:00Z

There are parts of the "Lake District" in both Chile and Argentina. This is the outdoor playground of South America with pretty sweet hiking, rafting, and fishing. We have plans to see the Chile side of the lake district as well when we cross back over. There are several towns in Argentina in the lake area and we had choosen San Martin because it is a bit smaller than the main town Bariloche and is supposed to look like a Swiss mountain town with similar architecture.

We got off of the bus and wandered around looking for the local tourist office. They have these in most towns that attract visitors and can be a big help in finding accomidations that aren't in the guidebooks. We were hoping in particular to find a cabaña which is a cabin for rent. This being a vacation town they were all over the place. We found the tourist office and after some phone calls they sent us off with a map to find our cabana.

We found the place and it was a good setup. There were several cabañas grouped together in one building. Ours was on the corner, it had a downstairs with a living area, bathroom, and small kitchen. Upstairs was the bedroom complete with a nice window and balcony.

Chrissy was pretty excited about doing some rafting and I wanted to try my hand at fly fishing. Having a place to sleep, we headed off to find a tour company to book our activities. We went to several places and they all looked at us like we were kind of crazy when we asked about rafting and fishing. Being the tail end of winter these things hadn't started yet. We were offered a tour around the lake by bus or snow shoeing. The bus thing sounded kind of lame and we decided to think about the snow shoeing.

Being without any scheduled activities, but having a full out apartment setup for the first time on our trip we headed for the grocery store to get some provisions for dinner. Walking around the store we were trying to formulate a meal that was something tasty and homelike. Chili. They even had a bottle of tabasco.

The next few days were much the same. We missed out on the snowshoeing because the trip filled up while we were "thinking" about it (lame, I know). So we enjoyed our sweet pad and the ability to make our own grub. We pan seared some steaks one night.

We did do some hiking in the hills around the lake which had some nice views of the area.

Next stop is Puerto Madryn, the land of whales, peguins, sea lions, and such.

- Bill

Mendoza, Argentina - the second time around - September 11 - 13, 2006

2006-09-22T18:05:00Z

After enjoying some downtime on the beach in Bahia Inglesia, we hopped on a bus and headed back to Argentina. I had been itching to get out of Chile and back to Argentina for weeks. Argentina has better food in my opinion, as good or better wine, and is currently very inexpensive for us Yankees because of the exchange rate. What else can a guy ask for?

The bus was yet another 24-hour type affair which includes a few crappy meals (they serve these really horrible sandwiches) and usually a restless night´s sleep in a seat that reclines just enough to almost be comfortable. We have had a few comfortable bus trips, but they are the exception.

First stop on our return trip to Argentina was Mendoza. We had spent one night here when my sister Bonnie was with us, but being wine lovers, this wasn't enough and we vowed to return. After a good night´s sleep in a comfy hostel we walked around town and organized two separate wine tours with two different companies.

Not wanting to rent a car, we needed these tours to get us out to the wineries. You also need an appointment at many of the places and it´s nice to have the tour companies facilitate this for you. Now, these tours are pretty expensive and we didn't have the budget to go all out on both of them. So, the first day we went on what I'll call the "budget" tour.

The "budget" tour consisted of a bus picking up mostly young travelers from hostels and ferrying us to two wineries and interestingly, an olive oil factory. The first winery we visited was Bodega Lopez which is one of the biggest and most well known in Argentina. Their wines are decent, they make a ton of wine for export and customize many wines for specific countries. The tour lady described what sounded like some funky stuff they make just for the Russians. The next vineyard was called Caratina, and is run by a French couple that quit their first careers a couple of years ago and started this vineyard (with no prior wine experience). These people were undoubtly pretty cool, and their wine was good. Last stop was the olive oil factory. We hadn't seen one of these before, so were courious to check it out. The place was called Pasai, and was a small, family run, operation. The tour guy gave a good explaination of how they process olives to make oil and made a point to stop and explain the different types/grades of olive oil. Here's a quick summary:

Extra-virgin olive oil - comes from the first pressing of the olives, contains no more than 0.8% acidity, and is judged to have a superior taste. There can be no refined oil in extra-virgin olive oil.

