CORDOBA, ROSARIO, & BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - JAN 22 - FEB 5

Cordoba

I try and sleep on the bus from Mendoza but it stops at every small town on the way to Cordoba and I wake up at every one of them. The bus arrives at about 8AM and after stopping at the Tourist Info kiosk in the bus station to pickup a map, I walk towards the city centre looking for a hostel. At the Peak Hostel, I get a private room for $25US. I'm out of clean clothes so I arrange for the hostel to do some laundry for me and then I take a nap for a couple hours as I did not sleep much on the bus last night.

Around noon just after the nap, I decide to explore the city centre while looking for a

restaurant for lunch. Cordoba is Argentina's 2nd largest city with a population of over 1.5 million and the downtown centre is packed with people. I have noticed that the main centre of most cities and towns are very busy up until 1PM when the shops all close for siesta and then they get busy again at 5PM when siesta ends and the streets stay busy until about 9PM. It is often difficult to walk down the sidewalk because of the number of people. The architecture in Cordoba is beautiful with many plazas and old colonial buildings. As I walk around the city, I find a currency exchange place that gives a 7 to 1 exchange so I buy $1,400 Pesos for $200US which is the best exchange rate I've found so far. I get back to the hostel around 5PM and spend the next couple of hours working on a new blog post. At around 9PM, I head out for dinner to a pizza restaurant, I still can't get used to eating so late. By 10PM I'm back at the hostel and watch a video with a few other guests in the common room.

The next morning, I sleep in a bit to 9AM and spend a couple hours working on my blog and uploading some photos. I then go for a walk to a large park along the outskirts of the city. It's really hot today, probably somewhere in the high thirties but at least it's fairly dry here so the humidity is quite low. Around 4PM, I stop at the bus station on my way back to the hostel and buy a bus ticket to Rosario for tomorrow morning leaving at 9AM. When I get back to the hostel, I go to get my laundry and it is still not done but they say it is supposed to be ready by 7PM. At 7PM I find out the laundry is done somewhere off site and my clothes have been washed and dried and will be delivered sometime before 9PM.

Around 8PM, I walk to the city centre and have a nice steak dinner. I then go to a nearby cinema to see Gangster Squad with Sean Penn which I find it very predictable and only average considering it has such a good supporting cast. I'm back to the hostel around 11PM and my laundry is still not back. Now I'm getting concerned as I have to leave tomorrow morning for the bus station at around 8AM. I'm told it is in a delivery truck making the rounds to hostels throughout the city and it could come by any time. Finally at 12:30AM, it arrives and I get my clothes. I then pack up my backpack and go to bed.

The next morning, I have breakfast at the hostel and then walk to the bus station. My bus leaves right at 9AM. It's only about 250kms to Rosario but the bus stops at every town along the way so we don't arrive there until after 3PM. It's about 20 blocks from the bus station to the main part of the city where all the hostels and hotels are located. I decide to walk which ends up being a mistake as it is 39 degrees Celsius and about 90% humidity outside. When I finally get to the first hostel called Hostel Point I'm so glad they have a room available at a good price of $22US.

Rio Parana at Rosario

Rosario is only a couple hours west of Buenos Aires and is Argentina's 3rd largest city of just over 1 million people. It is located along the Rio Parana which is a large river that is navigable by large ocean freighters. The city is beautiful with a nice river walkway the stretches for many kilometers and many plazas and parks. After checking in, I decide to go for a walk along the river. It's about 4PM and the walkway is teeming with people and I can't help notice how many beautiful women there are here. The local population looks very European and I'm surprised by how many fair skinned, blonde haired people I see. It is also nice to be in a place where I don't feel like a giant as the local men are just as tall as guys back home and I see quite a few guys my height (6' 2") or taller.

I really like the vibe of Rosario even though it is very hot and humid and I have a few days to kill before I want to continue on to Buenos Aires so I decide to stay for 4 nights. I don't do any tours or do anything exciting, I just relax, walk along the river for a couple hours everyday and check out a bunch of the local restaurants. It's nice to take some down time as I've been pushing the pace on my travels ever since I left La Paz because of my flight to Rio on Feb. 5th and I've had a lot of gruelling long bus rides over the last 8 weeks in which I've travelled more than 10,000km. Also, with all the night buses and dormitories that I stayed in, I'm suffering from a lack of sleep and need to recharge my batteries. Other than the river walks, I spend these 4 days reading, working on my blog, uploading pictures to Picasa and watching a few videos. One evening I go watch the 3D movie Hansel and Gretel, it was entertaining but not much of a script. The weather is perfect these 4 days and it even cools down 7 or 8 degrees the last 2 days and the humidity lets up a bit too.

