Delay to Ushuaia due to a storm in B'Aires

Well I wanted to write my next story from Ushuaia, but until now, instead of flying down there, I haven´t come further then the 10km from Esyllts village Gaiman to Trelew, due to a heavy storm in Buenos Aires. Because of that, my plane couldn`t leave, so my flight from 17.50 is being delayed to 3am, but therefore I got a diner-voucher in a nice restaurant. Some Spanish people took me into the city in their private taxi (they speak a lot better SPanish then I do, which is very handy...), so everything works, although this wasn´t really planned...

OK the next REAL story, and everything about my stay in Gaiman, with new pictures, I will post in about a week or so!

Bye, Jeroen

The atlantic ocean: penguins, sea lions, orkas and rain...

So today is very rainy, so it´s no waste to sit in an internet cafe. I`ve had enough wet sea breath for today...



The time in Esquel became a real party week, with much meat, beer and less sleep. The crown on it was the wedding of Welsh Heddus with Argentinian Luis, at which I was invited just the night before. Furtheron, we had a very nice time with Clare and Esyllt (from the language course) and the people from Wales. It was great to feel that much at home in a total strange place!
(Welsh grill meal with Esyllt and Clare on the left)

And of course, I visited the National Park Los Alerces with Clare. This was a very nice and huge NP, with great trees. The biggest Alerce tree had a diameter of more than 2,5m (or even 3?) and was very impressive. It was over 2000 years old and still going strong! Furtheron, it was a nice, but touristy boat trip over lakes, where you could see glaciers and nice mountain ranges.


On friday, I visited the CIEFAP, the research institute at the forest faculty of the Esquel University. This was a contact from Reiner Muehlsiegl from Freiburg. In Freiburg, he already told me that I really had to visit the university if I would go to Esquel, so this fitted great. And it was very interesting as well! I met with Alina Greslebin, who was doing research on (possible) spread of Phytophthora in Cypress trees. I worked at the same topic (on alder trees in Southwest Germany) for my Masterthesis, so this was great. We talked a long time and she showed me the university.
On saturday, I met friends of Reiner: Francisco and Celina invited me for dinner. This was very nice, we had a nice talk in German (which was quite relaxing after hearing much Spanish and Welsh) and after that, they brought me to the bus.


The bus drove me in one night through 800km of pampa with great sandy mountains that I couldn´t see because it was dark, to the east of Argentina, to the Atlantic coast. There you have Peninsula Valdez, a National Park, World Heritage Site and that of obvious, because there is such a great amount and variety of wildlife! Guanaco´s (llamas), sea lions (they were just changing their skin and laying quiet on the beach), see elephants, orkas, penguins and sometimes you can even see whales (but I was off the season for that). This was a great experience.

I also met some really nice people, had a camping sit in with French Frederic and I had a very nice day with Georg and Irme from Austria. We started with coffee while waiting for the tour bus to the wildlife sites and we ended with a nice meal. We had a lot in common and they had great tips for my travel (Georg is a wood technician who worked in the north of Argentina for half a year to set up a sawmill with sustainable wood harvest).
I also found it great to be out of the Andean dust and heat. Here it rains, is about 15 degrees and is very windy. But great, yesterday I rented a bike to experience the great wind. It`s a very special island, without ANY tree (this really hurts for a forester). It`s just plain with shrubs, sheep and guanaco`s, anywhere you look, so I`d like to call it "great Noordoostpolder".

Although my tent is not really suitable for longer rainy camping adventures: it does not resist wind very well and after a night of breathing, it rains as hard inside as outside. But well, what can you expect from an "emergy-refugio", as they call it. Therefor, I went again into a hostel in Puerto Madryn today, to dry and wash a bit.

Haha here`s a joke that I wanted to make all the time since I`ve been in Argentina. Now I finally found the right sight: you see that they didn´t forget our Dutch crown princess (who originally is from Arg.) and that they are preparing the celebrations for her 40th birthday already...


In an hour, I will drive to the ancient Welsh village Gaiman then, to meet some people of the Welsh community again. This will be a nice reunion! After that, I will fly to more or less the most southern city of the world: Ushuaia at Tierra del Fuego! I hope I can tell you more then!

Jeroen

P.S. Anamaria and Gabriella from Mendoza: I met your Irish friends on the beach of the P.Valdez (I recognised them on the footballshirt you`ve exchanged)!

