Monday, November 29, 2010

Waterfall Hike


Bariloche is gorgeous. The town is nestled in between a big lake and a very pretty mountain range. There are also mountains on the other side of the lake but I think the ones behind the city are prettier. Most of the mountains have snow on them making it an amazing drive just from our hotel to the city next to the lake. After Dad got the car, since Helen was sick, dad and I went to a waterfall. The drive there was amazing. We got to drive beside two lakes . The best part was that I got to sit in the front seat. We accidentaly took a wrong curve (since I was directing) and ended up driving to a golf course. Whoops! Once back on track we got all the way to the waterfall without problems! The hike to the waterfall was very pretty but not very steep or long which was good. We crossed a couple rivers and I stuck my hand in one of them. IT WAS SO COLD! We crossed one last bridge and took the path to a little clearing. Right across from the river was the waterfall. One of the falls fed into the other making a very pretty sight. The foam disapeared as soon as the falls hit the water forming a beautiful blue that was crystal clear up close. In the middle of the clearing there was a tree that was cut into a very comfortable chair. On the way back to the car we passed a sign that said Mirador 1 kilometer. Dad said " We should do it. We can always turn around if we need to." I thought about it for a minute than agreed and we started going up the hill. I must say it was a pretty hike but it was really steep too. Remember the part about we can turn around if we need to? Dad wouldn't let me turn around. Well I guess I am glad he made me do it. The first part of the hike was really pleasnt. It was a nice up hill slant and then it got steep. What I mean by steep is that we had to climb. After about a half an hour we came to a sign that said Mirador 10 minutes. Of course we arn't super climbers so it took a lot more time thatn just ten minutes. On our last really steep climb we had the most scariest experience in our lifes. Dad almost fell off the cliff. Luckily I was carrying the camera and I got to snap one picture before I rushed to his aid. Picture below. We were a little shaken up after that but we kept going. Finally we got to the top. It was really pretty but really windy. We took a break behind a big rock before starting the climb back down. The view was so gorgeous that you could probably take a picture, sell a million postcards and be a millionare. Shame we didn't do that. The way back down was a nightmare. Dad found a walking stick but I decided to do the duck walk. Just as we got to the bottom we saw our first school group. We waited for them to pass then started walking. 2 minutes later we saw another school group. We let that group pass as well but just behind that one was another. It took a while to get out of there. Once we were in the car we went to a "kiosko" to get chocolate before going the long way home. It was heaven sitting in the front seat, eating chocolate, watching the scenery and directing daddy. We took some wrong turns but still heaven. And that was the end to my very nice day. I would like to stay in Bariloche longer. Its a very nice town and I think it would make a very nice vacation spot.

P.S. Dad didn't really fall off the cliff. He posed for the camera. Don't let me get you worried.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Whale for Thanksgiving



Our second full day on the Peninsula Valdez, Thanksgiving Day and a day set aside for whale watching, the Southern Right Whales that are in the waters of the Golfo Nuevo this time of year raising the whale calfs. Our home base for 3 days, Puerto Piramides is the launch zone for all of the tours into the gulf. 2 hour trips that get you up close and personal. We scheduled a 4pm tour and decided to spend the morning trying to get a glimpse of a tail, fin, or hump from land as we were told possible from Punta Pardelas just south of town. After breakfast in our room we were in our car heading down gravel roads through sheep pastures following signs to mirador ballenas. We had the point to ourselves for a short while and had commanding views of a calm bay off of the gulf waters. Having only seen whales once in my life off the coast of Oregon as they migrated north, catching a brief glimse of a hump and a spout off in the distance with binoculars, I didn't know what to expect. This was quite different and got us all excited. Without much effort we could see several groups of whales in the bay, pairs momma and baby side by side, some were close enough to hear their exhales. Helen insisted that we get a closer look so we climbed down to a reef shelf above water due to low tide and got to see a couple whales rounding that point, less than 100 yards from us - we were getting very excited about the possibility of getting even closer on our boat tour. We hung out a while longer watching whales and watching tour boats watch whales and then headed back to town.
At 4pm we joined 47 other life jacket wearing tourists and boarded our boat and headed to the same area we had been earlier that day. The water had roughened up and I had some concern that we might not have the best conditions but it all worked out well! In the hour of viewing (not cruising) our boat captains pulled us along side 3 different sets of mom and baby whales. Other than a jump (which would have been spectacular), we saw it all, tails, fins, bellys, noses (do whales have noses?) and humps. And the sounds of the exhaling spouts and splashes from fins slapping the water was wonderful. Although our boat was full, we all had great views and Helen and I couldn't pull our cameras from our faces. I will be culling photos for a couple of days. The time flew by and rather quickly our captain told us to take our last shots before we headed back to port.
Back in our hotel we feasted on pizza for dinner and wished we were home with friends and family for Thanksgiving enjoying pie and a turkey leg - but the tail of whale would have to do.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Sea Lions and Penguins and Whales, OH MY!