Virgin olive oil - has an acidity less than 2%, and judged to have a good taste. There can be no refined oil in virgin olive oil.

Olive oil - is a blend of virgin oil and refined virgin oil, containing at most 1% acidity. It commonly lacks a strong flavor.

This place only made extra virgin, of course. After the tour we headed back to the hostel and cooked up our dinner in the community kitchen. Most of the hostels have these and they are really nice for when you get tired of eating out or want to cook up something you can't find locally in any of the resturants. Chrissy invented her own rice dish with sauteed onions, peppers and chicken broth in it that turned out really well. Christened "Mendoza Rice" it could become a staple of our home cooked travel meals.

The "budget" tour was a good deal and we were glad we went, but it couldn't compare to the tour we took the next day which I'll call the "premium" tour.

Chrissy had read about this outfit called ¨The Grapevine¨ that did wine tours from Mendoza. They have their own wine newsletter which had been sitting around in one of the hotels which we had stayed. The place is run by a couple of English ex-patriates. You are supposed to go around in a group of up to six, but no one else wanted a tour the day we showed up, so we got the guide and a driver all to ourselves.

The guide was a pretty interesting fellow. He was English, but had a house in Chile, and now worked in Mendoza. Over the course of the day we learned quite a bit about him, including that he was a former chef, was currently separated from his second wife (long term separation, I think it is pretty much over), and was into international politics. He had also managed to burn his house down at some point while cooking in the kitchen. Not sure if this is the sign of a really good or really bad chef. Anyway, he knew a lot about wine. A crazy amount. We had a separate guide in addition to him at each vineyard we went to, but he always kind of followed them around as they were giving the tour and supplemented what they said.

Charles is the guy on the far left (after Chrissy, of course). I would recommend to anyone who likes wine to go down to Mendoza and sign up for a couple days of tours with this dude. The lady on the right is the winery tour guide. We had our own personal tours at each winery. Was pretty sweet.

So we went to four vineyards. They were as follows:

Vina Amalia - I wasn't overy impressed with this one. The wine was ok.

Alta Vista - These guys had excellent wine. They had one in particular that was from a different kind of grape that we had never tried before called Torrentes. It is a white grape, and I don't usually like white wine, but this one was very good and both Chrissy and I really enjoyed it.

Ruca Malen - We had a five-course lunch here, each accompanied with a new wine. Very good.

Tapiz - Here we got to taste wine that isn't finished yet, straight from the large stainless steel tanks they are making them in. This was pretty cool, because throughout the day Charles was educating us on the different nuances of the wines we were tasting and it helped to taste a wine that wasn't quite done to understand how the wine matures in the final stages.

All in all, it was a great day of wine tasting. Charles left us with a bottle of one of the best wines we had tasted. We polished it off on the overnight bus we got on a couple of hours later to head south into the Lake District.

- Bill

Mendoza, Argentina August 23 - 24, 2006

2006-09-03T21:21:00Z

There are some places that you visit that end up being one of your favorites not because they are the most beautiful or the people are the nicest or the weather is just fantastic. Sometimes, you have such a psychedelic experience (in the non-drug sense of the phrase) that you forever ingrain the experience in your head. It´s these places that you just laugh and shake your head when you think of the trip. Our first foray through Mendoza fit that bill.

We were heading from Salta, Argentina to Santiago, Chile to drop off Bonnie at the airport and then pick up our friend, Katherine. The trip was going to take a couple of days and Bonnie was interested in seeing Mendoza for at least a day, so we opted to do a fast overnight there.

