Tandil - Part Two - Photoblog

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Lots of photos in this entry and each of them tells a story. If you click on the photos you get to find out what they are about!

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Photos

Hillwalkers
The hills, how we've missed them. Still, at less than 400m above sea level, they were hardly lung-busting climbs. Nice though!

Tandil
After climbing up in the hills you do manage to get a good view of the city of Tandil. It's not huge but still much bigger than we thought it was going to be.

El Cristo
One of the sights to see is the hill of "Calvaria" with the huge wooden crucifix looking down on the city. At Easter the place is packed with pilgrims who probably pay a little more attention to the "stations of the cross" than we did.

The Rock That Used To Move
Once upon a time there was a rock which moved. Seriously! It was delicately balanced on top pf a pile of other rocks. People used to do handstands on top of it as it rocked, or place bottles underneath to see them crushed. Sadly, in 1912, the rock fell down. We think this was it as there is a plaque on it, but we couldn't climb down to get a closer look. Apparently plans are afoot to place another rock (which will move) in its place, but then again they have been saying that for years according to locals.

El Centinela
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess in the city who fell in love with an Indian boy. She had to go into hiding and sneak out to see him once their affair was discovered. He used to stand on top of a hill to watch for her leaving her hiding place. One day she was taken away but the Indian boy maintained his watch, eventually turning to stone.
Legends, don't you love them!!

Strongman!
Closer up, our "petrified" Indian boy has been covered in graffiti. What a shame. He looked like he was about to topple over so I tried to put him upright again!

The Capsicum Castle
My first real gaffe with my Spanish. The castle is in a Moorish style (moros in Spanish). On the way down a couple asked me if the climb was worth it, and I tried to describe the castle as "morones" which means capsicum, or pepper, in Spanish! Whoops, but why didn't they quaestion what I had said???

The Aerosilla
We paid 10 pesos each to ride the Aerosilla to the top of the hill near the Centinela. Whilst enjoyable it was a shorter ride than expected and certainly wouldn't have been a difficult walk up. We did walk down though.

The Lake
The lake (or reservoir) is home to local water sports, various birds, fish by the number of fisherman at the edge, and a huge fountain.

General San Martin
Unusual one this! It is the first time we have seen a statue of General San Martin de los Andes where he has not been on his horse!!

Guanaco
The Sierra de los Tigres park sounds liek its full of wildlife. How those driving round the 4km track in their cars expect to see anything at all I don't know. We were lucky and saw lots of guanaco as we walked around.

Feeding the Donkey
This kind Porteña allowed me to feed the donkey too. It was very friendly and hassled everyone who was there!!

Birdwatching
There were lots of birds around but few of them posed as well as this. Near the information centre there were a few aviaries too with Peacocks and various strange versions of chickens and partridges!!