Tigre and Christmas at Iguazu

Our camping in Tigre, by the water, 50mn north of Buenos Aires. Calm but full of mosquitoes. To get to town, you take a boat here, so Steph is wating for it on the quey here.

Iguazu ... immense ! about 300 huge waterfalls. Even better when it's 35 degrees!

A jewel ??? no, a beatle

drinking the very traditional Argentinian green tea : the Mate. Everybody drink from the same cup, it's quite representative of the way of life here. In a garage, you'd be invited to share a mate for example.

Animals of Patagonia

500 000 Pinguins of Magellan. They are very nosy and come to us. What a comical way of walking. When you think about it, isn't it extraordinary that this animal is, in fact, a bird !

The "Right Whale", ( la Baleine franche Australe) weighs 40 tons and is not very shy.

Sea lions... enormous, but can run fast after you if you're too near on the beach. So, we didn't venture nearer than 2 reasonnable 3 metres !

Beautiful show at Mundo Marino near Buenos Aires. Un Orque... this is a meat eater and it's about 6 times as big as a Dolphin !

El Chalten - A most beautiful mountain scenery

Arriving at El Chlaten, we were all too happy to get out of the Tremelody and walk.

Stephane went straight to the Glacier of the Cerro Torre where he did some training for the Alps !

Here is the Cerro Torre, on dirait un pic tire d'un livre de Samivel, non?

One of the most scenic views of mountains I have ever seen. Summits are so sharps they look like a big cat's canines.

We still need to drive 4000km to Buenos Aires, but Tremelody gets sick on the way in the endless steppes of Patagonia, on very windy day ( not the most thankfully! Winds here can go up to 160km/h which make it hard for the sheep farmers to work sometimes).

So, we spent 2 days ( it was pilgrimage week, so everyhthing shut) in a town of patagonia in a nice hotel ( mmmmmmmmmmmmmh ! comfort !) doing lots of studying and buying a mini Christmas tree !

Perito Moreno 2

The Perito Moreno Glacier, 13 km long. It is situated on a lake and comes forwards in the lake at a pace of 2 metres per day. It is part of a huge glacier 500Km long higher in the Andes.
It's ice is so compacted that it sometimes turns blue.
You can see it very close, either from a boat or from the bank of the lake ( around 50m from it )that's why it's so impressive. In this region of glaciers, it is the only one that stays stable. The other ones are shrinking.

What most impressed me was to be in a middle of a forest so close from the glacier. I remember glaciers so high up that nothing will grow around. The altitude of the Perito Moreno is 1000m.

Change of look !, We now got a Yeti with us and he goes to shower at a water fall ( can you see it just behind ?)

Cool ! I can do it too ! Do you like me new rocker look ?

Going all the way down Patagonia

Good fun after a 10 hours drive ...

For all the family ! We you think about it, there definitely are more than one way to use a See-Saw ! Here is Steph trying one.

We stopped at an Estancia for the night. The road is so windy ( can be up to 160km/hour and drive the farmers mad ! ) that we can't just stop on a side road ( in fact there are no side roads, it's all straight !).

The estancia is at the far back of the picture. They have 23 000 sheep ( yes, 3 zeros) on a
100 000ha land... pretty big !

... which give them 100tons of wool exported to Germany and Japan. Here is the wool.