Bill and I planned to pass back through Mendoza, so we let Bonnie set the agenda. With just a few hours of daylight, Bonnie opted to go to Park General San Martin. This park was built by the same landscape architect that built the Palermo parks that we had enjoyed in Buenos Aires. The park itself is humongous and includes a golf course, yacht club, zoo, etc.

Having started from our hotel a couple of miles away, we continued through the park. Admittedly, I had the map. There seemed to be little to no scale on said map, however, and we continued to walk until we saw the small man-made lake in the middle. We enjoyed some Gatorade on a bench and Bonnie and I decided that the zoo sounded like a good idea.

Well a mile turned into miles and Bill was NOT a happy camper too far into the walk. Bonnie and I were also tired, but certainly not ready to admit defeat. Bill was barely talking to us by the time we found the dang place. We bought our tickets and then walked in to the zoo where we were immediately greeted by a one-eyed parrot that was just walking along the sidewalk. OK, that´s sort of strange but we though that maybe they have a rehabilitation program for such birds. Right?

And then came the monkees. The monkees were not in cages. They were running around trees above us. Well, most of them were. Some of them were eating cotten candy from children´s hands on the ground.

The chimps weren´t quite as lucky as the monkees.

Then we notice that many of the cages have gaping holes in them. Some allow you to touch the animals (lions included) from the bottom if you so chose. One brave guest was sticking his hand in the puma cage and moving it when the puma darted for it. What a genius. Other cages just had gashes in the middle of the fence. Still other cages were just completely gone to the point that the animal was walking around the zoo on his own. I found my llama friend checking out the elephants and other animals on his own volition.

Further notice that the elephants are just a minute shy of freedom themselves.

I suppose the above picture looks fairly normal for a zoo if the people in the picture hadn´t walked by this fence and sign clearly indicating not to pass through:

This may sound comical or it may sound grossly inhumane. It was both. Clearly there was no one steering the ship at this place. In fact, the only thing we found maintained at this zoo was the flora. This made sense because during the entire 3 hours that we were there, we saw a few gardeners and no zookeepers.

Having a doctor in the family can be disconcerting at some inopportune times. Let me explain. Just as Bonnie was telling us about the infections on several of the baboons´ butts, I was peed on by one of them. Just a squirt, but right on my smacker. I learned that day that hand sanitizer burns when applied to your lip. We figured it would be TMI to post pictures, so you´ll just have to leave it to your own imagination.

By the end of the day, we were eager to get the heck out of dodge, but we were kind of in the middle of nowhere and didn´t know if we should go back the way we came or continue on in the same direction. After all, it looked like you could make a circle from our trusty map.

We started to walk and as daylight turned to dusk, Bill made a quick decision and jumped near a moving taxi to hail the guy. This proved to be the best decision that was made all day. After explaining where we wanted to go, the guy just started cracking up. ¨Why then,¨ he asked, ¨are you walking THAT way?¨

We tipped him well for saving us from ourselves.

-Chrissy

The hippo - One of the world´s most dangerous animals? Not at this zoo

Salta, Argentina 8/18 - 8/22 2006

2006-09-03T20:25:00Z

Having seen all there was to see in Puerto Iguazu we boarded yet another bus to head for the town of Salta, Argentina. Salta is a quaint town in the northwest. It is a favorite vacation spot for Argentines because it has perpetually ¨spring like¨ weather and is considered one of Argentinas most beautiful cities. One of the cities biggest attraction is a tourist train, ¨Tren de las Nubes¨ that goes high into the Andes mountains. Unfortunately, it hasn´t been running for months because there are safety concerns with the tracks.

The city has beautiful architecture and Salta is considered one of the best examples of colonial architecture in the country. Below are just a sample of some of the churches:

Bonnie is still with us. Her and Chrissy have been doing a lot of shopping at street craft vendors. If I seen another pair of earrings....

The food in Argentina continues to impress. Steak is good and cheap, as is wine. Cuban cigars are also not hampered by the legal restrictions in the US, so I had to get one of those.

