No news, Good news! in Peru & Argentina - thetourist

Ice, Ice, Ice

thetourist — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

First, I apologize for the delay in uploading pictures. During the last days of the travel it was almost impossible to find a place to do that.
At around 70 km from El Calafate, there is this very impressive Perito Moreno Glacier (not to be mistaken with the Perito Moreno city). It is very difficult to describe how it is and even picture do not show as you would see it with your own eyes.
Here are some numbers to help you imagine it:
The terminus part is 5 km wide, with an average height of 70 meters above the surface of the water, with a total ice depth of 170 meters. It advances at a speed of up to 2 m per day!!!
It covers a surface of 250 km2 on a 30 km length.
But numbers do not say anything until you see it by yourself. So I just found a quiet place, sit and watch the ice cubes falling...

small ice cube

Imagine 30 km of ice like this

Some panoramic views...

thetourist — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

For those of you that had the patience waiting for some new pictures, I have created, from the tons of pictures I did at the Perito Moreno Glacier, some panoramic pictures. This Glacier is so wide that I thought it would be the only way to show how it really is.
They look a bit the same (unless for the left side of the Glacier that is a mix of 11 pictures), and maybe not so nice to see through this web interface, so do not hesitate to download them and see if you like them better.
On the first one you can see some people on the left

That is the left side of the Glacier viewed from the boat.

Another view a bit later in the afternoon with a bit more sun.

closer and closer

thetourist — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Just to finish about Torres del Paine, some pictures about chimangos again.
There is so much easy food around with those young ones of any kind everywhere, that you can always find a group of chimango eating somewhere. The most difficult thing to approach them is to be against the wind with the sun in the back for the picture. Not easy, but this time I could get a bit closer.

Grey biiiiiig chickens

thetourist — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Other inhabitants of Patagonia are Nandus. They look like ostrich (autruche). They are quite difficult to see as they have the same color as the ground or bushes. If they sit, from far away, you can think it is a bush.

They are more afraid of humans than guanacos for example. They run fast too.

The nandus are also called choique in mapuche. The young ones are called charitos. Everytime I saw a mother with young ones, she had between 10 and 15 of those little ones running everywhere.

Come on kids

Nandus have style too...

Guanaco´s life

thetourist — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In torres del Paine, the first things you will see are guanacos. They are just everywhere.
You can see the leader of the group taking care of its group by staying on one High Point and sometimes running (very fast) after the young ones to teach them what "territory" and "ownership" means.

I simply like their style..

Guanaco flexibility

This "future" ? couple had this game biting the neck of the other. It was funny to watch them.

Is this love ?

In December, such young ones can be seen.

This one still needs some education...

Insolent baby guanaco like those kids on the back window of a car

Un guanaco ...

thetourist — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Something amazing happened today. I was trying to get some close pictures of nandus and then, on the other side of the road, a guanaco was giving birth. In 20 minutes the young was on his feet getting some needed milk.

She changed several times the position on the left and on the right..

and the everything went quite fast

The first try was not successfull. Front legs are quite weak. All in all it did not take him more then 10 minutes to stay on his feet...

Error.... Try again.

et voila!

and less than one to find the food

Don diego de la vega

thetourist — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Do you know your classics?
Well, a special post for don Diego de La Vega who was also... zorro. Zorro means fox in spanish and in torres del Paine you can see grey foxes (Red foxes can also be seen in other parts of Patagonia). Like other animals in the area, they don´t really fear humans and it is a pleasure for the camera to work with such models.

How close do you think I was for this one?

The female was not easy to approach but well, I´m not a fox.

What a landscape!

thetourist — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Still in Patagonia, but on the chilean side, the National Park Torres del Paine is a magical place that simply has everything in terms of landscape and wildlife. The mountains are not part of the Andes and the 3 towers in the middle gave the name to this park (torres=towers).
There are so many things to see that I will divide this topic in different sections. Landscape comes first.
I´ll probably put one of those as background for my computer...