I'm the only English speaking traveller staying in the hostel although there are some Chilean, Brazilian and Argentinian people staying here. Local people travelling is probably the main difference between travelling in Chile and Argentina compared to Bolivia and the countries north of Bolivia and I suspect Brazil will be similar. In Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, most hostels and hotels were full of Gringos from Europe, Australia, Israel, Canada and the US. The local people, in general, could not afford to travel within their own country or stay at the hostels and hotels that foreign travellers stay in.

But in Chile and Argentina, the locals make up the biggest percentage of travellers so the hostels and hotels are full of Spanish speaking people. It really makes me regret how poorly I've done with learning Spanish. My "travel" Spanish is pretty good but trying to have an actual conversation is impossible as my vocabulary is very limited and now I'm soon to leave the Spanish speaking countries and go to Brazil for 2 to 3 months which of course speaks Portuguese. As a result, I sometimes go days without meeting English speaking people but I have only myself to blame as I was frustrated with my progress after my 2 weeks of Spanish lessons in Colombia and since then I have not tried very hard to improve my Spanish.

Buenos Aires

On Saturday afternoon of the 26th, I walk to the bus station and buy a ticket for tomorrow's 11AM bus to Buenos Aires. This is a city of been looking forward to and I have 9 days to explore it before my flight leaves to Rio. This will also be the first place that I am travelling to where I actually know a person living there. Caro who I met on the San Blas Island sailboat trip from Panama to Colombia lives there. We have been in touch a few times in the last few weeks and I will be meeting up with her while in Buenos Aires.

It's a Sunday morning when I leave Rosario and it

takes about 3 hours to get to Buenos Aires. For a big city, it is amazing how quiet the streets are on a Sunday, they are basically deserted which is the norm everywhere in South America on a Sunday. Since I'm going to be staying here for 9 nights, I decide to check out a few hostels to see if I can find a good deal. I walk to 7 or 8 hostels over about an hour, either the price is higher than I want to pay or they don't have a room available. I finally go to the BA Stop Hostel and find a private room for about $25US per night. It's not a bad price but I will have to switch rooms a couple times because of some

reservations so I decide to check out one the Portal del Sur Hostel a couple blocks away. If I can't get a good deal there, I will come back to BA Stop. The Portal del Sur hostel is very nice and the desk clerk tells ne that a room is $38US. When I tell him that I will be staying for 9 days, he quickly drops to $28US, then I tell him about the BA Stop price and he drops to $19US. I'm surprised how low he went but I take the room and it's one of the nicer hostels I've stayed in a while.

Buenos Aires is the largest city I have been to on this

trip. My guide book lists its population at over 10 million people but other sources often list the population at 12 to 15 million. It's all a matter of how big you draw the circle on the area that you are counting. Buenos Aires is also the name of the state that the city is located, like New York, New York. Portal del Sur is located in the city centre in a barrio called Centro. Centro is the office and retail centre of the city and it also has a lot of restaurants and bars. It's a good place to be located because of the central location and all the subway lines start in Centro and branch out from there. Buenos Aires is right on the coast but you can hardly tell, the city was built with it's back to the ocean. There is one small section of waterfront that has been rebuilt about 10 to 15 years ago called Puerto Madero. But even there, the only water you see is an inner canal and a small section of harbour. There is a march area turned into park but it was completely closed when I went there. The rest of the water front is either port facilities, naval facilities or marsh area.

The architecture of Buenos Aires is fabulous. Everywhere you look there are incredible colonial style buildings and monuments. You can never walk very far without coming to a plaza, a park or some impressive monument or fountain. The main part of the downtown which includes the barrios of Centro, Recoleta, Palermo and San Telmo are always bustling with people except on Sundays. The Av. Corrientes stretches west from Centro and is Buenos Aires equivalent to Broadway. In one 3 block stretch, there are a least a dozen large venues for live musicals and theatre. These 4 barrios are also teeming with restaurants of every type but Parrillas serving beef are king and the steaks are huge and awesome.

My friend Caro is a lawyer at a big downtown law firm. When I met her back in July, she had just left a New York firm and was doing some travelling before returning home to Buenos Aires. She first did some job hunting in Brazil but ended up taking a position in Buenos Aires instead. She's only been the are for a couple of months so she is working a lot; billable hours is what law firms are all about. As a result, she will be working all week so we setup a plan to meet on Friday at a Tango dance club so I have some time to explore the city.

