Salt Shaker

Apparently 3.7 million people in Buenos Aires suffer from high blood pressure, a condition linked to excessive salt consumption. As the average Argentinian consumes 13 grams of salt a day (the WHO says 5g is the healthy limit), the government has ordered the removal of salt shakers from restaurant tables. Waiters are officially no longer authorised to pass the salt until after you've tasted your food. Seems a little Draconian - on closer inspection of a salt shaker in a fast-food restaurant, I think a better solution would be to reduce the size of the hole(s). There's also never any pepper on the tables here - you have to ask for it.

Time to Say Goodbye

We've spent our last weekend together here in Leo Fandango's lovely flat in San Cristobal, a central neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Neets is back to England today and I stay another 2 weeks, joined by fellow tango addict Linda Redknap and together we shall be dancing the nights away 'til the wee hours - afternoon siestas will be part of the daily agenda as nothing much starts before 11pm. Napping won't be a problem, especially after a big scoop of their delicious icecream - thankfully there's an icecream parlour on the corner.

El Viejo Almacen

We discovered on our way home after the show that it's Carneval and a 4-day holiday which means that the streets are heaving with people partying and spraying each other with sticky foam from cannisters. We unwittingly got caught into crossfire and walked back dripping with white slime in a hot and humid Buenos Aires evening.

El Viejo Almacen

The passion, the precision, the costumes...it's difficult to describe (and that's saying something coming from Neets!) just how dynamic, beautiful and emotional this dancing was. Neets: "I was in tears, it was so moving...without doubt the most brilliant, powerful and intoxicating show I've ever seen".

El Viejo Almacen

Having done a fairly inferior (but nonetheless hugely entertaining) show the previous evening, tonight - Neets' last in Argentina - we went to one of the oldest and most traditional tango shows in Buenos Aires at El Viejo Almacen. We weren't disappointed - it was stupendous.

La Cumparsita Tango Show

The empty nightclub should've been a clue. A doddery old man with a parting just above his ear, bryl-creamed hair and one eye came over. "Buenas tardes....de donde son?" and kissed us, obviously delighted someone had showed up. The band was 3 elderly men, real characters in black suits with hearing aids but who played from the heart.
Then 2 big fat Germans came in, she in plimsoles and enormous white jeans followed by 2 Ecuadorians with combative scowls and about 5 teeth between them. However he was a toe tapper and she a clapper after a few double scotches.
A beautiful Brazilian girl came in with her boyfriend, her dress pulled seductively down her arm - after the 2nd bottle of wine, she unpinned her hair and let her long, dark mane shake free as she swayed side to side, eyes closed, dress creeping up her thighs which was doing no good at all for the heart condition of the very elderly 'porteno' gent in a pinstripe suit with Salvador Dali moustache and black and whit dancing shoes. He sat alone at his own table and was obviously a regular, ice clinking in his whisky tumbler as his hands shook, captivated by th Brazilian - his eyes never left her.
The singer walked in, an old 'Lola' type, a bit long-in-the-tooth, slinkily dressed and belted out some old tango heartache tunes, mindfulnot to try to hit the top notes.
The performing tango couple graciously asked if anyone wanted to dance. Well, Miss Brazil almost leapt across the table to grab the male dancer but she was beaten by Frau Munchen who, at twice the male dancer's size, won the day. What a spectacle - he was dancing in a strangely 'arms-length-away' fashion and with her back to us, he disappeared altogether.
This merry assembly of nocturnal bon viveurs carried on 'til 3am but we slipped away with "muchissimas gracias". The level of talent had been low but the hilarity factor very high.

View from Bedroom Window

Noticed this interesting lenticular (lens-shaped) cloud on our last night in Esquel - tomorrow we take 26-hour bus journey back to Buenos Aires. But the seats are super comfy, almost as good as first class British Airways but without the free booze - we take our own wine and cheese.

Shopping Old-Fashioned Style

The till was an old-fashioned 'ker-ching' type operated by a girl in a booth under the sign 'CAJA'. It even had a visitors' book to sign. A sprightly old lady approached and asked us to make an entry - she told us she loved England and the English and whispered to us in Spanish, "You should keep the Falklands - it would only be another place for government corruption if we took it back."