Real ... windy... Patagonia!

thetourist — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The last 2 days travelling in the Patagonian steppe were quite interesting with changing landscape. The heat hit the stony road but the wind makes you come back to the reality. Yes, here we are in Patagonia, not in the Seychelles. The wind is so strong that I can not take a picture with a horizontal horizon :-) The tripod I brought for landscape pictures is of no use and is learning to fly together with my camera... not funny.
I don´t want to know how the same wind would be in the winter in such a desertic place. No need to mention that cellphones are not getting any signal here, In case of emergency, you can just try to burn it to make a smoke signal (if you manage to make a fire with that wind)

Heat on the road

Talking about wind, look a that sandstorm

6.0 in style, 6.0 in technical and 6.0 in synchronization

That guanaco came so close that I I didn´t know if he "guana" spit on me or if he was just curious as I was.

This piche looks like a medieval age war machine

Just to be seen on some 2 or 3 kilometers, those red bushes were quite interesting-

Red is an unusual color to be found in the estepa patagonica

Huemul means Andean deer

thetourist — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

It is known in every country: When the sun goes down (or up) it is the best time to see some animals. Today the local huemul came to say hello. They were 3 in fact and were so big (looks like my eyes are more trained to search for bugs, birds and so on) that I didn´t see them.
For one second I felt like beeing in Scotland where I could see all those deers around the house.

ok, this is your last chance for you to take a picture. After that I´m gone

Ok, ok, one more.

One of my favourite place

thetourist — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

From San Martin de los Andes, a one day excursion to the huechulafquen lake. This is now a natural reserve where the natives (mapuche community) try to get back part of what was once them. On the way there is a small "research" center where the reproduce trouts. I also had an interesting hypnotization experience with a lama.

Lama hypnotization!

On the way to the Huechulafquen lake and the Piamun chapel, the view on the Lanin volcan is just great.

View on the Lanin volcano

Huechulafquen lake with black sand beach

The place at the end of the road is just a little paradise to me although it is not "exclusive" as it used to be. The road is now wider and better so that more tourists reach the place. It is still quiet somehow. The lake, this little chapel, that tree with such a strange shape, the wind and also the fact that you would not expect such things at the end of a road going to nowhere. That is just nice

Paimun chapel on the huechulafquen lake

Inside the chapel, the mapuche version is quite something.

Inside the Paimun chapel, a mapuche culture treasure

Road of the 7 seas, ..., 7 sins, ..., no! ... of the 7 lakes

thetourist — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

One possibility to go to San Martin de los Andes is to take the road of the 7 lakes. Everythings looks like some European country wher you have forests, lakes, trouts... Well, everything is just 10 times bigger (not the trout tough)

One of the 7 lakes

Guess the today´s color...

thetourist — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

On the way from El bolson to Villa La Angostura, the road is surrounded by yellow flowers. There are quite a lot of nice places to stop on the side of the big lakes to enjoy an empanadas picnic...

If only the car would have been yellow too ...

too much yellow can affect your view

Anybody can do that!

thetourist — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

On the way to El bolson, the road is full of those lupine flowers (lupino in spanish, lupin in french).
With such a landscape, I believe that it is difficult to do a bad picture.

Back to the Andes

thetourist — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

After the break on the Atlantic side, a long way back to the Andes and the road 40.
The road is not busy, landscape is changing, weather is good (the wind is pushing the clouds away from us) and wildlife is there. A lot of small lakes where Flamengos can be seen too.

Today a piche (armadillo or tatou in franch) could not escape from my camera. This animal has a bony armor shell that protects him in case of attacks (normally he would look like a bowl in that case).

Piche... smaller but smarter and faster than us

Then, close to Esquel, finally the Andes again.

And, as I like unusual(insolite) pictures on the road, ...

Speachless in Puerto piramides....

thetourist — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

What was not possible to do yesterday (the harbour was closed due to strong winds) is possible today. Inside the valdes peninsula, there is a little place called Puerto Piramides where you can see a lot of animals depending of the season you come. The whales (ballena Franca austral (baleines a bosses in french)) season is just finishing now so got lucky to see one mother with her child. They stay in the peninsula around 5 months per year and are resting there. The young get borned this year. He( or she) will stay one year with his "little" mummy. During the year it is possible to see in the same place seals, sea elephants, orcas, dolphins. This place is very famous to see orcas while they attack young seals directly on the beach. There was a famous one called Mel known to be a good hunter.
I have to say that whales are very curious and basically they are coming to see us closer. Therefore one can understand why it is just so easy to kill them. How do I say in japanese: "Please do not kill whales for "research" anymore" ?