I decide to do self guided walking tours of the city. The first afternoon after checking in, I walk over to San Telmo. On Sunday's, there is a big arts and craft market set up along one of the pedestrian only roadways. The streets are packed with people and there are hundreds of vendors setup up in the middle of the road. They just throw down a blanket and then put out all of there wares that they are selling. I spend the next day exploring Puerto Madero. I especially like the huge sailing frigate called Fragata Presidente Sarmiento. It's at least 200 feet long and was used as a Naval training vessel right up until 1961 and it is now permanently moored in a berth on an inner canal.

The next day I tour through Recoleta and Palermo all the way out to the horse racing track 7 or 8 kms northwest of the city centre. On the way back, I stop at a Fedex depot to finally pickup my replacement bank card more than 2 months after losing it. If you ever go on an extended travelling trip to anywhere other than Europe or North America, I recommend bringing a spare bank card that you keep somewhere other than with your other bank card so if you lose one you have another. Based on my 2 experiences with replacing a bank card and a credit card, it is almost impossible to get a courier package sent to you even when you are at the same location for a couple of weeks.  The only thing that seems to work is getting a courier package sent to a courier depot and picking it up in person. The problem is that only major cities have these depots, typically only capitol cities, so it can take quite a while. In my case, there were delays with my bank getting the card sent to my sister so it was not ready to courier when I was in Santiago and I did not want to wait for it and then it was more than 6 weeks until I got to Buenos Aires. But now I have it so I don't need to use my credit card for cash advances at ATMs anymore.

The next day, I explore Centro starting at the Plaza de Mayo. This is the main plaza for the city and a number of the main streets start here like Av. de Mayo, Av. J. A. Roca and Av. Roque S. Pena. I walk to the Plaza de la Republica on Av. 9 de Julio and the Plaza del Congresso on Av. de Mayo. I walk along the busy pedestrian road of Av. San Martin with all of its stores and cafes all the way to the Plaza San Martin. There are many amazing colonial buildings in this part of the city and some of the Avenues have beautiful monuments including a large Obelisk.

On Thursday, it is a holiday and I don't feel like doing a lot of walking. The streets around Centro are deserted like Sundays and I spend a quiet day in the hostel working on my next blog post. But, there is a stage being setup in the Plaza de Mayo and that evening I go watch a concert with some local folk music and rock music.

The next day I head back to San Telmo and explore some areas I did not go to last Sunday and I find a cool little restaurant there for lunch. I'm back at the hostel by 4PM and just relax for the rest of the afternoon as I am meeting Caro at la Catedral Club at 8:45PM. I take the metro to the dance club and it takes a little longer to get there than I expected so it is a little after 9PM when I get there. The club is on the 2nd floor or an old building and it looks like an old warehouse. But the decor is really funky and with the warehouse look, it has a real nice feel. The only bad thing is that it is so hot; all week it has been hot and humid but today was the worst and it is probably about 35C and 90% humidity and the club only has a few wall mounted fans around the perimeter. I don't see Caro anywhere, so I grab a table near the dance floor and order a beer.

I watch about a dozen beginner couples getting Tango dance lesson while I wait. The Tango looks like a hard dance to learn and it almost impossible to tell that the couple are actually trying to do the Tango. Caro arrives with a friend named Vivian a few minutes later. Vivian is originally from Argentina but grew up in Iowa. She has just moved to Buenos Aires a few months ago and is a teacher. For the first hour, the conversation is centered on what Caro and I have been doing since I last saw her in July in Cartegena. The dance club is also a restaurant so we all order dinner and some drinks.

Caro & Vivian

The lessons are soon over and another group begins but this group looks like intermediate students who have a little better understanding of the Tango. These lessons last for about an hour and by then a lot more people have arrived at the club and some locals who really know the Tango get on the dance floor and it's fun to watch them dance. A thunder storm is raging outside and we can hear the rain pounding down which is great. We all hope this storm will help reduce the heat and humidity for a few days.

At 1AM, they clear the dance floor and a folk music band sets up to play and they are really

good. I especially found one guy playing a percussion box very interesting. This box sat on the floor between his feet and was made of wood with a large opening on one end. It was amazing how he could generate different low bass notes with his hands depending on where he tapped on the box. After about half an hour, the live music was over but one of the players then did some local folk dance that had a little tap dance influence. It was amazing to watch with lots of posture, attitude and tempo in the dance. We decide to leave at 2AM and Caro drives me to my hostel and we agreed to meet for dinner or lunch somewhere before I fly to Rio on Tuesday.

