January 10-23, 2006: Buenos Aires - We arrived in the evening of the 10th around 7,8, or 9...I can't remember. I still wasn't feeling well, so I couldn't really get out and see or do as much as we wanted. poor Ziad. We only had 1 full day in Buenos Aires and I happened to get sick...as usual;-) We did walk a little bit around the main center. What a beautiful city. The architecture is so detailed and there's just the feel of great energy that comes naturally with a large city. Luckily, Ziad managed to get in some shots of the city. Here are a few photos of the buildings, including the one where Eva Peron stood on the balcony and expressed her love to Argentina.



A few more random shots of buildings:



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Later that evening we went to a tango and dinner show...This was fun. We really enjoyed the dance...how those women can dance with those shoes and that speed is beyond me. Very passionate and beautiful. There was a 4-person orchestra (is that the proper word for only 4 people??) and 2 singers accompanying the performance.


Think any of you men could do this move...??

There were 3 pairs of dancers and many beautiful costumes, but I'm still not the best at taking all these fast-moving shots with my camera, so not too many shots came out. But, here is the encore:

Sooo, that was our 1 day in Buenos Aires. We'd love to go back again and take more time to explore the city and enjoy the excellent food. For now, we leave for Colombia tomorrow morning.....and so ends our trip to Patagonia (Chile and Argentina) and this blog.....finally:-)

January 10, 2006 - Penguinitos


The tour of the penguin colony was excellent!

We drove for about 2 hrs. to reach the penguin's breeding ground. Over 1M penguins, including their babies! These were the Magallenic penguins and not the Emperor penguins (Antarctica). A little smaller and patterned differently from the Emperor penguins, but amazing. The only difference between the Magellenic penguins and the Emperor penguins (as we understand) is the Magallenic penguins will breed with the same partners for life, or until one dies and they will give birth to 2 babies. Whereas, the Emperor penguins will mate with a new partner every year and pop out only one baby.

Since the babies were born in November, they were almost as big as their parents, but they still had their grey fur coats.

We watched as the parents took turns to walk to the sea to get food and then bring it back to the nesting grounds to feed the babies. For some of them, it was a long walk.




These guys let us have our photos taken with them:


....And this little guy was just begging to have his photo taken!

Too soon we had to leave, but it was a memorable visit. If you haven't seen the documentary film "March of the Penguins", we really reccomend it. The film will give you great insight and respect for the penguins.
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Same day - We visited a Welsh community thereafter, which was really interesting. It was fascinating to learn about how the Welsh came to settle in this region. I believe it is now the 4th generation of Welsh inhabiting the area. The Argentinian government recognizes the Welsh language and so the area is officially considered bilingual. If I remember, this is a photo of the school in the community - bilingual: Spanish and Welsh.

Went to a "Ty House" where Princess Diana visited (or, we think she visited this tea house).

The tea was excellent (they really know how to brew their tea) and they give you homemade bread and jam/butter and an assortment of baked goods. So good. We ate most of the goodies before we took the photo, but you can still some of the good stuff.



It was a very good day. We left that evening for Buenos Aires.

January 7-9, 2006: Puerto Madryn - We arrived late in Puerto Madryn on the 7th. Our flight brought us to Trelew and we caught the last bus to P.M. around 11/11:30 pm. We decided to rest the next day instead of going right away on the wildlife tour to Peninsula Valdez. We arranged to go the following day.

Peninsula Valdez is a wildlife Mecca and is located on the eastern coast of Argentina. Whales, sea lions, elephant seals, few penguins, etc. We were excited to go and is the major reason why we came to this area. We rested the Sunday - visited the marine museum (excellent)and walked along the beach. A very lively and fun beach life. It's a nice summer town. Had dinner at a wonderful restaurant. The seafood was excellent and served in a way different to what we were used to.



The next day, it rained and, unfortunately, the tour operators cancelled the trip out to Peninsula Valdez. Poor road conditions. We were upset, but what can you do? We would still leave for our visit to the penguin colony the next day. This was what we were really looking forward towards anyway.

Another day of rest:-)

January 6-7, 2006 - We missed the last bus to the park yesterday, so we stayed in Ushuaia. It was windy, chilly and rainy. Visited the local museum and took a tour of the Beagle Channel in a quaint old style boat "Barracuda". Saw plenty of sea lions and comodores on the little rocky islands. Those sea lions are brutal! Unfortunately, Ziad's digital camera decided to retire and we were left with my SLR....these photos will have to be updated later.

Our last day in Ushuaia - we went up to the National Park for the day and hiked around. Very pretty area. We walked through a UNESCO Heritage Site. The photos don't really capture how lovely it was,...well the "photographers" couldn't, but here are a few shots anyway.



There were so many beautiful white flowers.

We leave for Puerto Madryn tonight.