Neuquen and Chocon

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Thurs 8th Nov:
After a breakfast of coffee and facturas dolces yesterday morning at the local cafe, I visited the city museum; it is the original home of the railway guard. The guide spoke good English and gave a full history of the city.
The Argentinian meat is really good, especially their steaks, ´had one with chips for lunch. ´Visited the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum for Arts) - a large modern building housing some of the finest collections of 2 & 3 D art works in Argentina - well worth the visit.
´Went back to the hotel where Leonardo (friend of Alicia & Jose) phoned and arranged to meet up with me at 8:00pm. He took me round some of the sights I hadn´t seen - ´went up to the hills on the outskirts of the city where there were great panoramic views; ´toured the city university and visited the observatory (unfortunately closed due to renovation). We went back to his house where I was introduced to his wife and family; we were later joined by his two brothers and their partners for a typical Argentinian meal cooked on the BBQ outside. We ate, drank lots of Argentinian red wine and chatted through the night about everything from football, the Malvinas (Faulklands), Argentinian politics & education to my own travels. It was a very animated evening helped by the good food and the flow of wine - thoroughly enjoyable. Leonardo´s brother, Gregorio, dropped me home and offered to take me to the village of Chocon tomorrow (Thursday). It was a late night... nearly 3:00am before I got to bed - no trouble in getting to sleep.

Gregorio promptly picked me up at 10:00 this morning and we drove towards Chocon (80Km away). Chocon is a picturesque little village near the shores of a huge artificial lake (Ezequiel Ramos Mexia) which is dammed and has a hydro-electic power station. We couldn´t enter the actual station for security reasons but got quite close to it. Gregorio did some hair-raising driving across rough unmade lanes to get to fabulous view-points over the lake (see photos)! It was slow time-consuming progress getting to them and back but worth it. ´Made our way to the village where, after a spot of lunch, we visited the Museo Paleontologico which hosts the world´s largest find of a carnivorous dinosaur -"Giganotosaurus Carolini"; it looks like a very large T. Rex. The museum was built around the findings of the local area. The guide there gave us a lot of background history and information - Gregorio translated.
On the way back to Neuquen we stopped off at the coach terminal to look into a ticket to Viedma for tomorrow. All seats on the overnight coaches were full, so I booked one to leave at midday tomorrow.

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Photos

3D Exhibits in the MNBA
Most of the works were in wood, steel adn stone.

National & International Art
The fine arts were not confined to national artists but included well known international ones as well.

An Evening with Leonardo´s Family
A typical Argentinian meal, good company, lively chat and fine red wine - fantastic!

The Hydro-electric Power Station
Close to Chocon was this power station with the dam wall behind it.

View of the Lake
After 8Km of rough lane driving we were rewarded with fabulous views of the lake.

"Shaken but not Stirred!"
Gregorio and yours truly after the rough ride over the unmade lanes to a good view point.

Future Drought?
The level of the lake, which supplies water to many of the Neuquen towns and villages, has dropped nearly 20 metres; this could pose problems for the summer ahead!

Dinosaur Village
Chocon has the world´s largest find of a carnivorous dinosaur in it´s local museum.

Comments

[rob shevlin]

catch up
it easy to get distracted (and jealous) by the daily blogs at work so i've decided to check it once per week. This way i get a good story and don't spend 30 mins afterwards sitting in work thinking - why am i not out there? brazil seems interesting, but not as picturesque as i thought. i guess i'm probably more into the coastal towns and islands where the picture postcard diving would be my kind of thing. i must admit i'm impressed with your self discipline on these updated blogs. I'd have thought that the effort would have dwindled by this stage but it hasn't. It's also a good thing as i know if they come to a sudden stop, something is up and i have a fear in the back of my mind i'd be runing round irish bars in argentina with a dodgy picture of you saying - have you seen this guy recently? the map functionon some of your recent blogs is also quite good so keep that up. I expect back at the school the teachers are talking the kids through your progress which i'm sure is ver educational to them. Here i'm having a much needed weekedn off - no serious partying or rushing around to visit people, just chilling in manchester, catchin up on normal household jobs, which as i glace at my todo list is actually about 20 items long. we're sorting a few things for the wedding this weekend - a trip to a wedding show last month shows there is much to sort out and the cost is more like £20k rather than the £15k i originally hoped it would cost. We've sorted a saving plan adn we're on track. Business in this last week was tough, i sacked colette on the based of consistent underperformance. Not the first time i've done it but this was was difficult as she pleaded with me for a long time about how hard she's trying, which is true but results are far short of what i need. can't wait for a holiday this xmas when i'm right up for a week in ireland from 20th dec to 27th. anyway, keep up the blogs and if you fancy writing anything less formal for others not to see email me direct. ps the haircut shorted has taken years off you! love robX