Punta Tombo - More Pinguino Pictures!

More Penguins and a Guanaco (llama relative) at Punta Tombo in Patagonia. Original post here.

Iguazu Falls - More Pictures

Just a few more of the many pictures we got at Iguazu Falls in December. The original post is here.

Mendoza

We're deep in wine country now, and back in the hot summer weather. Supposed to be 36 degrees C today, ouch. Mendoza is located right in the desert, but you wouldn't know it by all the trees and the giant park. Thanks to a complex irrigation system devised by the indigenous Huarpe people that runs throughout the entire city, Mendoza looks like it gets rain, when in fact, less than 200 mm falls per year.


Yesterday we rented bikes in Maipu, a town just a short bus ride south of Mendoza, and did a self-guided tour of the wineries in the area. It was fun, but sooooo hot. Couldn't tote any cases of wine back on the bikes, but I seriously considered trying.

On the way back, we had to take 2 different buses. The first one, from Coquimbito to Maipu, went fine (well, except the bus overheated and we had to transfer), but then we got on the wrong "9" bus, and ended up going all the way to the bus terminal, into the center of Mendoza, and started heading towards Godoy Cruz (far from where we were staying). Ended up getting off at a Walmart (joy!), and had to pay for a cab back to the hotel. The ordeal took probably 3 hours when it should have only taken 1. Sadly, this sort of thing happens to us all the time, so we weren't too surprised, even though we were just as pissed as usual.

Playing catch-up, once again

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, and our connection to the real world limited. Patagonia is so vast, so remote...and so inconvenient sometimes. But each place we go to amazes me more than the last. Some of the things I've seen down here are so incredibly unique and beautiful- I almost can't believe places like this exist on our planet. But before I get into all that, let me explain what I mean about inconvenient...

Left Ushuaia on December 30. Another 12-hour bus ride lay ahead, but I wasn't too bothered, since the trip down went smoothly. My optimistic attitude was soon crushed, as border crossings took three times longer than before. But the worst came when we reached the Strait of Magellan, where a ferry was supposed to be waiting. Driver told us it would be a bit of a wait, and that we could get off the bus and stretch our legs...hours later, we were still there, no ferry in sight. Winds were too strong, they told us. We had to wait until they died down.

7 hours later, after numerous circuits through the over-crowded cafe (the only thing around), the bathroom, back on the bus, and the shore, we FINALLY got on the ferry. It was about 11:45pm when we arrived in Rio Gallegos. Having missed our connection (8:30pm) to El Calafate, we were lucky enough to catch another that left at 12:30am, but had to pay for new tickets. 4 hours later, we arrived in Calafate. Went to bed at 5:30am December 31st.

Luckily that is all behind us, but my New Years resolution was to make the next long journey by plane, despite the ridiculous cost ($500 USD for 1.5 hour flight).


Spent a day at Moreno Glacier, one of the few glaciers that is still advancing, despite climate shifts and global warming. I have never seen such forces of nature on display. My pictures don't do it justice.




We took a shuttle with Cal-Tur up to the park, didn't do the tour. Cost was 80 pesos each r/t, plus 40 pesos per person for park entry. That's about 35 USD each.



Each time a piece of the wall broke off, it rumbled like thunder as it crashed into the water.

Just to get an idea of the scale, the walls of the glacier were incredibly tall.

Punta Tombo - Penguin Colony

One of the coolest things we've done so far is a drive down to Punta Tombo, the second largest penguin colony in the world (other than in Antarctica). We met a couple (Carrie and Hugh) on the bus to Puerto Madryn a few days prior, and ended hanging out with them a lot the next few days. They were very cool, and had been living in Buenos Aires for a few years. It was fortuitous running into them because they had similar sightseeing plans, and they are fluent in Spanish. We split the cost of a car rental, and took the little VW Golf on the 90 minute drive from Puerto Madryn south to Punta Tombo.

The colony is home to thousands of Magellanic penguins. You follow a path right through their hilly nest sites. Penguins are walking all over the place (yield to all penguins and keep your distance!) and standing guard over their nests, little burrows under the Patagonian bushes, where the babies and juveniles are concealed. I think the baby penguins had mostly hatched 2 or 3 months earlier. The path leads to a beach where they hang out and go fishing. There is a rocky outcropping where you can look at them from above, waddling in and out of the ocean, and zipping around underwater as if they are flying.

The whole experience was very cool, and I'm glad we got a chance to do it. On the drive back, we even spotted a Rhea from the car. It is a large flightless bird like an ostrich.

Wheeeeee!

Yesterday we went ziplining in the park :P







All of our pics will be posted on my flickr page, btw. Check it out