The touristy Bariloche - good for a car trip after retirement

From El Chalten, we have planned to go to Los Antigos to cross the border to Chile, so that we might go north more cheaply. However, the season for berry harvest ends, also we were not sure about the frequency of transport crossing the bother and crossing the lake on the opposite side. We finally used up all our cash to go further to Bariloche. It was a place many friends recommended us to go.

It was a town near a lake. When we arrived it was 5am in the morning and everything was so quiet. We walked 1km to the downtown to find a hostel (it costs 160 peso for two person for a double room). Then we took their breakfast and started the day by going around the lake area. It was recommended to go the seven lake. An excursion of doing that costs 320 peso per person but renting a car was only around 400 peso. After a 20 hour bus trip we were too tired to search around for bargain, so we took a bus to the lake area and visited some lakes. It was called the Circuito Chico.

It was like a Swiss town with mountain, forest, lake and European architecture, also the big German dog, who claimed 20peso to take a photo with. There were also many chocolate shops. The day we arrived was the anniversary of the town and there was parade and different groups of people bringing their seemingly home-made pastries.

We waited for the bus in the central square and when we got the bus we realized that we must buy bus ticket and the bus takes no cash. The staff in the information center was not helpful to remind us about that. Luckily there was a Scotland couple paying the fare for us. We took off the bus nearest to Lake  and we walked around half an hour to there. At the middle we visited the cemetery of mountaineer. We found that there were many mountaineer highly recognized by the local mountaineer association died in the age of 68. What’s special about this age ? I don’t think they still climbed at this age. Certainly there were other who died as young as 25 and as old as 83, but the age of 68 was quite consistent among the tombstone. They should be quite healthy not to die that early. This question remains after we left.

We were walking along the Circuito Chico. The weather was not very good. Lots of cloud, luckily no rain, but still quite chilly to walk around. We walked into a lake resort to take the view of the mountain and had lunch. Then we walked to Lake Bahia Lopez to take the simple hiking trail and visited further lakes, one of which was a small but beautiful called “the secret lake”.

We had a leisure and happy walking in the area and took the bus back. We made a great feast (with stew, grill and baked lamb, plus wine) to compensate for the long bus journey. The next morning we started early to cross the bother to Orsono, in the middle we stopped at Aqua Calientes for our first hot spring of south America.

If I come to Bariloche again, I'll do it after retirement (?) and hire a car to go around the lakes.

看一整天的塌冰

人家去探弋城順便搭一小時去看的冰川,我們花了三個月才會它一會。差點兒被“人有我有”的心態驅使而花過千五一位去行冰川,幸好沿崖立馬,不去參加。改而只買巴士票(來回80 Arg peso,早上七時出發,下午兩時回程〕,打算在冰川前呆一天，只看冰崩震天的奇景。

前一晚在旅舍廚房焗好empanadas, 拿去冰川吃。早上空氣寒冷(南半球的夏天已過,只有攝氏兩三度),在黑夜中我們走到巴士站，坐巴士到那有錢的國家公園(人家到那只為看冰川，每人盛惠 100Arg peso, 由於是星期日,我們換不到錢，又不知為可銀行咭拿不到錢,硬着頭皮用美金1:4和警衞買票, US$25一位。 怪不得之後在El Chalten的一對年青德國男女索性下榻El Calafate也不去那兒)。而我們一路南下，原來也只為去這兒看活躍的冰川，也只好付錢。

這個富貴的國家公園非常照顧遊客；有大停車場、清潔的大厠所、餐廳、紀念品商店，更重要的是對着冰川的大看台及行人道。我們就在看台上，吃着empanadas, 看冰塌下。

在全球氣候暖化之下，各地的冰川都不紤萎縮，然而這個冰川是僅存還不斷成長的冰川。” 成長”是指它的冰不斷向前伸延，塌下。何時塌冰全是隨意，無人能預知，好像有生命似的。我還以為單憑己力可以加速塌冰，所以時不時向冰川吼叫。不知是自我完善或是甚麼的，在我們前面的冰牆的較其他位置的冰牆有較多的塌冰。




 

縱使冰塊落在眼前彼岸遠遠的水面上，其隆隆聲響遍川谷，所湧起的浪不斷拍此岸，經久不衰。

雖然還有其他的步道，我們只滿足於眼前的景象， 至三時許我們才依依不拾地離開。心裏很想往冰川上走一趟，但這會是比這個大6倍以上的Viedma冰川。

Couchsurfing in Puerto Madryn

 

After 15 hours of bus trip, we were 1,000 km away from La Plata to Puerto Madryn. There we met our couch surfing host Yami, her name should be “LLamila”. As an anesthetist she led a middle-class life in the town, which is not her own town but there she could earn better and took less time than her working in Cordoba. She needed money for her expensive dental surgery and missed her friends and family in Cordoba. She liked dogs a lot and was happy to see our photos about dogs on the way. We spent four days and three nights in her comfortable apartment, where we could see sun rise from the sea and cook (also bake) in her kitchen. Her English was good and we had a good time speaking some Spanish with her teaching us and our exchange of English as well. We hope she liked us about the cooking; we enjoyed cooking more than her and we can share some cooking effort from her.