Whales don´t throw water, it is just the result of when they breath if some water is staying above them. It makes a very powerfull and metallic sound. The marks they have on their head are unique so that is is possible to identify them.

Mother with her child coming to us

mother and child

In the background, the cliffs look like some pyramids. The name of the village comes from this.

Punta norte in the north of the peninsula where you can see some seals and sea elephants but they come later in the season

Punta norte in the Peninsula Valdes

What could I do today ???

Life of the pinguins

thetourist — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Not on the ruta 40 anymore but on the east coast to see 2 highlights on the Valdes peninsula (try to find a map, the shape of it is quite specific).
The weather has also changed (now I´m in the "real" Patagonia where wind make you feel like someone is playing with a huge ventilator turning it on and off so that you don´t get use to the speed of it)
The main city is Puerto Madryn and around 160 km south, there is punta tombo, one of the biggest natural reserve of magellan pinguins. They are around 70-80 cm tall and have this caracteristical white stripe around the neck. The breading season just started. You can just watch them and take a lesson of life. I choose a nice couple (Nestor and his wife Nestorita) to show you around. In case you go there, just ask for them in case you can not recognize them from the other couples.

Hi, my name is Nestor the pinguin...

this is my wife Nestorita and take care, YOU! I´m very jealous!!

Pinguins are very friendly but don´t put your finger, that may hurt...

... and I have nice teeth

I observed 1 or 2 eggs per couple with some births already and obviously Nestor Junior is very hungry

Foooooooood!!!!!

While Nestorita is feeding the children, Nestor is doing some exercise with a guanaco in the background that just don´t care.

Daily pinguin gymnastic in the morning

Not so funny but life´s reality. Those seabirds just steal everything they can. The little eagle is just queeing to get the rest of it, just in case...

Mine.... mine.....

Sorry for the comment below, I could not resist!

We definitely need to change our deo...

Leaving temporary the road 40

thetourist — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

First, my apologies for the lack of news lately. It is quite difficult to find a place to upload pictures, so you may get all the missing posts when I will be back in Buenos Aires or Europe.
Today a big part of the ruta 40 was just ripio (stones) without anybody during 450 (talking about humans). At some point I crossed the way of a small train for tourists called Trochita. It is not the season so they were testing it and checking the track.

Trochita crossing my way on the old Ruta 40

The guy was quite surprised to see someone here I think...

Ché! Que tal?

Then I crossed the way of somebody else.... very surprised too... me , this time

Hehe, after seeing me, this guy will not do camping anymore!!

Tomorrow I will leave the road 40 to go to Puerto Madryn to meet some friends and show them some places I know and then continue my journey back on the ruta 40.

This it is all yellow and white

thetourist — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Colors, altitude, climate, animals, all is changing here! Now look how yellow looks like with some white in the background

Flower power

This one has no yellow, but now you have an idea how look like a siesta in the shadow.

Siesta time

Flying objects

thetourist — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The road has always someting to offer. When the landscape is not at his best (2 big cities today, San Luis and Mendoza), the fauna is there to make you open your eyes like a kid (or father) with his new electric train.
I don´t have picture of everything I saw, but I´m quite successfull with condors. This one took me 30 minutes to be so close that they finally decided to say good bye.

checking both sides

It looks like the bigger the bird is the smaller distance I can approach.
Those little aguilas (eagle) are very easy to see but difficult to have in a decent picture... when flying,

Aguila flying

but by eating...

Aguila´s breakfast time

Those ones are more peacefull. On this road I saw thousands of those little butterflies. They just didn´t want to stay for the picture.

Butterflies on my way

My favourites, the condors

2 brothers

... flying

and attacking me

... just a joke!!
And to finish a chimango (don´t know the translation till now..)

Chimango (still quiet)