We slept really late today. It was awesome. I got one of the best night's sleep I've had in a long time. There were no sirens late or car alarms. This is a blissfully quiet town. Something about the waves and the sea, I think.

Today we drove a 200 km loop (128 miles) on a gravel road. This was not something that originally I was looking forward to, but the day was fantastic and I'm so glad that Mike's a die-hard motorist.


First, we drove to an area called Punta Cantor, where there is a colony of sea lions. We walked down a little path to a lookout on the beach to watch the sunbathing sealions. There were some massive ones - really big and fat. And we read in the guide that these males could have up to 20 females (called a harem, ha ha) that they have to constantly defend from the bachelor sea lions. I have a feeling if you work out here and know them by sight, it could be a little Melrose Place-ish.

Next we drove to Punta Norte. Here is a larger sea lion colony in the Spring - when they beach to have their babies. The fun part of being up there were the photos. If you were here in the Spring, you get to see the Orcas beach themselves trying to flood the baby sea lions out into the ocean to feed on. Apparently, it gets all "National Geographic" up there. I guess I'm a little sad to have missed out on the action, but the sea lions' faces are so sweet, I doubt I would be able to handle watching them be eaten by orcas.


On our final stop, we went to Estancia San Lorenzo. They own a stretch of beach where 400,000 Magellanic penguins come to nest. They had a biologist there to make sure the conditions of visitation were "appropriate" for the penguins. She led us right down to the area where the penguins were nesting. We got to see 4-6 day old penguins. Believe it or not, they look like little grey puff-balls - sort of like a chicken. And they make these really sweet peeping noises. The girls and I couldnt' get over how cute they were.

We returned our room late, but went out for dinner at a really "hip" place (according to Lonely Planet). When we got there at 8:30, there was only 1 other table of people. When we left at 10 - we had watched several people come in and not find a table and leave. The wifi was similar to 80's dial-up. :)

On our way home, we visited a few gift shops, but we were all exhausted so we decided to put off buying anything until tomorrow. What a fantastic day at the beach!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Puerto Piramides


Today we took a 21 hour bus trip to Puerto Madryn to see the whales on a boat. The bus trip wasn't so bad, I woke up at 5AM and then fell back to sleep in no time.n Later, all four of us woke up at 7:00 AM because the bus attendant was yelling the name of the city we were in. Some of the passengers left the bus, but others stayed on, including us.

Our stop was at 10:30. Finally, in what seemed like a year, we got off at Puerto Madryn. It was very hot, it was burning just like I had walked onto the sun.

The first thing we did was to get a car. It was a white one and there were no doors to the back. So, we have to climb through the front into the back. We stayed next to the car for a few minutes and then we decided to go eat lunch.

The restaurant where we ate was called Cantina El Nautico, and it was really good. I had raviolis with a meat sauce and there was spinach in the raviolis. It was delicious!

We returned to the car. The trip to Puerto Piramides from Puerto Madryn was 2 hours. Finally, we got out at our new place. It had 2 single beds and one double and a kitchen. We got all excited because it had DirectTV.

We really like DirectTV because it means that the remote can turn the tv shows into English. It only works for the shows that were taped in English and then dubbed into Spanish. The shows that are on television that are filmed in Spanish can't be changed into English.

After we finished looking at our room, we walked over to an office near the beach to have them give us directions on where to see the whales. She told us that it would be windy the following day and we decided to go the day after next.

We went to the beach and put our feet into the water. We jumped back just in time because the water was freezing cold! We figured out that the whales thought this water was WARM!

While we were on the beach, we met 3 kids who spoke English!!! They were from Bedford, New Hampshire and were in school in Buenos Aires because their dad works for the US Embassy in Argentina. We played a game together and then they had to go. They were taking the 6:00 boat to see the whales. It was no fun playing without them on the beach, so we decided to leave.