I sleep in a bit the next morning but I am very pleased to find the temperature in the high twenties and the humidity has dropped a lot too, that storm last night really helped. I then decide to do some shopping. I want a nice soccer jersey of one of the local pro teams and I'm looking to buy some gifts for people back home. But I am surprised how expensive things are and I'm getting low on Argentinian Pesos. I also am out of the US money that I had brought to take advantage of the better exchange rate. If I buy anything, I will have to use my credit card or take money out of an ATM and I will only get a little less than a 5 to 1 exchange which is about 40% less than I got with my US money. So, I decide to wait until I'm out of Argentina to buy anything to bring home and I'm hoping I can stretch my remaining Pesos to last until my flight on Tuesday.

Rio Tigre

Sunday is a lazy day spent working on my blog, uploading photos to Picasa, downloading movies to my tablet and reading. I do go for a walk to San Telmo to go to a restaurant that some people in my hostel were recommending and I have an awesome steak dinner. I also arrange to meet Caro for lunch on Tuesday and I get her to give me suggestions of place to go when I go to Tigre tomorrow.

Tigre is a middle class city of over 300,000 people located 35kms o the northwest of Buenos Aires on the delta of the Rio Parana. The Rio Tigre

winds through the city like a canal and there is a nice river walk along most of the Tigre. I'm up early and grab some breakfast then walk 30 minutes to the bus/train station in the Retiro district. I buy a train ticket for $2US and I'm on the 10AM commuter train that takes about an hour to get to Tigre. I walk along the river for a couples of hours before stopping at a nice restaurant for lunch.

I had noticed there is a park and a casino not far from the Rio Tigre when I was looking at Google Maps last night so I decide to walk and check them

out. It turns out the the park is actually an amusement park and it is all locked up and everything around seems to be closed. I've been walking for more than an hour since having lunch and I really need a washroom and I can see the large casino just a few hundred metres up the street so I walk there. After finding the washroom, I decide to check out the Blackjack tables. There is a table with a $2US minimum so I buy $50US worth of chips and start playing. The first hand I get a Blackjack, I win the next hand as well and then I get another Blackjack. I end up having the most amazing streak

and the dealer goes through 1 full shoe of cards (6 decks) without me losing once and only pushing 3 times. Then I go most of the way through another shoe before finally losing a hand and then I lose 4 in a row. I decide my lucks changed and cash out and I'm up almost $250US. The most amazing thing is I never touched my bet for over 40 minutes, all I did was double down a few times and remove chips when I had won. I never had a streak like this, too bad I wasn't betting more than the minimum but the good news is I will definitely have enough Argentina Pesos to last me until tomorrow evening when I fly to Rio.

After leaving the casino, I walk back to the train station and I'm back in Buenos Aires by 4PM. That evening, I treat myself to a nice steak dinner using my winnings since it will likely be my last chance at Argentinian beef this trip. The next day I pickup some laundry I got done, pack my bags and put them in storage for the day. Around noon I walk to the restaurant I'm meeting Caro at. The restaurant is really cool and it is located in an old monastery. Two other friends of Caro's join us, one has just flown in on holiday from Chicago and Caro wanted me to meet her because she is going to Patagonia and has lots of questions about my travels there. The other is a co-worker from her law firm who also got her law degree in the US and speaks perfect English. We have a nice lunch but by 2PM, it's time for Caro to head back to work. I say good-bye to Caro and her friends and walk back to the hostel.

I want to get one more blog post done before I get to Rio because with Carnival, I likely won't be working on my blog for a while. My flight does not leave until 9:30PM so I have a couple hours to kill. I've been told that there is a local bus that can take me right to the airport but to be there for 7:30 to 8PM, I will need to catch a bus no later than 5:30PM because the buses and roads are very busy at this time. I finish writing the blog post right at 5PM

and grab my pack out of storage and head to the bus stop a block away. But the road is closed because there is a demonstration going on and a huge crowd with flags and drums is marching down the street. I find out that the buses have been re-routed to another street so I walk there but I can't find the right bus. It's getting close to 6PM and now I'm not sure if I have enough time to take this bus, so I decide to get a taxi to a special bus company that has shuttles going to the airport every 30 minutes. But the roads in the entire downtown core are in gridlock because of the road closures caused by the demonstration and the shuttle company is on the other side of the road closures from where I am. After going almost nowhere in about 30 minutes in a cab, I decide to get the cab to take me straight to the airport. It takes us more than an hour and $40US but I get to the airport at about 7:45PM. Good thing I won that money at the casino or I would not have had the cab fare.