Bariloche and Esquel: Visiting Andes and National Parks

(Red line is y route)

At the moment (actually it was yesterday, as I started writing...), I'm waiting for the bus to Esquel, the third place I will visit in Argentina. A lot has happened the last week and on Martijns advice, I bought a digital camera, so that I can illustrate the stories with some pictures (although it takes long to load them in blogger...), and that I also can make more pictures, instead of choosing the exactly right spot with my analogue camera.
I left Mendoza after a nice barbecue (asado) with Alejandro's family, at which they gave me a mate (a cup to make the Argentinean variation of coffee or tea with the yerba plant, with a metal straw). Yesterday, I was drinking mate at a camping site and a man from Buenos Aires came to me. He asked if I was drinking mate and looked into my cup. "That's no mate, that's soup", he said. Because I put way too much water and less yerba in it. So with two friends from a Buenos Aires outdoor club, they showed me how to make it and we shared the mate (drinking mate is a social event - one prepares it and you all drink of it).
In Mendoza, we also had a nice lunch with Alejandro and his brother Guillermo and a few goodbye-beers with all the Spanish-students and -teachers. In the weekend, Ale showed me around in the Mendoza region and we tried to fiend some vineyards, but that was not easy, because every yard was fenced. People are quite scared for burglary as it seems. All houses also have bars in front of the windows, and you hear a lot of car alarms in the night.
It was sad to leave Ale and his superb hospitality. He brought me to the busstation. We might see eachother in the south, which I will visit and where he might do some fieldwork in March. But on the other hand, I found it nice to travel on to a cooler place without the smog of Mendoza! (Over 30 degrees, sandy soil and loads of old diesel cars, trucks and buses really polute the nice air, and because of the unsafe situation, everybody takes his car instead of a bike).

Then, a 18-hour bustour followed, through the pampa and later through the lower Andes. This was a marvellous tour! Although 18 hrs. in a bus is a long time, I could speak in Spanish with my neighbour and see the great sandy and redish rocky mountains, rivers and lakes. Finally, we arrived in Mendoza and I found a nice, simple hostel... with Dutch guests. And the days after, I hiked into the mountains and met Dutch people again. They are everywhere. It's nice to relax and talk Dutch, but on the other hand, I did not necessarily need to meet them... I don't really like this "us"-feeling.
(Lago Nahuel Huapi and the National Park)

But about the hike: I wanted to hike for three days, so with a heavily loaded backpack with food, my little tent, cooker etc. I took the bus to Villa Catedral, a ski resort. But as soon as you hiked away from the lifts, you entered the marvellous National Park Nahuel Huapi, with it's great forests (partly burned, unfortunaly, but that gave a special vegetation again), big trees, bamboo (!) and lots and lots of sun and dust. This, in combination with a steep trail up to 1700m made the hike very heavy. But finally, I made it to the refugio and camp site and it was great. There, I met a Belgium, Scottish and English guy, with whom I hiked on during the second and third day. First, we hike apart, but we kept on meeting and then we joined. Their company and my camping cooker made a great team, we had a lot of fun. I really like the British dry humour, their travelling stories (they were all on their way for several months) and Doug, the Scottish, even gave a small golf course. They were relaxed hikers. Back at the bus stop, after three days, we had some beers together and then... there came no bus. But after waiting and hitch-hiking for 1,5 hrs, there came a fourwheel drive who took us down to Bariloche again. We were very late, I was tired and had to clean and wash a lot, because today my bus was going, but it was a great experience!

About Bariloche: it`s a very touristic, Alpen-like place with great views on Lago Nahuel Huapi, the National Park N.H. and... wooden houses and Saint Bernard dogs! See http://sintbernardhonden.blogspot.com for some pictures...

OK then a small time jump: it's one day later, after a long bus trip through the great Andes and pampa, I've arrived in Esquel. I've just had lunch with Clare, who I met at the Spanish course in Mendoza. She teaches Welsh to the people of the Welsh community here in southern Argentina. It was very nice to meet again and tonight, we'll be having dinner with more Welsh people and Esyllt, another Welsh girl from the language course.
(The view out of the bus on the pampa and the first hills of the Andes)

Meanwhile, I´m camping in my 1,5 person Vaude Refuge, which has my hiking poles as tent poles. Until now (without rain...), it's been small but alright...
(My private hostel)

There you see how easy it goes to learn to know people in Argentina. That's really great. Everybody is very interested in what you're doing and if you try to say something in Spanish, they help you or try to speak English, they really want to communicate.

Well the next message will come from Esquel or the next stop: Peninsula Valdez at the Atlantic Ocean!

Greetings to all of you!

Jeroen