General Store - Esquel

The shop has old wooden cases displaying the goods which ranged from nails, cheese, haberdashery, cosmetics, nighties, shoes, hardware, sewing machines, jeans, fishing rods, dried fruit, toilet seats, jewellery, riding boots, fly spray and a thousand other things.

General Store - Esquel

Wow - 1950's Iowa - you really do go back in time in this delightful old town store. The smell of moth balls and vapona hit you as soon as you enter and all around are boxes of stuff stacked up the walls. Haven't seen Pond's Cold Cream under a battered wooden case for a long time.

Skippedy-Doo-Da

Feeling like Balou the Bear - had a bit of a "Bear Necessities" moment with a hop, skip and a jump on this little sandy beach.

Fishing in Paradise

You could drop a contact lens in this water and still see it on the bottom.

A Fly-Fisherman's Dream

In his waist-high waders, this fisherman, who was in a stress-free zone, flicked and snapped his line back and forth with real skill - a joy to watch, especially when he hooked a big, brown trout. It was like the front cover of 'Fly Fishing Weekly'.

Clear Waters

There are idyllic spots dotted round the shore where families were picnic-ing. They consider themselves hemmed in if they can spot any other people on yonder shore - not the crowds that we would see round a lake in England on.a summer's day.

Super High Cirrus

As we sailed back sitting on the roof deck, we saw this beautiful angel-hair cirrus being teased around by the high upper winds and Shelley's poem 'The Cloud' came to mind:

"I am the daughter of earth and water
And the nursling of the sky,
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores
I change but I cannot die."

Roar of White Water

This park is a treasure trove of botanical riches - a couple of the trails were closed because a puma and her cubs had been sighted there. The trees were stunning such as the Coihue, the Lenga and the towering Southern Beech and the air is filled with the aromatic Chilean Incense Cedar. There are lots of little mammals eg. various species of small deer, wild boar and the odd big cat.

River Deep, Mountain High

These are the eastern slopes of the great Andes chain, full of spry creeks, lush dense forest and mirror lakes. It's the retreat of the glaciers which form this huge series of utterly pristine lakes. Interestingly, the border between Chile and Argentina is defined by glaciers and rivers. Roughly speaking, Pacific flowing rivers are Chilean and Atlantic flowing rivers are Argentinian. But Perito Moreno, famed Argie explorer, challenged this border definition created by Chile and re-routed the Rio Fenix to join the Atlantic bound Rio Deseado.. A bit cheeky, but the area remained Argentinian and the town of Perito Moreno south of here is named after him.

More Monkeying Around

This was one of those 'good to be alive' moments - difficult to describe how bee-utiful this ancient and powerful forest was. You almost felt it vibrating with contentment, happy to be so remote and therefore so untrespassed.

Fooling Around in the Forest

A rather pleasing contrast was the dense undergrowth of chusquea (a solid bamboo) growing amongst the great giant trees. This magical trail was so quiet, shady and mysterious, soft underfoot due to all the fallen pine needles and the only sound in these silent woods was the melodious birdsong.

Kindly Old Giant

This dignified old grandee of the forest is 4,000 years old growing only 1 cm every 20 years. Some can reach over 4m in diameter and over 60m in height. We felt it must be the inspiration for the 'trees coming alive' scene in Lord of the Rings.

The Alerce Tree

Resembling California's giant sequoia, this Alerce tree is one of the longest-living species on the planet. It is absolutely spectacular and could turn even the most cynical into a tree-hugger. If trees could make sounds, this one would be purring with deep, enigmatic rumblings.

Ticket to Paradise

The gem in this park - the real attraction - is the Alerce tree which is only found in a small section in the northwest. This area is only accessible by boat so we jumped on and enjoyed a picturesque trip across the lake anticipating the magical forest that lay ahead - we were not disappointed.

Mirador

We kayaked down the river in the foreground with fish jumping all around us. Then we had a picnic lunch on the beach followed by a challenging hike up to this mirador (lookout).

