Blogs from Río Negro, Argentina, South America - page 6

Heute war wieder mal fruehes Aufstehen angesagt, 7.00 Fruehstueck und dann gleich los. Diesmal allerdings zu Fuss, denn John und ich gingen die Strandpromenade entlang bis wir bei ScubaDuba waren. Dort hatten wir einen Trip gebucht "Schwimmen mit Seeloewen". John taucht, fuer ihn war das Ganze nicht neu, aber ich war schwer beschaeftigt, einen wet suit anzuziehen, eine Haube, Handschuhe, Schuhe und Flossen an den Fuessen. Mit einem Boot wurden wir zu einer Kolonie gefahren, es waren sicher 200 Seeloewen da. Dann wurden wir ueber Bord geschmissen und es ging los. Ich stellte mich ziemlich doof an, weil die Flossen an den Fuessen mir so viel Auftrieb gaben, dass ich ganz verwirrt war, mich um mich gedreht habe und eine ganze Zeit brauchte, um mich einzugewoehnen. Als ich dann friedlich dahinschnorchelte kamen die Seeloewen massenhaft an, ... read more

Wednesday 4th December (Odyssey Day 26) This morning we drove out to Cueva de las Manos (Cave of hands), which was about a couple of hours away. Half of the drive was on a dust road and really steep slopes. When driving over that sort of dirt track, billows of dust come into the truck through gaps around the door and stairs. We have taken to blocking the gaps with scrap pieces of cardboard to keep it to a minimum, and wearing scarves to cover over our lower face. What we could see of the valley below us was beautiful though, with the Pinturas River winding through. The famous artwork is on the walls of the cliffs, under overhangs which shelter them from the elements and keep them in good condition. There are lots of coloured ... read more

Dear friends and family, (Author,s note: this entry is posted on the first anniversary of my father-in-laws death. Glen Burchby passed on to his grandsons through his daughter, my wife, Marcia, a love of adventure and the ability to connect to people. He would have loved this trip and today's blog is posted in honor of him and his favorite saying..."nothing can go wrong!") The taxi we arranged arrived on time last Tuesday and immediately the fun began. The driver thought we wanted him to drive us up to Rufugio Jacob, a ten mile hike into the Andes. Once we straightened him out that we wanted to go to Tambo the starting point we were off, sort off. He id not really know where Tambo was, for reasons that would become obvious, and we ended up ... read more

After John went for a 10K run to work off that steak, we hit the town again. John bought himself a knife (see shop owner and knife in photo) and we scouted out our trip for next week. Once the local mountaineering club figured out that John knew what he was doing we got the green light on a pass we are going to tackle. Since he missed any veggies at lunch John had a salad at dinner (I had beef). But we could not resist the chocolate shop for desert! (See photos) This is a very friendly town, probably because John works so hard to speak and learn Spanish. We leave tomorrow for three days of fishing and will be staying on the river, so do't look for any updates until Sunday night.... read more

Good morning. We finished off last night with a great asado (beef, it is what's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner here) sandwiches and El Bolson beers, $16 US, and then 10 hours of great sleep. Up this morning for some grocery shopping. Note in the photos that the milk is packaged in plastic bags and check out the meat counter! Coffee with Mauro Ocho who is floating us two days on the Rio Limay and one on Rio Traful--two of the great fishing rivers in the world. No surprise to me, we met two of John's friends from OB while walking down the street!... read more