http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/knappman/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from knappman en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:14:57 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:14:57 +0000 Ok we survived the FallshellipBut not to be outdone in the final minutes of our tour de Argentina I needed to experience a true South American tradition. Football That is translated to soccer everywhere in the world except the USA. Like I said for the Falls you experience rather than seehellipwell I participated rather than experienced the football game. If you remember several blogs ag http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-352539.html We hop on the bus for a 3 hour ride to the Angkor Wat of Argentina. San Ignacio Mini is a sleepy kind of placehellipappropriate for the ruins of this Jesuit mission built around 1700. They arrived in the region in the late 1500rsquos establishing reducciones which reduced the Guarani Indians to living near the mission and working the surrounding farmlands. Bad guys from Brazil pushed this m http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-352458.html I donrsquot know how we fit any class time in with all these excursions around the country. We are off to the north today Iguazu Falls is the place. Remember we live in the southern hemisphere now so going north get hotter and more humid. However the weather cooperated and we had a relatively cool stay. Took a two hour airplane ride from the domestic airport located 25 pesos away from our p http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-350432.html Lots has happened since arrival back in BA. Donrsquot know if we will ever be able to get back into my one challenge a day life when we return to Cool. And I am so far behind in letting you know about our life here. Maybe I will just continue this story after I return. But let me fast forward ahead to a timely subject and then I will return to the humdrum life we live here.I donrsquot know http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-350430.html The wind is still blowing a gale but we are on a 4 hour round trip bus ride to see the penguin colony in Punta Tomba to the south. We are not here at exactly the best time but close enough to see tons of birds sitting on their eggs in little scrubland hovels. In a couple weeks little chicks will be running around getting underfoot and breaking things. The male penguins arrived in September and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-350426.html After our rain soaked adventure in El Chalten yesterday we flew northeast to Puerto Madryn where we are now in yet another bus to the east coast village of Puerto Piramides for a boat ride to the whales. Nothing in this part of the world is within walking distance. The whales are waiting for us and we get an unexpected show of some young lsquouns cavorting about their mothers. These are the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-349088.html After looking at glaciers yesterday the 6 hour roundtrip combi ride up to El Chalten does not seem too appealing but we are on the road nonetheless. Our first objective is to get on Ruta 40. For those pagan road warriors this is like Route 66 in the US. La Cuarenta traverses Patagonia from the north to the south and has been used by the likes of Butch Cassedy and Sundance. I put on my best http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-348813.html Today Kazuko is showing me what she saw in Bariloche while I was on the combi yesterday. This is the chocolate capital of Argentina however the best coco comes from Mexico. The idea is to go into as many chocolate shops as you can stand and sample. I will probably not sleep at all tonight. Stopped by a great museum that had some wall maps that knocked off my geographical socks. It also put so http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-347269.html Today we are doing the Circuito Chico out of Bariloche with Marta. Nice lady who makes a mean mate. I am not sure I would do this again but for sure it is the most popular tour around. Stopped by Martarsquos favorite rose hip face cream factory where she probably gets free stuff for stopping by with the tourists. Then we go up to the top of a mountain on a chairlift to get some grand views o http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-346705.html It has been awhile since I have been writing to you all but we have been in Patagonia for the past 10 days. Argentina is defiantly big and one way to get a feel for the bigness is take a bus ride. We hopped on the Bariloche bus at about 230 pm and dragged ourselves off at about 10 am the next day. Fortunately there was a potty on board along with an Antonio Banderas type as a bus attendant. H http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-345976.html Hola chicos y chicashellipWe are off to Punta del Este as in ldquoLifestyles of the Rich and Famous.rdquo If it were not for a little stop on the way I would have skipped this little excursion. Shopping and sand are not my strong suits and looking at the mansions of very rich people just depresses me. They got and I not. But I did mention the little stop and that was at Casapueblo inspir http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/District-of-Montevideo/Montevideo/blog-340298.html After a wonderfully quiet night we awake to the standard European continental breakfast as like Argentina most of the folks here came from Spain and Italy. We are off to Montevideo as my granddaughter Hana knows the capital of Uruguay. The word Uruguay comes from the old Indian term meaning ldquoriver of the painted birds.rdquo While the birds may be colorful unlike BA the painting has s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/District-of-Montevideo/Montevideo/blog-340295.html Remember my passport remember my passport remember my passport. Instead of counting sheep I chanted myself to sleep with that mantra. We are off to a foreign country today and I wonrsquot get very far without it. For some ungodly reason we have to be at the ferry boat dock at 730 in the AM. I am getting used to sleeping in til 9 or later so setting my alarm for 6 is an unnatural experienc http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/blog-339446.html We are going to check out the gauchos in the Eastern Pampas today. These guys were like the cowboys of our western folklore as there is quite a bit of romanticism surrounding their life and culture. In actuality it was a rather brutal existence for these ronan a Japanese cowboy word as they had a non conformist attitude in the first place. Made up of the runaway Spanish conquistador rank and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/blog-338364.html Today we are off to Tigrehellipthe New Orleans of Argentina. Well maybe not quite that sophisticated but it is a delta town about an hour outta town. Our class meets up at the Belgrano train station. This is the same train system that we didnrsquot take to La Plata because of its decrepit status. I have to agree itrsquos not the Ritz but it gets you there. What do you want for 80 centavo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Tigre/blog-337050.html Today is the day for our civic duty. We are off to mail in our absentee ballots. Heard that the US embassy will accept our ballots and make sure they will get to the US of A in a timely manner something the Argentine post is not known for. Besides we donrsquot have to pay two bucks each for postage as the embassy will sneek them into their diplomatic pouch along with state secrets and recipe http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-335240.html Remember I mentioned several days ago that my ear was stopped up Well it didnrsquot get better and I was getting tired of walking lopsided to keep my balance. I was torn by the thought of going back to my girlfriend at the national hospital and putting a trumpet in my ear. I think thatrsquos what they called those flower like objects that old folks used to put in their deaf ear but they http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-335238.html We are off to San Telmo today. This is the barrio where you find used junkhellipbetter known as antiques. We are so good at the subte we can make the change from linea D to C and ignore the fact that each platform is called something different. You get off at Nuevo de Julio station and walk underground to Diagonal Norte station. Pretty good for a guy who thought our subte stop was called Sal http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-335092.html Let's go tango Today we have a tango lesson. We hop on the subte for a station not too far from ours called Callao. I think I mentioned the pronunciation of Spanish words is a little different down here. The double l and y are pronounced as zh. So it is not Caiyao like in Mexico but Caizhao. Actually everytime I say something to an Argentine in my broken Spanish they look at me like I am fr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-332712.html We are off on a city tour today. Still pretty cold out so I layer on the clothes but by the end of the day I am defiantly ready for the freezer. We hop on the subte change at Nuevo de Julio and walk over to Plaza San Martin. Who needs a stinking tourhellipwe are experts at this ville already. The city has allowed graffiti to grow to an overwhelming art form. Like the dog poop on the sidewalk http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-332031.html