Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 5

It's summer school holidays...again.... We left Bangkok at the end of the school year...direction, Buenos Aires to settle for a full year in Argentina. Leslie and Tiffany joined their new school year at the middle of the year. Top school... many new friends...morning in Castellano, afternoon in English...and two days ago, it was already the end of the official school year. There are not many expats in Argentina. There are many foreigners, but they blend as locals pretty fast. We are no expats here, neither locals...neither really forgeigners...but we moved here for a year....few months ago. This is for those who are joining the band on this entry. We moved for a year here as "perma-toursits". Problem is, none of the top schools, internationally recognized one are downtown...so we had to do our shopping around and ... read more

After the big city and the sierra the adventure arrives in Patagonia. Our heroes watch whales do things that would make your granny blush, confuse a helpful museum curator with poor Welsh pronunciation and eat their own weight in cake. Yum... We awoke on the bus to the scene of, well to be frank, stark, bare, wild, off-green nothingness. As far as the eye could see. In all directions. Without any respite seemingly forthcoming. Hour followed hour, mile ran in to mile along Route 3 towards Puerto Madryn, and you could be forgiven for thinking that life had turned in to a Scooby Doo chase scene, the same background flashing by at regular intervals. The earth is a slightly off mustard colour, dry and dusty and covered in grey-green shrubs which barely rise above 50cms in ... read more

It's already time for Tiffany and Leslie first week of school holidays in Argentina...and as the country is so impressive...we are starting slowly to push our discoveries a little further than Buenos Aires. As you are aware, I spent my last two weeks working in Africa. Leslie and Tiffany have been under the great care of Ines while I was away, and she is also joining us for our discoveries of Argentina now that I'm back "home". I have also to thank Mercredes and Sergi from Koh Lipe who introduced me few months ago to Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes. Thanks guys, missing you! Due to the amount of pictures...and experiences we have lived over the last few days, I've decided to do two blogs, one of Puerto Madryn, and yes...one more impressive of the Peninsula ... read more

At about 6:30 we awoke to bitter cold. After breaking down camp, we began our walk to the bus station (probably a mile or so). Despite the freezing hands from the tent poles, I was excited to catch the 8:00 bus to Futaleufu and go rafting. At about 8:00 our dreams were shattered. The bus from Esquel only goes to Futaleufu Monday and Friday. The woman who gave us the information on taking the bus had given us a piece of paper showing the times for Monday, Wednesday and Friday and we asked her specifically about taking the bus Wednesday. I´m not sure if she made a mistake, or perhaps, since it is now off season, the Wednesday bus no longer runs. Either way, we sat at the bus station with no plan. This is a ... read more

As Sarah mentioned in the last blog, we took a 2:45 bus from El Chalten back to El Calafate. It was a double decker bus and we got the first row on the second story (floor?) so we had amazing views. At least for 5 minutes until the windows fogged up. It reminded me of riding backwards in the Volvo station wagon when I was a kid. The bus had a group of English/Americans who had trouble with their tickets. They spoke very very little Spanish and had apparently booked the wrong day for the bus so they ended up paying twice. They were quite unhappy. Lesson learned - always double check your tickets (which we knew already and have even caught a mistake on one of our own). Once back to El Calafate we passed ... read more