We went back to the hotel and ate dinner. We watched some Disney TV (in English) and then I laid down and before I knew it, I was asleep.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Helado


I must say other than meat and wine Argentina is very famous for their ice cream. Here in Cordoba we eat ice cream almost every day, only excepting the days that we are sick, its too cold, or we dont have time. Here are lots of ice cream places but I think that Grido is most well known. Every time we go into a Grido they are packed and the Gridos are everywhere. Sometimes I dont think that you could throw a stone without hitting a ice cream place.
The categorys of most ice cream places are: fruit sorbets, special creams, regular creams, chocolates and dulce de lece. The chocolates are very good. My favorite chocolate is Chocolate Bariloche. Usually it has mandarin cherrys and nuts. That all depends on the makers though. Recently while we were in Cordoba workers tore down the old Bariloche and built a knew one. The new one was very nice and took a suprisingly little time to finish. We as a family went and it was superb.
Ice cream places dont only sell ice cream here. Helen and I have tried Grido Batido which is just like a milk shake. Except you dont have to have the usual chocolate, strawberry or vanilla. You can pick any cream on the board and they make it for you right there. We have also had fruit bars when we have to grab it and go. They are made by all sorts of companies. Mom and I have also tried the Grido "Chocolate Bath". That means that you pick any ice cream on the board and they dip in chocolate. Its so messy that they have to give you an extra cone to hold the messy one. I LOVE IT!!!
This blog isnt the most important thing on the planet but I think that you have to know everyones favorite flavors. Mine is Chocolate Bariloche, Helen's are Dulce de Leche and Lemon, Moms is Dulce de Leche Chip and Dads are all the chocolates. I think he has tried all of them but one. I must say I am going to miss all the ice cream when we move to Peru.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Jesuit Estancias





We rented a car today and headed North out of town to visit three Jesuit Estancias within close proximity to Cordoba - Caroya, Jesus Maria and Santa Catalina. After driving right past the touritica office in Caroya and taking a very scenic though unplanned detour we made it to our first estancia. Along with Alta Gracia, which we visited weeks ago and Candelaria, a little out of the way for our tour today, there are a total of 5 estancias in the province of Cordoba built in the 1600s to financially support the church and university in the city center. The four that we have visited are very similar and resemble convents or missions with a chapel, dormatories, and beautiful courtyards. Massively tall walls walls suround these compounds set on well maintained grounds. The estancia at Jesus Maria made wine, Caroya served as a country retreat and Santa Catalina specialized in mule raising. Santa Catalina is also the only estancia of the 5 that is privately owned, operated and enjoyed by a collection of 140 families. During the week they offer tours and on the weekends use the beautiful estate for retreats and gatherings. Set away from any town on a long dirt road, this one was definitely the largest and best maintained and our favorite.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Villa Carlos Paz

Today we went to a city called Villa Carlos Paz. We thought it would be a sunny day but it turned out cloudy. We took a one hour to the city. We got off at the bus station and started wondering around, looking for place to eat. Finally, we stopped at a place called Junior B's. While we sat there waiting for our food, Mom asked us if we wanted to go swimming or on chairs to the top of the mountain. We immediately chose the chairs to the top of the mountain because it was too cloudy and we were afraid when we got to the water it would start to rain.



We walked up the street to find the chairs. When we got there, it was still closed. It opened at 3:00 and it was only 2:42. 18 more minutes.



We waited until finally it opened but we had to wait again because there was a whole school in line and they got to go first. We climbed a set of stairs and waited in another line. There were two cushions on each chair, it was for 2 people. Meghan and I were going to ride together. We walked over to a yellow rectangle painted on the ground and the chair came around.




When it reached us, we both immediately sat. I was careful not to lose my flip-flops because we were going straight up. We got to the top and there was some sort of house. We hung out there for a little time and then went back down.



Then we decided to go to the coo-coo clock. We walked over it. It looked like a house. It had a door and three windowss. We waited and then the top window opened and a bird came out. He did not say coo-coo, it made some sort of "gwak"-ing noise and then the window shut tight. It was over.



We decided to go back to the bus station from there. We got on the next bus back to Cordoba.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Manzana Jesuitica and Other Musings

Okay, so I'm going to start with the musings... you can skip down to the photos if you'd rather.

We're unhappy here in Cordoba. Nothing I can really put my finger on. The people here are very friendly, the city itself has lots of thing to do, the food is good ... there's just something missing. This country is beautiful, but the culture is really about the same.