The airport is busy and it takes more than an hour for me to check in and get through Argentinian exiting immigration and airport security. The security screening was a joke, no one emptied their pockets or took off jewelry and watches and when the metal detector went off and it did for everyone, they haphazardly swiped their wand past us and once you showed one item (like my watch) that was metal, they let me and everyone else go. I think I could have carried a handgun on board quite easily. The flight to Rio is 3 hours and Rio is 1 hour ahead of Buenos Aires so I won't arrive there until 1:30AM local time. I'm kind of looking forward to the flight because I'm flying with Emirates and I'm told their service and food is supposed to be terrific.

I will be back in Argentina one more time when I go to Iguazu Falls because I want to see the falls from both the Brazil and the Argentina sides. But that trip may be for only a couple of hours. Argentina has been awesome especially in Patagonia. The food has been fabulous and I loved the Parrillas with all the beef which I'm kind of addicted to. The people are so friendly even though they speak a hard to understand dialect of Spanish. But I won't miss the goofiness of the money exchange between the government rate and the rate given by "combios" when exchanging US money. This is definitely a country I could see myself coming back to visit one day.

More on Carnival in Rio de Janerio next time.

Adios amigos!

RIO GALLEGOS, PUERTO MADRYN, BAHIA BLANCA & MENDOZA, ARGENTINA - JAN 11 - 21

Rio Gallegos Plaza Armis

It took about 2 hours for the bus to get from Punta Arenas to the Argentinian boarder. I go through the Chilean exiting process for the last time before getting to Argentinian immigration. It is clear that the customs officials are not used to the visa that is required for Canadian travellers as of 3 days ago. About 6 or 7 people look at the printed copy of the visa that I got online, finally some one seems to know what to do and I'm finally back to the bus after about a 20 minute delay. The bus arrives into Rio Gallegos around 2:30PM.

Originally I had planned on staying a day or 2 in Rio Gallegos but the only thing to do here is to visit another Penguin colony about 100kms from town and I've seen enough Penguins. I decide to buy a bus ticket to Puerto Madryn, it is a 12 hours bus ride and the bus is scheduled to leave at 8PM, so I have a few hours to explore the town and I check my big pack in at the ticket counter where I bought the bus ticket.

Rio Gallegos has a population of about 75,000 people and the main industries are mining and fishing. The bus terminal is located on the western outskirt of town and from there I walk to the main plaza. This part of Patagonia is known for high winds and today is no exception as the wind blows a steady 50km/hour and gusts up over 70kms. It's difficult to walk into the wind and I'm pelted by sand and other debris. I head to the ocean front to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on this trip. Well maybe I glimpsed the Atlantic while on Tierra del Fuego but it was impossible to know where the Pacific ended and the Atlantic started.

Around 5PM after walking around for a couple of hours I head to a restaurant in the city centre and grab a burger and fries. I'm just happy I found something open. In Argentina, the afternoon siesta is still a daily occurrence. Almost everything other than restaurants and grocery stores close between 1PM and 5PM although many stores seem to be late reopening. It's frustrating if you want to do some shopping. Most restaurants close around 3PM and don't reopen until 7:30 or 8PM, mind you no locals are ever in a restaurant until after 9PM and restaurants are busiest between 10 and 11PM. So, with an 8PM bus departure time, I was not sure if I would find a restaurant open or not. Larger cities will usually have some bars and cafes that stay open all day serving sandwiches and burgers along with drinks. I stay at the restaurant until 6:30PM and then walk 45 minutes back to the bus terminal stopping to grab some snack and drinks at a grocery store on the way.



Puerto Madryn Beach

 The bus leaves right on time and even though it is light out to almost 11PM, there is not much to see other than never ending pampas so I watch a video on my tablet and then try and get some sleep. I'm getting used to sleeping on buses but I can't help but wake up at all the scheduled stops on the way. We arrive to Puerto Madryn around 9AM. I spend the next hour walking around trying to find a hostel and I finally settle for another dorm room bed at El Gualicho for $17US. Puerto Madryn is at the most northern part of Patagonia and I'm surprised by how warm it is. It's a nice sunny day and it must be almost 30 degrees Celcius.

Puerto Madryn is a town of over 100,000 located on a huge bay called the Golfo Nuevo. The Golfo Nuevo is almost a completely enclosed bay with the Peninsula Valdez to the north and the mainland hooking up from the south. But the bay is so large that you can't see the peninsula or any of the mainland that hooks around. It looks like you are looking out on the open Atlantic. The Golfo Nuevo is supposed to be one of the best sites in the world for whale watching but the season ended a month earlier. There is also some good diving here but the water is very cold requiring a heavy wet suit or dry suits so I decide not to go diving.

