New photos on facebook....Argentina

Argentina so far:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2266686&l=23735&id=13603844

Penguins in Puerto Madryn!

Dont cry for me Argentina (minus Buenos Aires)

Our trip through Argentina is nearing the big city and I haven´t written anything about this beautiful country yet so here goes. (Again sorry for it being so long...I´ve been quite lazy...)

Our first top in Argentina was Salta. Salta is actually a lot bigger of a city than we expected. The city itself is pretty but after following some local´s advice to visit San Lorenzo and the artisans mercado (market) which were nothing too exciting we decided to head to Cafayate. This town and the road there is in a valley in the Andes and known for their white wines - torrontes. This was actually a beautiful tiny town and we did some wine tours and went to see some natural rock formations. There we saw "Devils throat", a naturally made ampitheatre - whose acoustics rivals one of the opera houses in Buenos Aires apparently, "Titanic" etc. These were naturally made through erosion of the wind and quite amazing to see.

On our second day there we decided to climb Rio Colorado which would eventually lead to a gorgeous waterfall. We decided to do it on our own but quickly realized that the "path" is not really a path. Luckily enough, there was a local who happened to be climbing up the river and mountain picking up litter and he showed us the way. He was super nice even though our Spanish is horrible. He kept asking us if we wanted to go the "easy" way or "aventura". I wanted to go the adventurous way. So we ended up rock climbing to this waterfall. And even scaling the length of the waterfall on a rock wall down. The scariest part for me was at one point when I had to "jump" from one flat side to another. Luckily we made it down alive. The waterfall was absolutely stunning and we actually arrived from behind it and was looking down on it rather than just looking up. We thought we could go swimming after the 2 hour hike. Turns out the water is glacier water and freezing cold! Eventually we did suck it up and get one or two photos under one of the falls and swimming pools but it was very chilly.

That evening we headed to Mendoza on a 24 hour bus ride. Mendoza is the main wine region in Argentina, well known for their reds - Malbec and Cab Sauvs. and also great skiing. Unfortunately we missed the ski season by thismuch. Mendoza is a beautiful city. It has gorgeous super tall tree-lined streets. And the main plaza is beautiful. It has a massive fountain that puts on a great water fountain show! We spent an afternoon sitting by the fountain reading on the grass.

Right next to the city is a massive park. We spent a cloudy day at the zoo...

The main thing we wanted to do in Mendoza was the wine tours. So we headed to Maipu and hoped on our bikes and off we went. We had a great time biking around the vineyards and stopped at an artisan liquor store. This family made over 50 different kinds of liquers. Ones flavoured like dulce de leche (the national obsession - its like nutella but caramelly and they put it on EVERYTHING), every fruit liquer possible, chocolate, cafe etc.

We actually learned quite a bit about wines, especially the aging process and what the year on the bottle really means.

After a day and evening of drinking way too much wine, we headed down south to Puerto Madryn in Patagonia (mind you the northern most part of Patagonia). This was definately one of my favourite stops so far. The town is adorable, set on the Atlantic ocean. This is where you come to see Southern right whales (which we could see from our hostel), penguins, dolphins, Elephant seals and sea lions. We took a boat trip to see the whales and we got to see one jump about 5 or 6 times (apparently it is pretty rare to actually see them jump). It was a mother showing her calf how to jump. We also saw another mom and calf duo and they came thisclose to the boat. It was amazing. The waters were a bit rough and people were actually puking from seasickness. (rather gross). Katie and I had a blast though. I also went to the largest penguin colony. I have never seen so many penguins before. There is a main path that tourists can use but you are not allowed to veer off of it. And the penguins are just walking around, crossing the path, going about their business. In about a week or two, you can see the eggs hatch. (missed it by a couple of weeks). There was also a lookout over two beaches, to watch them swim and play in the water. Honestly it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I have videos but Im not sure I can figure out how to post that online.

Also, high tide and low tide is what dictates the way of life here. For all the tours and to view the different animals it is all based on where the tide lies. One thing I learned about the penguins, the males have to build the nest and this is how the win over the females. The females are all coy and choose the one with the best nest. But they would never fight another female for a male. Instead the males will fight with one another for their better nests. So even though the females choose, in the end the males will fight over each other for a girl.

We also spent a day biking to a lookout point 15km outside of town on gravel road in the heat. But we were rewarded with a huge colony of fur seals. It is mating season here so these males were I guess in heat and roaring and fighting with other males for the females. These seals have over 17 females to one male. Arent they lucky?

After Puerto Madryn, away we went up the coast to Mar del Plata. A beach resort town for the portenos (what people from Buenos Aires are called). We spent a couple of days there, lounging on the beach. It is a quiet town right now because summer hasn´t full hit. Some shops and restaurants hadn´t even opened for the season yet. But the weather is very hot and the water cool enough to go in. (About 18 degrees - yeah definately still cold but really nice when its over 30degrees...)
We did go to the port to check out the seals and a ship graveyard. The seals were massive up close. And this colony was not protected or guarded so we got thisclose to them. But they are quite scary when they roar and they do actually have huge fans. Not sure I would want to mess with an angry male in heat right now.

And finally on our way to Buenos Aires. I promise to put up some photos soon to go with the long boring stories.

Photos on Facebook and Argentina...

I´ve been in Argentina for awhile and haven´t written but I will update very soon. A quick recap of the stops in Argentina :

Salta
Cafayate
Mendoza
Puerto Madryn

Just heading off on another bus ride to a small beach town called Mar del Plata before heading to Buenos Aires.

I put up some photos on facebook. I believe you can view the photos from this link for those without facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2260772&l=eb199&id=13603844