With sufficient time basing in there, we could go to different place in the area: Peninsula Valdes famous for seeing penguin, sea lion and if lucky orca hunting young seal on the beach; Punto Tombo for seals enjoying sun on the beach at closer distance.

We would like to thank Llamila even more for her sending the mobile phone I left in the room by courier from Puerto Madyrn to Rio Gallego. Not only was she very friendly and eager to learn our culture and cooking, she was helpful about travelling information. We wish her a good time in the year in Puerto Madyrn and success in going with Medecins Sans Frontieres, so she could travel in Africa. We hope that she could make it for the Asia trip when she would come to HK four years later for an anesthesia conference, then we could host her and take her around Hong Kong for good food.

A day in Peninsula Valdes

we were first greeted by the photogenic bird at entrance

We were lucky to find Rich and Mariana from Australia to share car with us for the visit of Peninsula Valdes. Having been reluctant to pay for 240 peso(each person) for a guided tour, we were finding among hostels to find people sharing our hired car, and then found them when seeing the couple hiring bikes riding out. I had a hard time familiarizing myself on the manual car, after the last rental with automatic. Rich the very competent driver did the driving for the whole day and we thank him a lot for that.

We started off at 8am and went along the coast which was supposed to see whale, but we saw nothing and later heard that the first entry of whale was a few days later (while we were hitch-hiking to Rio Gallego). We went straight to the peninsula and passed the center of interpretation, something like a tourist center. We should have visited that so to check the tide hour. We turned out not going anti-clockwise as we heard from advice in the bus station. The consequences was that we were on the less likely spot of orca-seeing during high tide and, as mentioned later, we slid the car and flattened the tyre that took two hours to repair.

 

Back to the trip, it was a long drive of 100km on a flat land to Punta Norte, which was the most popular spot of seeing orca in high tide. On the way we saw different animals such as guanaco, armadillo (mulita), mara, mactineta copetuda, liebie (rabbit), fox. It was like safari trip of patagonia version. They went away when our car on gravels scared them. In this long trip we chatted and heard from the Australian couple how they sold their belonging to travel around for one year. They were married three years ago in Bali. Mariana who was a counsellor would have a project in child center in east Africa so they would have a chance to go safari there. After 1.5 hour we reached Punta Norte, the famous national geographic pictures and videos about the orcas catching young seal on the beach were filmed there. More information about higher chance of seeing orca, you can visit our travel tip. When we got there,finally it was low tide and saw many patches of green sea bed showing. Seals were playing happily among them. There were also sea-elephant sleeping in comfort under the sun. We also saw other people going the same direction with us, which had made me feel less discomfort about no luck on high-tide (and south wind) and orca seeing. Human is like that. According the self-fulfilling properties and other social or cognitive theory of psychology, I tended to think the way that made me feel more composed of a reality which was less expected or favorable. If I let myself less composed by accepting the cruel fact of failure and less self-competent (for example, having good memory about previous information by Yamilla that the tide in Punta Norte was 3 hours after Puerto Madyrn), it was a challenge of self-composure. Life would then be a difficult one with consistent challenge of self. With this journey of consistent problem-solving, one more was a bit much for me.

 
We then went to another point of interest, Cere Valdes, where Magellan penguin bred. It was my first time seeing the penguin so near to us. Lots of baby penguins herded a few months ago and now they were larger kids with changing feathers. Their walk was always funny to watch. They were enjoying the sun and playing around in the water and on land. Seal could come to catch them but the low tide closed the sea opening of the sand dome; the penguins were safe. There were English descriptions on the information box telling us how to differentiate male (with a higher bump on the top of the beak) from female. We had some good time enjoying just watching the penguin moving around. Seeing more of the same penguins in Punte Tombo (which was 100km away from Trelew, another 60km from Puerto Madryn) seemed not necessary for us. But the hope of seeing orca was still lingering with us.

The hope shattered after we visited Punta Canra where we walked an educational trail about wild life but not much was seen except a few sleeping seals and sea elephants. We tended to drive the big circle passing Punta Delgada, but it slided on one downhill slide and luckily the car did not flip over. One tyre leaked. There was spare tyre in the car but no tool. Rich ran for four kilometers back to the ranger house to borrow one, but it was not working. We went to the ranger’s 4x4 and Rich drove the car slowly back to the ranger’s office, where I changed the tyres for the first time. The ranger(ess) put a lot of effort to ensure that there were no gravels stuck in the tyres; that took us two hours before we went back to the road. We had to return the car by 8pm so Rich drove all the way. We missed the hat-like island (Isla de los Pajaros) which inspired the little prince’s author Antoine de Saint-Exupery about the snake with elephant in it.

We left with some regret not to see the orcas, which were still hovering in our mind when leaving.

Orca in Punta Norte, we cannot see one, just to show the youtube of the place we visited, it just happened a month ago. Such catching behavior only happened here from the whole world.

