Tigre, Parana Delta, San Isidro Argentina

Tigre is a gateway to the Parana Delta, silty lands that now claim many weekend homes.
Anywhere From amazing to scary these murky channels lead to some backwoods, bayou shacks and mansions.

We had a great 4 hour trip on a wooden taxi boat. It was interesting to see the folks that live in the delta move to and fro their houses with arms full of supplies.

Getting off for a brief time we sat in the warm, humid air and drank a beer. Returning to Tigre full of wonderment

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We stayed at an amazing B&B, in a turn of the century house and a wonderful family.

Our following morning we enjoyed breakfast and went straight to the fruit market. I really enjoyed this market. The market was full of reed baskets and furniture made from the plentiful reeds on the delta.

Fresh fruit, dried fruit and many different artisan crafts. Luckily we were short on time because I may have spent a ton more money.
Retreating back toward the city we met our friend Pablo and drove out to his farm. Em had pre-arranged an opportunity to ride some argentine show jumpers. She was able to do just that, as well as take her first riding lesson in spanish.

In fact that is where she is right now as I sit and scribe this.

Last night as we re-cap and talk about these past 6 months we both decided if we had our dogs here and Emily’s horse, Chivas we would likely stay much longer. After 6 months we are "over the hump." Our spanish is much better, we are fitting in and meeting new people, we enjoy different aspects of living in a foreign country and feel that there are many opportunities to be had here. That being said we are also ready to return home, as we are now in the home stretch.
I will likely blog upon returning home to recap the trip but I just want to thank those who showed interest in our travels and tell you it was fun to share via this context. I am quite sure this will not be our last trip of this kind but I am happy to past the torch to the next willing soul to wander this amazing planet!!!

We will be home Tuesday October 21st but may not surface until the 23rd. Please call or email us as we are excited to reunite with all of YOU!

Back in Buenos Aires, Argentina

After a short 18 hour bus ride (not short at all but we are now seasoned long distance bus folk) we arrived back in the big city. We headed directly to Chad and Kori’s (our texas friends living here while Kori attends Chef School) and chilled for the morning.
My hidden agenda had the Argentina vs. Uruguay soccer game in my crosshairs for later that evening. Chad and I went to the stadium to see if we could round up some tix. We were successful, actually we were lucky. In a brief moment of error we purchased two lower level, half line tickets for face value $50. After realizing his mistake he started rapping and steaming in a state of frustration. The deal had already gone down we both said in our best spanish confrentation talk. We quickly headed into the stadium to confirm these tickets were the real deal, hot dog the foreigners won!

The seats were great, the game was a blast! Argentina quickly scored 2 goals and then sat on their heels the rest of the game (I think this is a metaphor for Argentine work ethic?). Uruguay scored early in the second half making the rest of the game interesting.

My favorite chant had the entire stadium jumping and singing "saltan salta saltar a Uruguay" (let's jump, jump, jump on uruguay)

After a few pre game sprinkles we had a beautiful evening, some new futbol chants lingering in my mind we met up with the girls in China town for some grub.
The following day we headed to the antique market in San telmo.

Crazy and touristy we enjoyed another beautiful day. San telmo is a cool, old neighborhood.

We have been shopping and enjoying the high life here in BA this week with our side trip to Tigre.
Some may know some may not: we have returned to Buenos Aires for our last week in South America. WE ARE COMING HOME!

Punto Tombo, Chubut Argentina

Hello MR. PENGUINO! We drove roughly 2 hours south of Puerto Madryn and arrived via dusty road to Punto Tombo. PT houses a colony of roughly half a million magellanic penguins for a few months a year. Fortunately we were able to visit during their mating time, as well as when the females were laying their eggs.

This place was truly special. We were able to wonder around among wild penguins and watch them in their true state of being.

At first glimpse you cannot believe such a place exists, from the ocean to the surrounding hills there are thousands of these awkward, non flying birds.
The best truly was just watching and walking among them as they were sleeping, constructing/repairing their nests, mating, walking, swimming, grooming, protecting the next generation and just being their funny selves.

It was such a joy to watch and learn how goofy they really are.

Our favorite time was probably watching them gracefully swim to shore and in the violence and turmoil that comes with waves hitting the beach, they stand up and waddle to safety. Absolutely hilarious!!!! I think this strange transition is the only situation in which I think they get nervous? So funny to watch them ponder and wait to pick their perfect moment to fall from grace. We sat and watched for what seemed like hours, wearing permanent smiles.
At times as we walked around always taking care not to step on one, because they are everywhere. Each couple is true to one another for a lifetime and they return to the same spot each year to lay eggs.

Protecting the eggs for up to 40 days until the furry, gray little ones arrive. During that time they take turns protecting the egg and searching for food (in the ocean). I must say the first penguins have the best real estate and the poor saps that ended up and the vast hillsides have a lot more work to simply get to the ocean.
They are so mellow and funny. What a fun place to visit!

