One great thing about driving in Argentina and particularly Patagonia is that the traffic police don't seem to be interested in doing anything other than ID-ing drivers at checkpoints (luckily they only ask for a passport, I didn't have a licence....). This means that out on the open road anything goes; we were regularly passed while doing 140km an hour. When you're driving over 1000km a day this can save you a lot of time, trust me.
In one little town on the way we stopped for some bakery treats and noticed that Patagonian Santa apparently uses guanacos instead of reindeer, nice!
On the third day we left Comodoro Rivadavia early so we could stop off at Punta Tombo on the way to Trelew. The penguin colony there is home to over 500,000 magellanic penguins as well as a host of other wildlife and is the largest penguin colony outside of Antarctica.
Mother penguin with baby
We saw quite a few cuys scurrying around too, possibly the cutest animal ever?
A rhea
Through the desert canyons on the road across to Bariloche
We got the car back to Bariloche in one piece (thank God) and before giving it a clean we thought we'd quickly take it in to the depot and see what they said. Turns out that despite being covered in dirt and with a big star in the windscreen, a dent on the side and the dodgy spare it was all good so we signed off on it and went out for a big fat loin steak to celebrate.
We then got the overnight bus up to Buenos Aires for Mum's last few days and for me to catch up with Denny from Ecuador for an Aussie christmas away from home.
We stayed right in the centre of town, between the congress and the main square with the cathedral and the "pink house", the presidential palace. Buenos Aires is a huge crazy city and in the week or so I was there I barely scratched the surface of what there was to see. I did manage to check out an impressive cemetery, the colurful painted houses in La Boca and a did a nice walking tour of the old buildings with Mum.
At the cemetery in Recoletta, home to the grand tombs of Argentina's rich and famous
After two days in the City it was time to see Mum off at the airport. Seeing Mum walk into the customs area was quite sad; it was a great three and a half weeks and an amazing trip I'm sure both of us will never forget. I'm sure the rental car won't either!
Back in the hostel I now had a few days to rest after the hectic driving before Denny and her friend Emily arrived for Christmas. I spent those days doing a lot of lazing around and wandering aimlessly through the streets, watching the almost constant street protests and just breathing in the atmosphere of this crazy city.
This march was for marijuana legalisation, definitely the nicest smelling one!
Adding to the craziness were a lot of homeless people camped out in the parks and streets. This is a camp of plastic and paper recyclers in the park out the front of the federal congress building
Christmas was great fun, going out on the town the night before and heading out to a park with the girls for Christmas lunch.
La Boca, home to Maradonas soccer team, Boca Juniors. Unfortunately as we were walking the few blocks from the football stadium to the tourist strip Emily had her bag snatched while Fernando her Argentinian friend was put in a headlock. This was in broad daylight in a relatively safe looking part of town. You can never be too careful....
A few days after Christmas Denny flew off to Africa to complete her around the world adventure and I caught the bus up to Iguazu Falls.
No comments:
Post a Comment