Beautiful Buenos Aires

Here we are at last, following in the footsteps of Sam, our travelling daughter. I knew it was a mistake to comment on the great weather we've been having though. At least it's warm rain here.

This city throbs with passion and chaos; the never-ending protests on Plaza de Mayo, the street tango dancers and the edgy, crazy atmosphere in La Boca.

On our last day here we catch the hop on hop off bus to try and capture the feel of the different city communities; impossible on one day of course but the best we can do. It proves to be a brilliant day. Anyway, perhaps the images below might convey a little of the BA flavour...

Plaza de Mayo

Crazy La Boca

Pope Francis, local hero

La Boca

Living in La Boca

In contrast..

Beautiful buildings, beautiful shopping..

Sophisticated dockside development

Flor Floralis.. Mechanised flower sculpture

Here rests Eva Perón

...and this is the balcony from which she spoke to the adoring crowds:

Tango!
Well, there are the street tango dancers which give the city its unique flavour and there are the wonderful balletic tango shows.. like nowhere else on earth. Both are part of this city.

On the Street  (link)

Buenos Aires at play on Sunday

Mad markets in San Telmo

Street Blues in San Telmo (link)

China Town

There's much, much more to be had from this vibrant city... but we're worn out and out of time; off to Iguazú tomorrow. We've said fond farewells to our travelling companions as we split up from here. A great bunch. It's also very sad to leave Argentina proper - Iguazú is something entirely different I think: let's see...
Later at the airport...
Well, we're now experiencing the downside of the Argentinian industrial unrest ourselves. Is our flight cancelled or delayed?? Air traffic controllers and ground staff strike we are told. No info.  Hundreds of confused people being very patient indeed... Ah! Just as I wrote that, almost everyone starts clapping in unison. Let's look on this as a learning experience...

A note on weather

We seem to be taking unseasonably good weather around with us - all the guides have commented on it.

We just missed chaos in Chile:

Chile El Niño video

Fingers crossed for the rest of the trip...

Ushuaia: Fin del Mundo

The end of the earth....

Town Motto:
"Ushuaia, fin del mundo, principio de todo"  
"Ushuaia, end of the world, beginning of everything"

There is a real sense that this is a frontier town. The houses are mainly constructed from fairly basic materials with 'tin' roofs but, occasionally, a beautifully constructed home sprouts up in an otherwise unremarkable street.

You get the sense that life might be hard here but successful businesses abound. The government's tax breaks help keep businesses working and wages relatively high, attracting workers.

Not sure about social life down here but young guys in old cars with lowered front suspension cruise through the centre of town in the early evening with the shades on, music blaring through open windows.

Fascinating Place.

On the Falklands (Islas Malvinas) issue (port entrance notice) :

Official sign outside the port:

Have to say, we've found the locals helpful and cheerful though our limited contacts.... apart from the truly awful service in the hotel bar and restaurant, that is.... and other groups seem to get OK service... maybe we're  all getting paranoid.  Great receptionists though.

The main street, San Martin 

Murals celerbrating the indigenous people who inhabited southern Patagonia prior to European intervention:

The local college...

The tourist economy... Cruise ships feed the expensive shops in the main street.

The railway originally laid to transport materials to build the prison as part of the penal colony is now used for tourism access into the National Park. Beautifully restored steam engines operate the line.

We sailed the Beagle Channel (which links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans) on a trip of 140km, seeing seals, seabirds and penguins.

While on this trip we stop to photograph penguins - but look what we find: they look like King Penguins to me:

A reminder that the channel presents some hazards for shipping:

More info: Wikipedia Link

Off to sample more local cuisine... then off to Buenos Aires tomorrow, so the trip takes on a very different feel from now on.

Argentinian Glaciers

Goodbye beautiful Chile... We will miss you.
Hello Argentina!

After 3 hours at the border to get a stamp on the passport and a five hour coach journey with no food we arrive at El Calafate in time to grab a quick take-away salad before a 4x4 trip to see local geology, flora and fauna. Note the upside-down patagonian Armadillo...

On the following day we take a trip by boat and coach to view the Perito Moreno glacier at really close range. Wonderfully impressive... words can't describe the experience (at least mine can't). We listened to the great cracks as the ice moved, large slices churning the lakes. This glacier grows and retracts, sometimes forming a dam between lake Argentino and the nearby lake, causing the level in Argentino to fall by metres until the dam is breached again. Fascinating. Quite the most impressive and active glacier we have seen, including Iceland's magnificent offerings.

and finally...
...Our last trip at this stop is cancelled because of very high winds... bit of a blow.
However this turns out to be no bad thing as I was beginning to get that over-organised twitch that always creeps up on me about now on these adventures; we have time to explore the local town, walk (with some difficulty in the cool blast admittedly) to see flamingos and take a trip to the glacier museum, which is great. Oh, and spend 20 cool minutes in an ice bar. Tip: don't drink whisky in an ice glass - it's 40% antifreeze.

Patagonia Perfection

Uplifting ...

We fly in over the patagonian ice fields to Punta Arenas then drive back north for 250km to our first destination, Puerto Natales. arriving at a restaurant at midnight... where we eat and consume a seafood platter and pisco sours. Surreal. After almost four hours sleep we take a gcatamaran trip to the largest glacier on earth apart from the polar regions. Like all glaciers, it's receding at an alarming rate. Magic moments in an icy blast of wind.

From here we also walk 15km to the French Valley between  granite walls of the central massive that sits in front of our hotel window.

We're travelling closer to Argentina through the Serrano river and lakes by Zodiac and catamaran today; more on that later.

And so to the the river trip.... 100km... fun to begin with...  Nightmare at the end. 100km in 9 hours including a visit to a glacier and lunch with approximately 10,000 other travellers. Mmmm.

Scary Ninja Boatman  (and I mean scary)

Glacial Tongue from the river Serrano

Into the Lakes

Nothing is ever as you expect it to be...  ever - and this is especially true when travelling.

We fly south to the Chilean Lake District, transferring to Puerto Varas. The surprise is the climate: this could be mistaken for Northern Europe - apart from the slightly menacing volcanos rising to the east. The area was subject to a significant migration of Germans in the mid 1800's and this influence is certainly obvious in the signs and names of the cafés and restaurants in this small town.  Interesting church (Catholic)... see image below.

We spend a day travelling up to the lower slopes of the Volcano Osorno, take a ski lift even higher then, later, we trek down through woods; underfoot there is always volcanic ash from the nearby volcano Calbuco, which erupted in 2015. A trip on lake Todas los Santos completes a good day.

Onward into Patagonia tomorrow....

Osorno over lake Llanquihue

The volcanic slopes of Osorno

Osorno

Lago Todos los Santos