We then retreated to Gaiman, a surviving Welsh town for some high tea. Bottomless Tea and postres in a room of relics and stories of survival in times past.
Driving back to Puerto Madryn the pampas awarded us a beautiful sunset as we all snickered about the penguins we came to know and love>

Puerto Madryn and Penninsula Valdez

Well I am convinced we just visited the sea life capital of Argentina and It was AWESOME! Puerto madryn from Ushuaia was quite a long way and i will spare you the details and dramas of that trip. Arriving in Puerto Madryn at midday we were picked up by our Swiss friends Magali and Sebastien in our rented car. With the freedom of 3 days with our own transportation we quickly headed to Penninsula Valdez. Through dusty, dry and desolate lands we arrived at Punta Piramides. note, the pictures for this place are devoted to what we saw in the water since the land was not really worthy of many pictures

We booked our boat ride into the bay, to view the Southern right whales (ballenas, aqui). Not but a few short minutes later we had laid eyes on our first of many of these massive swimming mammals. Not known for the beauty (pretty ugly actually) they are lathargic and ginormous beasts, amazingly they move with grace and playfulness.

Our 1 1/2 hour trip awarded many closeup oppurtunities to view and watch the whales, actually it was mating season and in a few awkward moments we had witnessed some "whale lovin." My favorite time I recall struggling to find the correct spot to watch (or take pictures) due to the fact we were surrounded by atleast 8 whales!

We stayed on the penninsula that night which allowed us a strategic jump-off to the rest of the area. The following morning we headed deeper onto the penninsula stopping first at the Elephant seal area (as a side note the entire east coast is covered by families of elephant seals so truly we were only able to see a few of the thousands that house here for the season).

This part was really fun to just wait and watch. At first approach you think that these giant blobs of fat are lazy and unimpressive. However after some time and patience you have a chance to recognize the living dynamics. Each "pack" or harem has one dominant male elephant (called this because of their nose) that demands attention from the 10-15 females.

The females had recently given birth to pups whom quickly adapted to their lazy beach life.

The dominant male at this time of year had the job of defending his role as the master, so we witnessed some great fights.

Naturally the young males wanted some action too, but they first must fight the dominant male. Seems like this would be fairly easy due to the fact they are the fattest and slowest, but then again he has wisdom is on his side (and he is constantly in a state of satifaction, which we also witnessed). Needless to say it was fun to "watch nature breath."

After spending a long time in awe, we continued onto another walkway. The sand bar just off shore provided a sanctuary where we were lucky enough (quite rare apparently) to see a family of orcas.

Em was the first to spot them so we quickly poised our cameras. For the next 10 minutes we were alone watching them play in the bay. After that word had gotten out and we were in the mass of camera bearing tourists. We truly had a great time watching them and what we later realized was that the mother was teaching the calves how to ramp onto the beach to feed. They were practicing for the later months when the feed on the pup seals that head out into water as they learn to swim. It was super cool!

Then even further down the road we experienced our first penguin colony. These funny and goofy little birds were a joy to watch and i will tell more about them in our next blog.

The long and dusty road back had a spur along the coast that gave us even more glimpses of the right whales as the sun faded into the horizon.

What a cool place we were able to experience, i am still in a state of wonderment as i write this.

Los Penguinos

How could you not smile when you meet this guy?

More about our last 5 days soon, it has been full of whales, elephant seals, and Penguins!

Ushuaia, FIN DEL MUNDO Argentina

Taking a nice 2 hour flight from Calafate, on an otherwise scary plane we arrived at the southernmost city in the world (this is debatable but we are going with it).




Ushuaia is a port town on the shores of the beagle channel and is on the island of Tierra del Fuego. We are truly at the end, as we feel the relentless wind blow and the rapidly changing weather. Needless to say the setting is a bowl shaped city, facing the port to the south with a backdrop of snow capped mountains. Ushuaia is an isolated and volitile place that has seen its share of change.

Our first day We spent a great day in the Tierra del fuego national park (last day of the off season and still free) hiking the coastal trail, it was a great day of fast changing weather and water.

Our highlight was probably seeing woody woodpecker in action, in spanish they are called Carpinteros: seems so appropriate!


After a nice adventurous day we went to a converted navy hangar to see a good ol hollywood actioncomedy, Tropic thunder. I must say Emily and I laughed alone through most of the movie, these poor folks miss most of the goods with the translated subtitles.





This is a nice evening shot followed by some KING crab, Em was stoked!



Sharing costs with Magali and Sebastian, we rented a car. Driving north (since further south is not an option) and out of town on the icy roads we summited a mountain pass and dropped down into the flatter, arid valley. We headed about 200km to Cabo San Pablo. Destination: visiting one of the victims of these wild seas that now lays rest on the beach.

OOPs.


Upon our return we stopped at countless beaver lodges in search of the infamous Castor (beaver in spanish ) Seeing only a few actual beavers we saw plenty of their handy work.





The area we were in is home to some of the craziest fungi ridden-hairy trees, many different bird species, wild huanacos (see below) and more sheep than humans.




In route back we stopped at Estancia Tepi for a pre-arranged postre and tea. It turned into about 8 different types of deserts, all good, all consumed and all of us were nearly ill (with delight). We then walked around the working ranch through eery green trees, limitless skies and very cold wind. Our experience at the estancia was very friendly and if i could change only one thing it would be that we all took a nice long siesta there.

Yesterday we went to the fin del mundo museo to make it official, stamping our passports to prove the obvious. Sticking with our theme we then went to the maritime museum, in the converted jail (the end of the world is a pretty good place to house the undesirables).
It was crazy to read and think about the many adventurous souls that both succeeded and lay victim to these harsh waters. My favorite being the map of over 250 ships that have sunk between here and antarctica.


We are quite happy to have finally made it to the southern most point of our trip. Deciding to save Antarctica for another time. We hope not to fall off the end of the earth and begin our return to the north, followed then by our return the the northern hemisphere. In all its glory we have reached Deep Patagonia! Now we search for Penguins.