Walk in the Park

This park covers 2,600 sq kms of spectacular temperate forest, majestic mountains, glaciers and 14 lakes all connected by sparkling emerald-green rivers. Argentina is truly blessed with such an expanse of natural, unspoilt beauty and what makes it so special is that there's hardly anyone here.

Kayaking on Lake Mendenez

The water here is so pure you can drink it.

All aboard...

It's rare to see a river so crystal-clear and turquoise where you could see the bottom.

Paddles A-Ready...

Pre-kayak snack

Clare from N. Wales, came here to teach Welsh in the Welsh Patagonian community for a year, met Victor, a local guide and they're now living happily together in Trevellin. They took us for a day's kayaking and hiking in Los Alerces National Park and in true Argentinian style, before setting off we drank mate (pron. "mah-tay"), their national drink consisting of an aromatic herbal infusion sipped out of a gourd through a metal straw. Clare had also brought along delicious homemade cakes which we happily chomped our way through in this lovely setting.

Laguna La Zeta

We've met no fellow Brits in this town (in fact hardly any tourists at all) and then we saw a girl about to get in a kayak who heard us talking and came over to say hello. She was from N.Wales, her husband is a local guide and as luck would have it, they're going to take us kayaking tomorrow.

Bike ride

Laguna ride

We hired a couple of bikes and rode several miles of steep gravelly switch-backs but what a reward! This deserted laguna with great bird life and a few wild horses drinking from the shore of the lake.

La Trochita's Steam Engine

One-Horse Town

Found it! The proverbial one-horse town...

Nahuel Pan

These days La Trochita carries people up for a jolly to the one-horse town where you can buy hot homemade "tortas fritas" and various Indian artefacts.

Through the Window

"Pucon Pai" is Machupe for 'window to the sky'.

Chugging Along

It was lovely chugging along through the mountains with the windows open. There were no conventional barriers across the roads - a couple of guys with red flags stopped the traffic.

La Trochita

Started in1906, this old Patagonian Express is a charming narrow-gauge steam train with a top speed of 30 km / hr. It was originally built to carry goods and the passenger cars are heated by wood stoves dating back to 1922. In 1979 a collision with a cow derailed it and funnily enough the driver was called Señor Bovino.

Miles from Nowhere

We're in Chubut province where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid arrived in 1901.

Oops, nearly went in...

We had a right jester for our boat captain who kept directing us straight into big rocks, so we'd mount, get stuck for a sec, then pivot and spin around....fun meter in the red.

White-Water Rafting

Just as well we were properly briefed on procedures if someone fell out....2 people did.

Messing About on the River

The glacial-fed Rio Corcovado (rhymes with avocado) was the venue for this white-water rafting trip only miles from the Chilean border. Mind-blowingly beautiful, this crystal-clear water was full of brown trout and salmon.

Rafting in Esquel, Central Patagonia

On the Road Again

Due to the enormous distances here, we've become very familiar with the long-range buses. This journey from El Calafate to Esquel was 23 hours and we took our own wine and picnic on board. Great chance to catch up with a good book and a podcast.

Rewarding Tipple

Hoorah - a Bar!

Who would've thunk it?! Round the last ridge and over the final crevasse, Argentina suddenly catapulted itself into triple A, 5-star status. There on the ice stood a bar with whiskey, heavy glass tumblers and s silver bucket to scoop fresh glacier ice so we could enjoy an "end-of-the-hike" drinky-poos.....QUALITY!

Onward and Upward

Crevasse

The colours are caused by wavelengths and air bubbles. The more compact the ice, the longer the path that light has to travel, so the bluer it appears. When it is less compacted, the colour is brilliant white.

Ice is Nice

As the front melts, gigantic pieces fall off and crash into the lake with a thunderous roar causing waves and mist - it's thrilling to behold. The surface is seriously spectacular - these upright crystals are like unevenly sharpened crayons making a vast army of pointy headed ice monsters.

Twin Peaks

This 1,600 sq km of ice in southern Patagonia is part of the 3rd largest body of permanent ice after Antarctica and Greenland. It's created by the moisture-laden Pacific storms dropping their load.