Blogs from Argentina, South America - page 2

Breakfast in our hotel before heading to the airport. Our flight to Buenos Aires took three hours. We check back into the Recoleta Grand Hotel, we left a suitcase here with our summer clothes at the hotel. Tonight we have our farewell dinner at a steakhouse in Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is a waterfront renovated area. It is now the most upscale area to live in Buenos Aires. The bus dropped us off and we walked along the waterfront and over a bridge to the restauran. We enjoyed a steak dinner with salad, fries, desert and wine. It was a nice farewell to the group. Breakfast is in our hotel then we get on the bus and head to the cemetery in Recoleta. We visted the cemetery with Christopher and Laura but we went along anyway. ... read more

As we sail north away from Antartica I will make a mention of the many research stations located here. The first permanent bases were established by the British during WWII. The Germans dropped swastika markers from planes making a symbolic claim on the Antarctic and that, coupled with Argentina's apparent sympathy towards the Nazis, prompted the English to set up a number of military bases. Today these bases, along with many others have been converted into research stations. In 1959, fifty five countries signed a treaty protecting the region and allowing research stations to be constructed. These hundreds of stations fall into 3 categories - permanent, seasonal and discontinued. One of the largest is the Amundsen-Scott base located directly on the South Pole by the US. Most of the bases are located on the coast. In ... read more

Argentina is a larger country than one might suspect - larger than Mexico and Texas put together. Independence was established in 1809 when Napoleon weakened the colonial hold by causing a civil war in Spain. Argentina was the first South American country to seek independence and was ruled by a central government in Buenos Aires. By 1825, several regions broke away becoming Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay. Argenta means silver and this was the initial resource. Today, grain, cattle, wine and a limited amount of oil make up the majority of their exports. Their government has always been in constant turmoil, swinging wildly from far right dictators, to labour oriented regimes labeled radicals, to strict military rule. Although, the basis for a strong economy has always been there, no government has ever been able to control inflation. ... read more

It has been a long while between trips and, hence, blogs. Covid put everything on hold but now Monica and I are off again. The goal of this trip is a cruise around the southern tip of South America. We will start in Buenos Aires Argentina and finish in Santiago Chile. But it is going to take us two days of travel just to get there. On the 30th of December, we jumped aboard the 9:00 AM ferry from Gabriola to Nanaimo. Patty and Don are our travel companions and the four of us starting walking towards the Hullo ferry that would take us across to Vancouver. Our bags are pretty heavily packed what with both summer and winter clothes so we were fortunate that the shuttle bus stopped to pick us up. The 11:00 ferry ... read more

Sprayed on, snorted on, sneezed on by three different animals on three different continents. Riding on the back of an elephant ambling knee-deep up a small mountain stream in Laos, the graceful lady dipped her trunk into the water, took a good suck and turned her long snout upwards, backwards over her head, and let loose. Straight at me. While elephants use this practice to cool their backs, I strongly suspect she knew exactly what else she was also doing. Get up close and personal, face to face with a camel on its haunches in Petra, Jordan. Its nostrils are already flared. Without warning the animal sneezes over my face, or more correctly, mostly over my camera and hand, with a woollen beanie protecting the top of my head. Now a Southern right whale approaches ... read more