On 8/21, we took a group tour further north to the town of Cachi. This proved to be very interesting. Originally, we had hoped to do some trekking. We found it difficult to get around and opted to do a group excursion instead. We went into a tourism office and told them that we wanted to do real trekking. We even backed this up with additional information like - ¨we want to make sure that we get to hike/trek for a distance.¨ ¨We are interested in seeing a lot of the wildlife.¨ Through the agent´s Spanglish and our Englanol, we all felt comfortable at what we were signing up for. Her last question as we walked out the door was to ensure that we wanted and English guide. Why, yes. Thank you.

Fast forward the next morning when the bus arrives at our hotel to pick us up. The three of us are the youngest travelers by a good 25 plus years and quickly surmise that we would not be trekking in our definition of the word. It got even more interesting as the guide continued to talk in Spanish without ever switching over to English. At the first stop, we informed her that we did not speak Spanish and had requested an English guide. Our guide never missed a beat. Admittedly, she did not speak a word of English, but she did have a Spanish-English dictionary. Good enough.

One thing that we all found particularly interesting was the Cardones Cacti Park that we passed through on our way to Cachi. We all had been taught that saguaro cacti only grow in Arizona and be that as it may, the Cardones cacti look really, really similar. We cite our case below:

Here are Chrissy and Bonnie enjoying the sun off of the Andes on the same trip:

Our last day in Salta, we took a short hike to the San Lorenzo gorge, just outside of the city. There were butterflies all over the place, and Chrissy took a ton of pictures.

After Salta we head to Mendoza, a overnight stop before continuing on to Santiago, Chile where we say goodbye to Bonnie and meet up with Katherine.

Cheers,

Bill

Iguazu Falls, Northwest Argentina / Southwest Brazil August 16 - 17, 2006

2006-08-26T01:54:00Z

From Buenos Aires, we opted to take the "fast" bus to Iguazu Falls. It was faster, comparitively. Our other option was to spend between 18 and 21 hours on a small selection of other buses.

I think it's important at this point to discuss the bus. Not only was it fast, but it was awesome. For dinner, we were served several appertizers followed up by beef pot roast. Yummy. This was also accompanied by an ever filled glass of wine. We all laughed as we recalled my inquiries at the bus station - does the bus have a bathroom? Do the seats recline? No wonder the guy just laughed and shook his head affirmatively. In my defense, my questions were well founded after having taken buses in Peru and Brazil.

We slept well and upon arrival headed immediately to our hostel. The hostel was very nice with a large pool...unfortunately, drained for the winter...and a large gathering area with pool tables, computers, etc.

The first day it rained hard, so we stayed put and enjoyed reading and sharing a bottle of wine. In the evening, the hostel had a barbeque. The food was great - all-you-can-eat sausage sandwiches, beef, salad and caipirinhas (I think we all remember those). After dinner, we continued to converse with Marcus, a friendly German guy that had sat down next to us at dinner.

All of a sudden, music started and a very animated guy came out with a scantily clad woman who was dancing very seductively. Before we knew it, poor Marcus had been grabbed on stage and was forced to dance with the woman along with several other unfortunate (or fortunate) guys.

This continued for several songs and we all laughed as we tried to surmise whether we were at a hostel or a brothel. Another lady that looked like Ruth Pointer of Pointer Sisters fame then came out and continued the freaky deakiness.

And then came the big finale.

For this number, Bonnie and I were pulled to the dance floor. Fortunately, this was all good clean fun and we learned an interesting, albeit boring, dance that ended up in a congo line. Bonnie stayed with me as we limbo´d, but ducked out the back when the jump rope came out. I am proud to say that I still have not lost my touch and despite a few ¨spirits¨ I could hold my own.

Shortly after the song ended, the entourage packed up and left and all of the hostel guests were eft wondering what had just happened. We're still not sure. At least the feeling was universal.

The next morning, we got up early and took the hostel van to the waterfalls. Iguazu Falls lies on the border between Brazil and Argentina. It is higher than Niagra Falls and twice as large. Having not taken a formal tour, that is all that I can tell you.

