Puerto Madryn

Wildlife galore! This is the place to be for all sorts of marine animals. Penguins, elephant seals, sea lions and whales. I flew because the bus ride is 17-20 hours and I'm done with that nonsense. The flight was two hours, that gives you an idea of the distance to cover, 700km.

Arriving in Puerto Madryn is like arriving in another world. The land is so flat and dry. There is only bushes and scrub as vegetation. There are no buses, the town is geared to tourism. Everything is expensive, but that's how it goes sometimes. The first day, I walked out and turned left to the Atlantic ocean and saw two whales sticking their head up and down out of the water! It was amazing. I stood and watched them for half an hour.

I ended up taking one tour and joining a couple of girls who had rented a car. We drove for 2 hours to Punta Tombo, the "famous" penguin colony of Patagonia. There are thousands of penguins here. And they aren't afraid of humans. We are supposed to stay 2 meters away from them and stay on the paths. But of course, no one does that!

P-p-p-p-p-p Pingu! Pingu!

We had a fight...

After the penguins, we were hungry and ended up going to the small town of Gaiman, only 5000 people live there. A lot of them of Welsh descent and that's why there are so many English tea houses. Who would've thought that after a day of waddling around with penguins, I'd end up having a full English tea service! The pastries were really good.

I like cake! Yummy Yummy Yummy!

That small blue speck close to the horizon is a whale...I swear!

Before heading back to the hostel, we went to a beach that is famous for seeing whales. And we saw them smacking their tails against the water. One even did a full breach of the water and came down with a huge splash! They are enormous and tranquil and fun-loving at the same time.

The second day in P. Madryn was for the elephant seals. A 4x4 picked us up from the hostel with two other people from France and our guide. That was it. After an hour and a half drive, we were there, Punta Ninfas! And the beach was ours. No one else goes here, because they prefer going to the more popular Peninsula Valdes where there is a greater variety of wildlife...but you can't get anywhere as close. Elephant seals are interesting creatures. The mothers raise the young only for 20-25 days, and then they are on their own. They have to live on their own and learn what they need to by themselves. The alpha males have a harem of varying sizes and there are peripheral males who try to sneak in and mate with the females when the alpha is sleeping or not paying attention! Pretty sure that's a crime in the human world.

Start of the Elephant Seal Adventure

Our guide helping the French ladies climb down

Halway down

Ahhh, that's why they call them elephant seals...

6 metres long!

What up seal?

Baby seal

Sea lion!!!

The long walk back

So tiring laying on the beach all day!

Last look

We descended down a 40m tall sandstone cliff to the rocky beach where there were loads and loads of elephant seals. We were really lucky and even saw a sea lion and his wife as well. We were so close, we could literally reach out and touch them. But we didn't bother the animals. This is an unprotected area and soon enough the Argentines will start charging for this too. But for now, it was just us and the seals. Amazing.

Iguazu Falls

Imagine Niagara Falls, now multiply it by 10 and plop it into the middle of the jungle. Even with your imagination's creative vision, Iguazu Falls would be much more than that.

It is absolutely incredible to be standing at the mouth of the falls and hearing the water rushing past, feeling the mist on your face, watching the swifts dart in and out of the water. On the day I was there, it was also raining a little bit. I had goosebumps all over. It was intense to be on the edge of something to massive and powerful. The picture will never do it justice. The videos will give a slight sense of how impressive it was. But this really is a must-see destination. It's one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

They have three or four trails cutting through the jungle that lead you to the upper portion of the falls, the lower portion of the falls and straight into the Devil's Throat (that's the name of the main falls). There's also another trail that leads through the forest to an amazing panoramic view of the jungle from on top of another waterfall.

There were butterflies everywhere! They landed on my shoulders, on my hat, on my shoes, on my ankles, even on my face! They weren't landing on anyone else. I feel special.

They have a boat that goes right into the heart of the falls. But this isn't your regular maid of the mist tugboat. It's a heavy duty craft with heavy duty motors to power into the middle of the raging falls and back out again. Definitely would be banned in Canada. This would be a top 5 highlight of my trip so far!

Boat to the falls

View from the boat before we went in

Devil's Throat

Devil's Throat

Devil's Throat

First Waterfall I saw

Mist everywhere!

Simply amazing!

Arts & Entertainment in BA

I took in some of the local culture in Buenos Aires. There is no blog post I could do that would do them justice. They were so good, so inspiring and so moving that all I can do is describe them, post some videos/photos and hope to do it some justice.

Show #1: Orquesta Tipico Fernando Fierro
This is not your grandpa's tango concert. These young, hip musicians are tranforming tango into something cool. You can see their passion and love for the music they create in every single song. The place looks just like a converted warehouse and is not a typical concert venue at all. It's dark with brick walls all around. The stage has a bunch of small cameras set up in front of the musicians which show a live feed during the concert projected behind them on stage. There's also a lighting spectacle which is timed with the music. Check out the video for a small portion of the amazingness!

4 accordians + 1 cello + 6 violins + 1 bass and a vocalists = one amazing concert experience. 

Sketchy Entrance...so?

