Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 7

We swot up on the differences between seals and sea-lions at the local ecocentre, in readiness for our sea-kayak trip. We´re picked up from our hostel by our guide, Juani, and are pleased to discover that we´re his only passengers. Our kayaks are not among the five vessels officially permitted to take tourists whale-watching, so we duly make our promises to Juani that, should we come across said mammals, we will close our eyes and start paddling in the other direction... It´s a 15km drive on gravel roads to the launch point - a deserted beach. The sun is not long up and the sea is perfectly still. We´re excited to be in the great outdoors again after almost two weeks of city life and are looking forward to our adventure. We get kitted up, and ... read more

Buses are the most pòpular way to travel in South America. Flights are expensive and in shorter supply. Bus travel follows an airline model - understandable given the distances. There´s first class and economy, they serve drinks and meals, and they show films. Our first trip is a twenty hour job to Patagonia, which leaves BA at 9pm. Even economy class has pretty good reclining loungers, and we cwtch up and soon fall asleep (despite the B-rate movie flashing over the TV screens). As dawn breaks we are exposed to a transformed landscape - mile upon mile of flat, barren semi-desert scrubland. If we strain our eyes we can spot amongst the low lying scrub a few cattle or horses. The farms out here are vast - averaging 7,000 to 10,000 hectares. It must be a ... read more

several of you have emailed about the new format of this blog site. Just to confirm that if you look in Guestbook (to the right of the home page) that is where you can add/view comments! Not a request for more comments, more a helpful tip! (hopefully!!) xx ... read more

We visited El Condor from Viedma - home to the largest colony of parrots in the world - what a find! (everything in the town was closed for winter and we had 3 hours to kill before the bus back to Viedma!) thank goodness for the parrots!! We embarked on our next part of the journey South on Tuesday. The coach was an hour late but nobody seemed concerned about it! We were on the top deck this time with only half reclining seats - thought we could watch the scenery but for most of the journey it was just a straight road, across boring, flat, arid landscape! Mind you, it helped that I'd taken a Nytol instead of a Kwell and dozed for most of the journey!! We were met by staff from the Hostel ... read more

Yesterday I spent most of the day emailing and organising my PhD. I'll make it short: I'm going to Tübingen for my PhD and I'll start around mid-June. Though, everybody, I'm back on the 24th of May -> let's meet then! And of course you're welcome to visit me in Germany, it's not that far from the border. After sitting in front of the computer most of the time, I enjoyed again the nice beach, the 29 degrees aire temperature, as well as the 16 degrees water temperature...(Argentinians think I'm crazy). Next stop is Viedma, well, actually, Carmen de Patagones. Bus's leaving at 2 pm and it's a short trip of about 6h. Btw: comments still welcome ;) I'd actually like to know who's reading my blog...!... read more