Shortly after walking through the park entrance, we saw one of the creatures that we were hoping to find: a coati. This is a racoon-like animal that comes out during the daytime. It has all of the markings of a raccon, but looks quite different. It has a long medium girth tail with a slight hook on the end and has a small rounded head. People have taken to feeding them so they have become quite tame in the park and can be somewhat aggressive. The guy we saw had already ransacked the trash can though and was back on his way to the jungle. He was too fast for our camera, but here is a picture courtesy of Wikipedia:

The park is well laid out with three different paths that can be hiked. The first two trails border the first set of waterfalls and visitors can choose between walking the upper trail above the falls or the lower trail that provides a better vista of the falls themselves. We did both trails in about three hours.

It is winter right now in South America, however, and this particular season has been even drier than usual. Although a few of the preliminary waterfalls were quite powerful, many were dry and we couldn't help but feel a little cheated.

The third trail leads up to the culminating finale, Devil's Gorge. It was a nice hike that took about an hour at our leisurely pace. We laughed as people passed us at mach speed to make a beeline for the falls. So much for the journey being the destination.

Devil's Gorge definitely lived up to our expectations. The falls were magnanimous and powerful.

A large rock was poised in the middle of the gorge as the water crashed down on all sides. We stood for more than twenty minutes enjoying the scenery and watching a crane that stood just twenty yards away on the other side of the falls.

Hopefully, this explanation will suffice because the pictures will take a while to get before we can post. In a repeat episode, Bill forgot back up and the camera died right as we got to the Gorge.

Bill Edit: Yes, I let the camera battery die again (who can keep up with the pace with which Chrissy takes pictures). Here are a couple of shots from the falls before the battery died:

And, I will say that the camera died when my wife was shooting a video:

On the hike back, we saw several plush-brested jays. They are beautiful birds,with their black and white markings and red beak. We also enjoyed seeing a Picassamus fish (a.k.a., algae eater) that reminded of us of our not-so-little pet fish, Shiddo, who´s back home in Dallas with our friends, John and Steph.

Bonnie bought a nice woven purse from an indegenous woman and then we caught the van back to the hostel.

After a wonderful meal of wine, pasta and suruba fish at a local favorite restaurant, we retired to our hostel and room. The morning would come before we knew it and we would be off to Salta...

Buenos Aires Part II, August 12 - August 15, 2006

2006-08-25T23:12:00Z

After the late night tango show we spent three more nights in Buenos Aires. The city really has a European feel to it. Full of cafes and bustling with people.

We walked a good distance across town making our way towards an outdoor artisan fair in the suburb of Recoleta, stopping in several parks and taking a peak at the Argentine national library on the way. The fair was a big hit with Chrissy and Bonnie, who went from booth to booth examining crafts made by local folks. There was a large amount of leather items, silver and glass jewlery, as well as small paintings. We literally went to every booth, which was driving me crazy a couple of hours into it. A guy can only look at so many leather wallets. The ladies had a great time and bought several things each.

*****Chrissy comments:***********

Bill was doing great until I started to commission a lady to paint the seven steps of the tango for us. I wasn´t able to complete the request but I was given a quote and promised that she would honor the price discussed. Now I just have to convince my husband. I think we can all agree though that one of the things on life´s checklist should be to commission a piece of art just once. Right?

******end of Chrissy comments******

After the fair, we went to Recoleta cemetery. This is where numerous Argentine dignitaries are buried, including Evita. It is a really creepy place. The tombs are huge:

with most having an above ground door which you can peer into and see coffins both above ground and usually down some short stairs to an underground room. A good number of the crypts have not been maintained and the stone is crumbling, coffins rotting. I had enough of this pretty quick, but the day of Billy torture continued with Chrissy and Bonnie both wanting to walk around the cemetery forever.

