Yeah horse-riding on the beach is great!! :) I spent 2h on the beach and the dunes of Puerto Madryn with a very nice horse (Arab-mix) and a nice guide. We were the only 2 persons on the beach and view from the dunes was amazing. The rest of the day was very relaxed: walking on the beach, buying bus tickets, eating fish with Ean from London, watching the stars (there are many more on the southern sky). Since I saw all these cute penguins on the península, I won't do the 3h long bus trip to Punto Tombo, where the biggest Magallan penguin colony can be visited. Today I've to do some organisational stuff, to enjoy the beach again and tomorrow I'm taking the bus to Viedma/Carmen de Patagones - the gate to Patagonia. And ... read more

I'm in Puerto Madryn: the sun's shining, it's about 22 degrees, the beach is 5 min from my hostel :D yes, the south was very beautiful, but I'm obiously enjoying the somewhat warmer north. The hostel is very nice too, and tomorrow I'm going to the Peninsula Valdés - penguins, sea lions, whales, dolphins... :) and a cabalgata on the beach is planned. Argentinian computers don't like memory cards...but I'll try to take some pictures with my cell phone tomorrow.... read more

Pali aike vulcano today! Great hiking together wirth Beatrice and with many guanacos (lama-like), ňandus (the emu-like ones), a fox, and many other birds. The day was great and the weather beautiful, meaning that I felt comfortable wearing 2 shirts, 2 pullovers, a warm jacket, a jacket against the wind, a cap, 2 paires of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, warm shoes, and gloves :-) but the sun was shining and we had a nice day. Tomorrow the 24h trip to puerto madryn, warm north, yeah! Pictures follow (I have about 50 guanaco pics). ... read more

Let's start with the present: I'm in Chile, in punta arenas, which is directly at the Magallanian street. It's quite different from what I've seen so far, and it's quite cold. When we crossed the Argentinian border in rio turbio it was snowing...I hope there's no Argentinian reading this blog, but the Chilenos are calmer, better organised, and politer...which isn't necessarily better, but nice for tourists. Within 4 weeks I experienced hot+humid, hot+dry, warm+humid, cool+humid, cold+dry, cold+wet...which is quite tough for the body, especially the skin. Calafate is a growing city, which is surprising since it's in the middle of nowhere, and as far as I know there's no industry, no agriculture, no university...what do people do there?? And it isn't very well reachable by bus...which brings me to aerolineas argentinas. You know I'm not a ... read more

Due to my heavy cold I didn't do much in Bariloche. However, I know the city centre and the hostel very well now and Andres (Uruguay), Daniel (Argentina), and Enrique (Colombia) - all of them working at the hostel - were taking care of me very well. Bariloche is a very touristic and boring city, but the landscape is beautiful and I saw the lakes at least during my trip from San Martín to Bariloche. The last day I spent with David from Israel. All these groups from Israel consist of 22-24 years old who just finished their 2-3 years long military service...some of them in Gaza... In the evening we went to the famous Don Alberto restaurant with the best meat in Argentina and I must admit that the bife de lomo was excellent! Today ... read more