Buenos Aries and the Iguazu Falls.

From Coronel Suarez we headed for Buenos Aries, the capital city of Argentina. Here I must declare a bias. With the exception of Christchurch in New Zealand I have not yet been to a city that I like. Too many people, too much traffic, etc., etc. Buenos Aries is part of the group. There were a few saving graces.

Buenos Aries skyline

The evening view from our hotel window was spectacular.

Some of the buildings were impressive. There were beautiful trees in some parks. We were lucky to meet up with Laura and her son Ethan. We had first met them on our trip over the Andes from Chile and Laura urged us to get in touch once we hit the city.  

Blooming trees in BA

Jo's Tilley hat and one of BA's buildings

They took us to a nice restaurant on the waterfront and we were impressed with the tall buildings across the river that had been built on a reclaimed garbage dump.

A BA yellow bus

We were much less impressed with the  Yellow bus hop-on, hop-off  city tour. If all the buses are the same as the one we boarded they are an utter waste of time and money.   

 The Nauga hide seats had cracks in them. The headphones are unreliable. We had to choose among three of them before we found a pair that even worked.  Every now and again, without any action our part, the commentary would quit, or change into another language. As if that was not enough the recorded voice would seldom tell us about the place or building we were passing.  Useless as tits on a boar. We soon disembarked and headed for the metro, which is excellent.

General San Martin

We did more exploring on foot. A tasty treat at a panaderia for lunch; the famous monument of General San Martin, the national hero of Argentina.  We were impressed with the cathedral and it high altar.  

Unfortunately we fell victim to a pickpocket.  We had heard of the skill of the local members of this brigade. I imagine that the activity is on an industrial scale with gangs acting as teams. Our pickpocketing experience may have been unique. As we emerged from the dark of the cathedral to the bright sunlight of the square Jo put on her dark glasses. We crossed the road, walked fifteen metres and suddenly Jo called out, “my hat!  It was gone.

Jo and her new hat

Her expensive Tilley headgear had been removed from her head. Only one solution. Buy a straw replacement from a sidewalk vendor. 

 

On our last evening we did enjoy a tango show. The intriguing thing was the demonstration of the dancing styles and costumes over the last century.

A special place

Enough of cities for quite some time. One reads of places and things that should be on anyone’s bucket list. 

The Taj Mahal, Machu Pichu, Victoria Falls, an elephant herd in the wild. We are lucky to have seen all four. There are no doubt others. 

A special moment on the shore oif the Kasinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda

Machu Pichu, another special place

In each case one can read as much as one likes, one can even see photos or watch videos. Then one sees the real thing. The experience is on another level. 

The Devil's cauldron Iguazu

Next stop the Iguazu Falls.  Even in the thirty-four degree and maybe ninety-five percent humidity the falls are stunning.

A raging series of cataracts, crashing sound, clouds of spray high in the air. Enough said. 

The best thing, other than the falls? As we left the little train at the exit gate there were two cold showers to stand under. We soaked oursleves from head to foot, clothes and all. 

The clothes were dry by the time we boarded the bus, but the temporary relief was great.

Despite my statement that photos not doing justice here are a couple that we have kept, if only for ourselves (and to share in miniature here)

A pan view of the Argentinian side of the falls.

A trip to the Argentinian Andes - part one

Back to blogging, after a hiatus of eighteen months. My excuse?  I was working hard on a new book. This one about work in Canada. Title: Porcupines to Polar Bears. 

There are stories from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, the Forestry Farm Zoo in Saskatoon and the wilds of Canada.

As I wait for the release in May I can write about the trip that my wife Jo and I took in January and February to Argentina. There are so many memories that I’m going to start with the time had in Patagonia. To get there Air Canada took us to Santiago in Chile. After that a bus and boat trip across the Andes took us to the town of San Carlos de Bariloche, conveniently known as Bariloche in the Andes. We had booked into the beautiful Llao Llao hotel a twenty-minute bus-ride from the town.

The lawn below the Llao Llao hotel

 We arrived on the 25th of January, known world-wide wherever Scots have ended up at Robbie Burns day.

We do not participate that poet’s traditional haggis-based supper as it happens to be our wedding anniversary. In this case the 47^th.

Dinner with roses

It was great to find that the concierge had acted on my emailed request to have roses on our table at dinner-time. Jo knew nothing about this arrangement. It was a special moment to see her reaction.  