The Peninsula Valdez is the main thing I want to see as it is famous for 4 things; Penguins, Sea Lions, Elephant Seals and Killer Whales. I'm a bit late for Elephant Seals although there should still be a few around but I'm right at the time when the Sea Lions are birthing their pups and there might be a chance to see Killer Whales. Off the seal beaches along the Valdez coast is the only place in the world where Killer Whales will go right up on the beach after seals. The best time to see the Killer Whales is when the young seals start to swim in the ocean for the first time in about a months time. When the seal pups are first learning to swim, packs of Killer Whales will hang around just offshore for days and the areas above the beach is full of naturalists filming them hunting seals. But they do occasionally come to the seal beaches this time of the year, so hopefully I will get lucky and see them.



Elephants Seals at Punta Cantor

 After checking in and getting settled, I go for a walk to the beach. The beach goes on forever and it's low tide with the ocean a couple hundred metres from the high water mark. The beach is packed with thousands of people, but this is a beach where you have to come prepared as the wind is blowing 30 to 40 kms/hour. Everyone has a wind screen fence that is supported by large solid steel poles that are hammered deep into the sand with heavy fabric stretched between the poles. These fences are setup to block the wind and the sand from the families relaxing on the beach. It is clear why Argentina is so good at soccer, there must be more than 50 different games going on along the stretch of beach that I walk.

 I head back to the hostel around 5PM to inquire about a day tour to the Peninsula Valdez. There is a all day tour leaving in the morning and it costs $50US so I book it. I hang out in the hostel for a few hours before heading to a restaurant near the waterfront where I have a very nice steak dinner for less then $20US. When I first get to the restaurant just before 9PM it is almost empty but when I leave a little after 10PM, it is packed. I'm a bit tired after the long bus ride so I head to bed a bit early. I'm up a 7:30AM and have a quick shower and breakfast in the hostel that was included with the room and I'm ready for the tour van that picks me up at 8AM.

There is about 10 of us on the tour and I soon meet a very nice Canadian couple from Quebec. It takes about an hour to reach the Peninsula Valdez park and our first stop at a museum at the park entrance. After 20 minutes, we are back in the van and on our way to Punta Cantor to see some Elephant Seals. It takes an hour to get there and we park along the cliff face that over looks the beach. The big Elephant Seal bulls would have started arriving in August to battle out for the prime spots on the Mating season would have been in September and pups would have been born in October or early November. So now, all the adult Elephant Seals are gone including the big bulls which are the only

ones with the distinct Elephant like trunk. There are about 50 Elephant Seals still on the beach below us but they are all juvenile seals waiting to put more weight on before heading south. There are a couple of massive seals right below us on the beach but most of them are in one group 200 - 300 metres down the beach. It's good to have the 20 times zoom to be able to zoom in and get some decent photos.

We are back in the van and on our way to see some Magellanic Penguins about 15 minutes north of Punta Cantor. Again we park on the cliff above the beach. The cliff face is not that steep and the


Sea Lions at Punta norte

 Penguins have burrows right up to the level of the parking area and there are probably a couple of hundred of them. After seeing the 60,000 Penguins at the Isla Magdelena near Punta Arenas, I'm kind of Penguined out.

Within 30 minutes we are on back in the van and are heading to Punta Norte where there is a large Sea Lions colony. It's about a 90 minute drive and we will be arriving right at high tide which is the perfect time to see Killer Whales. The viewing area is right above the beach only 70 metres away from the Sea Lions. There are hundreds of them and you can't help but notice the big bulls. They get up to 350kg which is 2 to

3 times bigger than the females and they stand in guard of their harem from any other bull. They seem to be constant altercations between rival bulls, usually with a serious of bluff charges and vocal challenges but occasionally there is a brief scuffle. It is no longer mating season as it is now the time for the females to give birth and the beach is full of very young pups. Within minutes of arriving, I witness a pup being born and watch it struggle for a few minutes to get out of the placenta. Luckily the wind is from the land blowing out to sea but occasionally a gust comes along in a different direction and brings the smell of the Sea Lions to where I am, it is a awful mix of body odour, rotten

fish and feces. We spend an hour here and it is fascinating watching the bulls especially when a juvenile bull tries to sneak over to where the females are located. Unfortunately, there are no Killer Whales around the the beach today.

We then head back to the van where we come across an Armadillo in the parking lot scavenging for garbage. It is not at all afraid of us and we get within a couple feet of it to take some pictures. We are then off to our final stop of the day at the town of Pueto Piramides about 2 hours drive away and it's a small town of about 2000 people located right on the Golfo Nueva. We get there at about

2:30PM and we will stay for 3 hours. A couple months ago, there would have been many tour boats heading out whale watching but there are no whales right now. So I walk along the beach and through town with the Quebec couple and we stop at a restaurant and have a couple of beers. Finally, it is time to catch the van back to Puerto Madryn an hour away.