For example, when I went shopping for a skirt for my birthday, I walked into a store in the mall and there were probably 20 people in there. I kid you not, at least 15 of them were texting someone else. Not to mention that there's been a Christmas tree in the grocery store since the week of Halloween. sigh.

So, after meeting my parents in Mendoza (wine country) for Christmas, we'll be heading back to Peru. We're really excited about the holidays with some familiar faces and then being back on the road for a few weeks. We leave Cordoba on the 22nd.

Manzana Jesuitica

We went on a tour of the Jesuit buildings here in Cordoba today. Since we've decided to leave, we're doing the tourist things we thought we'd have time to do.

The Jesuits first settled in this area in 1599. They built the first university in Argentina (it was the 3rd or 4th in South America). They built 5 estancias (ranches) outside the city to fund the running of the school. Alta Gracia was one and we are planning on visiting more of them next week.


We got a tour of their Chapel (for the indigenous), their Church, part of the University itself and their Library. The library was my favorite (go figure). They had books that were printed on the first printing press in South America. They had maps from the early 1550's to the 1700's.

The 2 coolest things they had were:
1) a copy of the bible translated in 7 languages (none of which would I be able to read- Aramaic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, etc) It was on books the size of an end table and the stack stood about 4 feet high. Apparently there are only a couple of these still around.
2) a set of Spanish - Guarani dictionaries. This is how they were so successful in converting the locals, they were willing to communicate with them in their own language.



The Jesuits believed that the power of God was bestowed on the people and the people gave it to the King. At that point in time, the Kings of the world believed in Royal Supremacy (that they had a direct link to the will of God). The religous beliefs that the Jesuits espoused were responsible for insiting revolution. They got the royal boot from Argentina in 1767.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Villa General Belgrano


All of us were craving to get out of the city so we took a trip to Villa General Belgrano. The town was settled by German men who were shipwrecked off the coast of Montevideo, Uruguay. They decided to not go back to Germany so they found a place two hours outside of Cordoba to build a town. I loved it there. Everything was made out of wood. Even the street names were carved very nicely into wood stuck on posts. The main street (San Martin) had lots of souvenir shops and some restaurants. We checked in at our hotel to find that we weren't actually staying at the hotel. We had a space in a little cabin a block away. It was very nice. Helen and I shared a trundle bed and mom and dad got the double. We also had our own kitchen that we didn't get to use and a bathroom. We got there, checked it out, dumped our bags then went to lunch. We ate lunch at "El Ciervo Rojo" the red deer. My old Spanish teachers mother owns the restaurant and she told my mom via email to eat there. we ate lunch which was very good. Dad had sausage with sauerkraut, Mom had pork chops with potato salad and Helen and I had hamburgers. Here a hamburguesa simple means the hamburger, tomatoes on the side, no bun, no lettuce, and no mustard or ketchup. Well now I know!!! After lunch we went to go see if the staff remembered my teacher. Yes they remembered her and I got to meet her brother. We talked for a while then left. The rest of the day we enjoyed moms birthday. That means of course ice cream. We shopped until it was really late then we went to go eat dinner around eight forty five. dad and I decided that we would split a big Picada. Picada means a little bit of everything on one big plate. We got salamis, hams, bacon, olives, cheese, bread, sauces, pickled veggies etc. Right after dinner we all went to bed because it was ten. We all agree that the third birthday was a good one!
Above is a picture of Helen and I by the deer in front of the restaurant.

Friday, November 5, 2010

A Sad and Happy Day

We said goodbye to our teachers this week. Thursday, we did a crossword puzzle. Everything on it was Spanish but I understood most of it. While I was doing it, Analy was taping and cutting pieces of paper that had a word like 'to sleep' on it and a picture of 'to eat' on it. When I finished the crossword puzzle, we played dominos with the cards. The picture and the words were totally different. Since the picters were all different we had to attach them together the first time we got it all wrong by putting one picter with the wrong word because the picters were very confusing . We played two times and both of us won one.




On Friday, Analy (my teacher) and I made a poster. I drew pictures of our family because I had no photos. So we glued my pictures to the poster. We designed the poster and I wrote in Spanish what the drawings meant. I wrote on a piece of paper what my name was and how old I was and so on. At the end, we both signed our names to the poster and taped it to the wall next to other pictures of other students.





We got medialunas after we were done. Meghan and Dad and I went to get them. We came back with 10. I was very sad to say goodbye to my teacher because I'd learned so much Spanish with her. I finally was able to tear myself away from her and Carlos he is Meghan, Mom and Dad's teacher.