Next morning we began to explore. There were interesting Ashy-headed geese , with their russet breast feathers grazing on the lawns and a great view of lake Nahuel Huapi below the hotel.

 The spectacular view of the Andes, and the snow-capped peaks, gave us the opportunity to sit and relax on the lawn below the hotel beside the lake. It is huge. It  covers five hundred and thirty square kilometres and its shore line stretches three hundred and fifty-seven km.

On the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi

In Bariloche, to our dismay, car rental is brutally expensive. $200 (US) a day for a very basic stick shift Chevy! There wasn't much choice if we wanted to explore.  Even at that price we decided to hire one and head north along the seven lakes route. There were stunning views, good restaurants and interesting things to do. 

From Bariloche we headed north to Villa Angostura, here we stayed at the Sol Arrayan  hotel, again on the shores of lake Nahuel Huapi, which is huge. The views of the Andes from the hotel and the shore are spectacular.

The view form the 5th floor

 By this time we had learned that in Argentina the correct pronunciation of a double ‘L’ in any word is not, as we expected, a ‘yao’ sound. The two ‘l’s sound as ‘sha’. So, our next stop in the trip was at ‘Visha’ Angostura.

Jo in front of Coihue a tree stand. Ground up view

  There were two interesting treespecies that we saw in Villa Angosturs.  Right outside the hotel was an Arrayan tree, with its rust and yellow bark. It grows up to 15 metres. It is a member of the myrtle family, is an evergreen with fragrant flowers and is limited to the central Andes between Chile and Argentina. The other tree(s) were a mass of Coihue standing straight as an arrow, up to 45 metres tall. The largest one on record had a girth of 8 metres.  Their most striking feature is the absence of any branch for the first twenty metres above ground.

Black-faced ibis

 Next morning my fascination with birds and their photography was further excited when we saw a pair of black-faced ibis on the lawn. There are at least ten species of ibis in South America, but this is the only kind we met.

I was somewhat astonished to see bronze or rock statues of red deer in the communities. This version is depicted in full rut, neck stretched, roaring his power and ardour to one and all. The real rut is in  autumn, March in Argentina, so the hills may soon resonate with the grunts and gurgles.

A bronze stag bugling into the sky

Have a listen to the sounds that echo across the Scottish Highlands in September.

 I was aware that these creatures had been exported to South America at some time early in the 20^th century but I did not realize that they had become iconic and more celebrated in art forms than the native deer. We saw candelabras concocted from interwoven antlers and the standard wall mounts in most hotels.

One of the natives is the pudu, smallest member of the deer family that stands, at most, fifteen inches (45 cm) at the shoulder and weighs 10 kg. The other is the huemul, critically endangered throughout its range, mainly due to human activity and competition for resources with those cervid foreigners. There are some signs of recovery of this situation, but they are not out of the woods yet.

Thence to the town of San Martin de los Andes (abbreviated as San Martin). It lies on the shore of the lake of the same name. This lake is more or less the same size as Nahuel Huapi. San Martin is a favourite destination for skiers and has a good ski lift system just south of town up a winding gravel road.

           The downtown area somewhat resembles a European mountain resort, with many buildings of log construction and window boxes. 

A  pub with half a minibus through its front.

The architect of pub, no doubt tongue in cheek,  has the front end of a VW micro bus embedded in the upper front wall. Happliy this 'crash' did not adversely effect the Warsteiner beer, a local brew.

For the folks who do not speak Spanish here is a useful tip, an essential addition the vocabulary for the beer drinker.  A craft beer, or one made in a micro brewery is un cerveza artesanal.


It was time for dinner. We had decided to double up and have a meal a restaurant advertising food and a tango show. Jut inside the door stood a large rack of wines. As we stood there a waiter told us that there would be no tango that evening.

Just one of three racks in the 'dinner and tango ' restaurant

The atmosphere was ideal with low lighting. The menu looked reasonable so we decided to have a meal anyway. Steak was on the menu and there were pasta dishes.

Next came a surprise. Only one small glass of water, from the tap, which we favour, was available. After that it had to be bottled water.

Ridiculous. We left.

There were hitchhikers outside every town we passed through. One of the most interesting encounters was with an Australian couple in their thirties. They arrived at the same hostel as us and we fell into conversation. They are inveterate cyclists. One of their less adventurous trips had been a ride from Barcelona to Berlin. That does not sound too arduous for the dedicated,  but these two were traveling with small children, a four-year old and a toddler of eighteen months!

Our journey continued. Next stop a volcano with a history and a folk tale.