The tour was OK but not great, it was a lot of driving, more than 400kms in all and I thought we stayed at Puerto Piramides for way too long. I got the impression that the tour company had a deal with the local restaurants to help get them some business. But watching the Sea Lions was very interesting so I'm glad I went.



Puerto Piramides

 That evening, I head back to the same restaurant for another steak dinner, I think I'm getting addicted to Argentinian beef. It is different that grain fed Canadian beef as it is all free range beef that eats quite a sweet grass. The beef is very tender and tasty but certainly quite different from what we get back home. After dinner I head back to the hostel and watch a video before going to bed.

The next morning, I've decided to keep heading north but I'm not up for another long night bus as I did not sleep well in the dorm. So, I walk to the bus station and buy a bus ticket for the 1PM bus to Bahia Blanca which is port city 8 hours away. I then grab breakfast at the hostel and then pack up all my stuff. I spend a couple hours working on my blog before walking back to the bus station and the bus leaves right on time.



Mendoza Plaza Central

 The bus has some mechanical problems and we are a couple hours late getting to Bahia Blanca so it's 11PM when we arrive. I always hate trying to find a room this late. I pick an affordable hotel listed in my guidebook and catch a taxi there. Unfortunately, the place is all locked up and no one seems to be there and my cab is long gone. I don't have a map of the city and it's a big city with a population of more than 300,000 people. I wander the streets of the neighborhood that my cab dropped me in and check a couple hotels but they are full. Then I come across a small hotel and I go check if they have a room and they do. The room is only $20US and it seems pretty good. As I'm getting checked in, a young couple

gets buzzed in the main door, they don't have any luggage so I'm guessing they are just back from dinner. As I'm using the shared washroom getting ready to go to bed, another 2 or 3 young couples get buzzed in and none of them have luggage but they are checking into the hotel. I suddenly realize I'm in a hotel that rents rooms by the hour to prostitutes and their clients. I've already paid for my room and it's now past midnight so I guess I'm staying. I sleep fully clothed on top of the bed spread and I hear the door buzzer going every 10 minutes or so until I finally fall asleep.




Drinking Wine at the Vines of Mendoza

 I'm up early and can't check out fast enough. I walk 45 minutes to the bus station and buy a ticket for a night bus to Mendoza. Mendoza is in the Argentinian dry lands west of Buenos Aires just before the Andes mountains and is the main wine region of Argentina. My bus does not leave until 6:30PM so I have a few hours to kill. I check my bags in at a luggage storage place and head back to the main part of town. I explore the main plaza and shopping areas before I stop at a restaurant for lunch. The town is on the coast but it is a port city with a large naval base so the waterfront is not very nice and there is much to do or see.



Liz & Brad at the Terraces Winery

 I decide to go catch a matinee movie at a cinema that I had passed earlier in the day. The only movie playing in English is Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry and it starts at 3:30PM and if it ends around 5:30PM, I will just have time to walk to the bus station and catch my bus. But the movie is very strange, it seems to have about 4 different stories that take forever to tie together and Hanks plays a bunch of different roles. Finally at 6PM with a few minutes left in the movie I have to go or I will miss my bus. I didn't hate the movie but it wasn't very good either. I grab a cab to the bus station and get to the bus platform about 10 minutes before the bus leaves. I watch a couple videos on the bus until about midnight before finally falling asleep.

In the morning, the bus gets a flat tire and it takes about an hour and a half to get it changed so we don't get into Mendoza until 10AM. I head to the tourist office in the bus station to get a map of the city but it is closed. Next to the tourist office is another office of a hostel booking company. I stop there and get a map and the guy offers me a private room in a small hotel called Hotel Aragon for $24US which is a really good price because Mendoza is expensive. He even pays for a cab to take me to the hotel. When I get there, it is really nice and I'm surprised to find that my room even has air conditioning.

That afternoon I go shopping for new beach shorts for swimming as I lost mine overboard while drying during the Galapagos trip and I buy some cheap flip flops for the beach as well as I will be spending lots of time at the beach over the next few months. I then spend a quiet evening working on my blog as I'm tired because I did not sleep much the last 2 night so I go to bed early.

The next morning, I spend the day walking around the main part of town checking out the main plaza and several parks. Brad and Liz who I first met in Colombia are in Mendoza and I've arranged to meet up with them for drinks and dinner. I meet

them and a friend of theirs from the Netherlands at a wine bar called The Vines of Mendoza. We all order some samples of red wines, mine is a selection of different types including a Malbec and several blends. The wines are excellent and it's a good way to get introduced to the wines of the region. A couple hours later, we go to a local brew pub and sample some locals beers and have dinner. It's a nice relaxing evening and we share stories of where we have been and what we have been doing since I last saw them in Bolivia.