Brick wall and light fixtures

Show #2: Fuerza Bruta
How do I describe this show? I really can't. I went to see it twice. Once on Friday and again on Saturday. It's that good. It's like someone got really high, then got some musical instruments, had a weird crazy dream and then made it into a show. This is a fully interactive show with the "actors" coming into the audience and making you feel like you are a part of it. There are no seats, you just stand and make way for the different props and sets that come into the floor space. There is rain indoors and a full dance party breaks out in the middle of the show led by the actors and the resident DJ. My pictures can't do it any justice at all, I'll just attach their video and leave it at that.

Show #3: Complejo Tango
These guys were definitely in it for the money. The show was twice as expensive as any of the other ones. Totally packed with tourists (the others were all locals) and there was hardly any passion in the dance. And after the first two shows, it was really a let down. They dancers were talented no doubt. But it's like the difference between a meal that was cooked really well and a meal that was cooked with love. There just is no comparison. These shows are a dime a dozen in BA. I'm glad I went, but I wouldn't go back.

La Boca and El Caminito

Tango was born in Buenos Aires. More specifically, it was born in La Boca, supposedly inspired by the Caminito area.It is the setting for the other biggest futbol team in BA, Boca Juniors. A well-known player called Maradona came from there.  I took a bus from my hostel to El Caminito and was not disappointed. It's a photographers paradise with colourful buildings, graffiti everywhere and a massive blue and gold stadium. I spent a good half day just walking around and enjoying the sights here. It was a look into the less privileged side of the city. The pictures do not do it justice.

Superclasico! (Buenos Aires)

This game was the sporting event I've been waiting for down here. A match so big, the city stops to watch. And they did.

This was River Plate against La Boca! The biggest rivalry match in all of South America. These two teams have the support of more than half the country split between them. The fans hate each other. So much so that the visiting section is totally separate from the home crowd stands by a 10 foot tall fence lined with barbed wire at the top. They aren't allowed to leave until the home fans have all gone home.

At least...that what would have happened if there hadn't been so many fights recently that they banned all visiting fans from attending the other team's home games. They also banned alcohol from being sold in a 20 block radius around the stadium. It doesn't matter though, because the atmosphere was electric from the beginning. The fans were singing all the team songs (there were about 20 or so) before the game started.

I had to go to the stadium about two hours beforehand just to get a seat, and I barely got one. There were 65,000 people and there were boisterous. They lived and died with every play. I saw people clutching their heads, their hearts, standing and not sitting for the entire game! There was no need for loudspeaker sound systems because the fans singing altogether was so loud.

When the home team came out there were fireworks and flares that went off, even though the police pat you down before you enter the stadium. The game started in the day and went into the night. Both photos of the stadium are pretty cool...but I like the night time one better.

It was a good day at the futbol stadium even though the home team lost 1-0. I can't imagine how that place would have erupted if River Plate had scored. Oh well, maybe next time.

Uruguay

It's been a long time. It was cold in Buenos Aires and Chile, and since I had gotten all my things stolen, it changed my route a little bit. I went to meet a friend who was coming to Santiago who had brought some things with him for me and then I went back to Bolivia, where it was nice and warm. After a few weeks up there, I came back down South where spring was starting and it was starting to get nice again!

Patagonia will be coming up soon, and I would prefer to have nice weather rather than freezing cold temperatures. But this post is Uruguay!

Uruguay is an interesting little country full of quirky little corners. It's really expensive. That came as a big surprise. I got there by crossing the river from Buenos Aires on a high speed ferry. It only took about an hour.

I went to three cities, Colonia Del Sacramento, Montevideo and Punta del Este.

Colonia is a small ancient town. I like the old city there. You feel like you stepped back in time. The town is so small, they don't even have taxis, because you can walk everywhere! The streets are cobble, the buildings are brick, and there are even ruins hanging around.

The lighthouse on the ruins of a convent

 Tree lined cobble stoned streets!

Above is the old gate to the city. Colonia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it shows fine examples of colonial Spanish and Portuguese architecture. I had a good time there.

Montevideo is a sprawling capital city. It just goes on for miles and miles. I went to the old city there and was surprised at the lack of upkeep and restoration that they do (or don't). Beside 300-400 year old buildings were old 1970s style buildings and brand new modern all glass skyscrapers. It felt like the city didn't know whether it wanted to be old or new. I've shown some of the older buildings below.
It's hard to get a sense of the grandeur of the Banco de la Republica del Uruguay because there were no people around. It was seriously a ghost town when I was there. But this building is massive, easily 4 or 5 stories high.

The balconies (picture above) were so intricate and adorned with so many different things. The artists really took their time sculpting. This seems to be a lost art in North America. Finally, the Teatro Solis is the oldest theatre in Montevideo. I just wanted to check out the building, but there were people dancing tango out front! Amazing! Check out the video...

Punta del Este is a serious beach town. And when I say serious, I mean it. There was nobody there when I was there, because it's still winter down here. There was no one on the beach because it was cold. It seems like the Miami Beach of South America though. Casinos line the streets alongside high-end stores. There are dozens of condos being built with ocean views. It rained when I was there and was sunny on the very last day. They have this cool hand in the sand where you can take pictures. The skies cleared on my last day there...so sad. It's back to Buenos Aires where more adventures await!