Our last full day in Buenos Aires we went to an antique fair in the neighborhood of San Telmo, followed by a bottle of excellent wine in a nearby restaurant. The waiter had a passion for wines and encouraged us to let it sit and then drink it very slowly. It´s amazing how one person with the right amount of knowledge can make the experience that much richer. But he did.

Next it was back to the hostel for a short nap before heading back out around 10 PM for dinner (this is the normal time in BA for dinner). We went to a parillo, which is similar to a steak house. Awesome inexpensive (around $7 USD) steaks and good wine.

We had tickets for a night bus out of town the next day, so we had plenty of time to take in the suburb of La Boca before heading to the station. La Boca is kind of a crazy place with the houses painted in all kinds of vibrant colors. It was pretty touristy, but we did see a street tango show which was excellent and had lunch in a small family restaurant which was pretty tasty.

Buenos Aires is definitely a town we could return to. The people are friendly and there is good food.

Buenos Aires Part I, August 9 - August 11, 2006

2006-08-25T22:52:00Z

B.A. The city of Evita, parillas, tango and wine. What is there not to love? Certainly, we can think of nothing.

Bill and I flew in from Rio and met Bill's sister, Bonnie, at the airport. She had sustained a long couple of days flying in from Seattle before having to wait in the airport for five hours for us.

The weather was bleak. Drizzling and overcast skies rarely give you an accurate first glimpse of a new place. The buildings, the whole feel, did not initially live up to our high expectations. Expectations built by other backpackers, usually a reliable source for us.

We arrived at our hostel in Palermo Viejo, the SoHo of the city, and decided to take it easy on the first day. We settled our things into an old mansion that had been converted into a hostel and walked down the street to the supermarket for some wine, cheese, and fruit. It was at this point that our opinions started to change for the better. We started to look and thought that our eyes must be fooling us. Bottles of wine for less than $1. OK, so perhaps that is the Boone's of Argentina...I can't personally say one way or another. But what I can attest to is that as we continued to look, we found that the good, middle of the road wines were only $3 or so per bottle.

It was a good night.

The next two days we toured the downtown area - first visiting La Casa Posada (the pink house) where Evita from her balcony addressed the people down below in Plaza Mayo. This was followed by a walk around Plaza Mayo and a tour inside the beautiful Modern Cathedral. We continued on to Congress, the tower at Retiro and the docks of Puerto Madero - the new epicenter of B.A. gastronomy.

Friday evening, we went to Café Tortino for a tango show. The café is dated from the late 1800s and rivals any of the finest cafes in Paris with its intricate mahagony tables and bar and the warmth of the sun through its stain glassed windows.

We sat at a four-person table and were soon joined by Juan, a porteño that decided to catch his first show at the famous salon. We speak little Spanish, but he spoke even less English, so Spanish it was. Nothing that two bottles of vino tinto cannot overcome. Some day Bonnie, Bill and myself will have to compare notes as to what we think was discussed that evening. When not speaking a foreign language EVERYTHING is up for interpretation.

The tango began and I was instantly entranced. It truly is like no other dance in the world and its seductiveness cannot be disputed. To put it simply and crudely it is just awesome. The dance comprises four songs each separated by an interlude from the accompanying band of piano, guitar and accordian players. The music varies between slow and fast, but is always melancholic. It is a dance that originates from the barrios but was perfected in the European salons of the early 1900s. Sharp kicks symbolize knives piercing bodies and the twists and turns move along in a sly yet sensuous manner.

I cannot say if the songs were interwoven or not. [In fact, if one of our readers knows, we would love to know.] By the end, Bonnie and I were mesmerized though. I don't know if it's possible to watch without dreaming that you can dance like that.

The dance ended and Juan was so kind that he picked up our tab. He refused to have it any other way. Just one more example of the kindness of strangers and the kindness that we continue to experience on this trip.

Just a few days in though and one thing was for certain - we were smitten with Buenos Aires.

- Chrissy