That night my air conditioner is not working when I get back to the hotel. The grill has fallen of and

pulled the AC plug out of the wall. When I plug it back in, the whole unit starts vibrating violently and has the sound of an old Harley motorcycle which is not what you want in a small room. It's late so I decide to deal with it in the morning which was a mistake because it's so hot that night that I actually get up at 3 times to take a cold shower to try and cool down. The next morning I get moved to a different room with an air conditioner that works.

Brad and Liz have booked some tours for us at a couple of local wineries for later that morning. We catch a local bus to a small town an hour away from Mendoza and then catch a taxi to the

Terraces Winery. For $5US, we get a guided tour of the winery and see the grapes, the grape processing area, the distillery and the wine storage areas and then we get to sample 4 wines; one is a Cabernet, 2 are Malbecs and one is a blend and they are very good. Terraces has taken a unique approach to growing grapes. their vineyard is terraced on a hillside and they spent years experimenting with different grapes at different altitudes and now they grow very specific grapes at specific altitudes claiming this is how they get the best grapes possible.

We then walk about 45 minutes to the Norton Winery where we have a reservation for lunch. We have a fantastic meal and then it is time for another tour. We were only able to book a tour in Spanish but a young guy who calls himself Nacho offers to take us on a private English tour. The tour is very similar but the winery is much larger with much bigger wine tanks and storage areas. Again we sample 4 different wines; a couple blends and a couple of Malbecs. It's almost 6PM by the time we leave the winery and we take a cab back to where we can catch a bus to Mendoza and it's after 8PM when we get back. I'm so tired after my terribly hot sleep last night that I just head back to the hotel and have a nice sleep in my new cool room.

The next morning I meet Brad and Liz at the bus station as we are heading to the town of Uspallata in the Andes foothills for a day hike. Our bus leaves at 8AM and it takes about 2 hours to get there. We head to the tourist office to get some info about hiking but it does not sound like there are very good hikes around. The lady at the tourist office recommends a short hike to a hill where 7 crosses are located. It's only a couple of kilometers away so we get there in less than an hour.

The terrain here is very interesting, it is very dry and there are rolling hills made of various colours of sandstone including red, green, yellow, orange, tan

Andrew at Uspallata

and black. After seeing the crosses, we head up a narrow valley on a small gravel road that winds it way up a small flood plan. The rock formations and colours are amazing. We stop and eat some sandwiches that we brought for lunch. A narrow canyon leads off of the main valley so we decide to hike up it. There's a dry stream bed and a zip line that crosses the small canyon. It had been hot and sunny but now dark clouds have moved in and we hear thunder all around us and we think it's going to rain. So we start heading back to town.

We get back at 3:40PM and just missed a bus back to Mendoza by about 10 minutes and then

it starts to rain. We sit outside a small store drinking $3US 1 litre beers waiting for the next bus that leaves at 6:15PM. We're back in Mendoza by 8:30PM and I say good night to Liz and Brad and then go buy a bus ticket for a night bus to Cordoba tomorrow. I then head back to the hotel and grab a sandwich along the way.

The next morning I sleep in until about 9:30AM, I then pack up my stuff when I get up and put my big pack in storage for the day. I then spend a leisurely day walking around Mendoza, reading and working on my blog. Liz and I exchange a few messages that day and set a time for 7PM to meet up for

some drinks before I have to go catch my bus which leaves at 9PM. I meet Brad and Liz at their place and then we meet up with a girl friend of Liz's before we go to one of the brew houses. I've brought my big pack with me so I can stay until 8:30PM before needing to catch a cab to the bus station. I regret my decision on the night bus as Liz's friend is from Buenos Aires, mid to late 30s, really nice and gorgeous. She speaks even less English than I speak Spanish so having a conversation is difficult. It seems like we just got there and it's 8:30PM and time to go. I say a quick good-bye and hail a cab make it to the bus station with about 10 minutes to spare.

One Argentinian tradition that is starting to grow on me is kissing a person upon greeting. It's actually not usually a real kiss but more of putting your cheek to the other person's and making a kissing sound. It certainly is a little more intimate than how we greet friends in Canada. I'm thinking I might bring this tradition home and yes, it does not matter if you are greeting a man or a

women. But I can't help but wonder if my friend Jon Clark would punch or head butt me if I tried it on him, maybe I'll have to find out when I get back.

Ciao from Argentina.