現場報導 - 體育會主場迎戰歌利亞, 雙方打成平手

如果唔係呢場波, 我哋可能一早離開La Plata。場波啲飛要當日走去球場先買到 (球會會員可以之前兩日買)，仲要好似買藥咁喺個好細嘅窗度買，麻鬼煩。 最後買'general'企位 (男嘅60peso女嘅40peso,因為要吸引多啲女球迷入去呢個一向陽剛味重嘅活動)，希望可以感受下氣氛。小部份在瑒側嘅座位係俾VIP,但d觀眾較靜，只會乖乖哋坐。

球隊主場對當地係大件事，差不多成個La Plata城嘅人都去支持，球場附近迫得水洩不通。一個個排隊入場，要搜身，唔准帶樽 (玻璃免問)驚人飛樽入場。我哋企喺石屎板凳的看台睇波。點解石屎? 因為我哋會不斷跳，唔跳就代表你唔係自己人 (其實無乜嘢，只係啲人會以為你係遊客)。

 

球賽開始前，球迷會不斷唱球會歌，又會有旗海示威，當然又會不斷跳，跳到啲石屎凳震哂。男女老幼都大聲唱，好熱鬧。當然時不時都聞到草味。

講番場波，其實係乙組賽事，實力有限，主隊位居第五，和客隊位居榜首打成拉鋸戰(其實都有啲悶)，我哋覺得客隊實力較強，交波較準，主隊只有拼勁攔截，射門把握麻麻(這個當然唔會同主隊粉絲Leandro講)。（M:但主隊個龍門截得好，仲好似幾靚仔。）最係互交白卷，我哋志不在球賽，而是睇下啲球迷點用粗口鬧球証及對方球員。如果佢哋認為球証唔判，男女都會問候佢娘親。

賽事完畢，魚貫離場，另加節目食燒腸包，街邊檔生意滔滔不絕。賣成10peso賺死佢，老婆口痕難抵引誘光顧。其實睇球賽喺阿根廷也是賞心樂事，有得瘋狂有得鬧人發洩有得食，過癮。(M:場內仲有不少青春少艾的美女睇波，曾先生當然高興！）

銀城遊踪

由於不太懂乘巴士，里安度也不太懂，我們也不打萛因為留三天而花時間學，這幾天我們都是步行遊歷。當中看過當地的大 教堂，它是全阿根廷最大的教堂，但我們所參加的彌撒是在小教堂舉行，我心想:起咁大間嘢 (起咗一世紀)把拓咩? 我唔覺得咁大座嘢會令人同神近啲距離囉...

令我哋目不暇給的還有自然科學館，裏面有恐龍化石，好多好多動物標本，亦有中南美土著生活館 (原來有好多土著文明，我太孤陋寡聞了)。
 

 

波利維亞的嘉年華服飾

免了40peso那麼貴的入場費，我們在外面看 Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (較多人認識嘅 Le Corbusier) 設計嘅前衛建築 (喺30年代咁樣已經好前衛，但係其實呢位老兄無見過個客，只係畫兩畫，又無喺現場監工)。從外面看，好多高柱，使裏面的空間很大，棵樹其實在建築物裏面。

我們也經個銀城馬術會，可以進裏面隨便看，發現有隻年輕的雌馬在散步，我們有幸可以和她相處一下，她也散步得有些悶，經常走過來看看我們，我們亦餵她吃點草，她就讓我們摸摸了。

我們在銀城的日子很愉快，比原定的三天過多了二天。亦很高興見到里安度的姪女Carolina，她非常可愛，在家裏受萬千寵愛。 我們離開里安度的家有點趕，因為他們要早些離家去他姐姐的生日派對(我們只在兩小時前才知道)。我們還是感謝他的款待。

在車站渡過四小時，我們跳上巴士，往 Patagonia 進發。 

銀城密碼

很不容易在探弋城火車站找到去銀城的巴士，終於到了下一個梳化主 - 里安度的家。這是明符其實的梳化，有點糟，但好處是可以上網、煮食，里安度也很有善，會帶我們去不同的節目。我們也認識了被遊人忽略的銀城 (La Plata).


很少旅遊書會介紹銀城，其實她是布宜諾斯艾里斯省的首府，其中有不少博物館，城市設計也被認為和共濟會(Freemasonry)有關。這組織被認為和基督教會敵對 (但是他們接受所有宗教, 詳情見 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry)， 城市設計有很多象徵符號像是和教會對着幹。她的形狀呈菱形，街道全是直角，當中只有少許對角線街道。

大部份街號是數目字，所以一個地址可以是一組數字，遊歷其中好像是達文西密碼尋寶遊戲。例如: 每個方形社區由6X6的小區形成； 當中第五十二街是不在 (五十二街會立即到五十三街)，傳聞因為52 -> 2+5=7，七是神權象徵 (你或可聯像之前和6的關係)，而這兩條街中間也是大教堂、政府部門如警察、法院、政府總部等所在。對角線所成的方形是黃金比例，城的四方總長度除以對角線街度是圓周率π 。 當中的政府總部屬法式設計，前門設計得像後門，這個"後門"和這個大教堂遙遙對望。

後門像前門

前門像後門, 像哪隻手指?

教堂前的廣場有這個石像，他的無形弓箭是對着教堂。

更多的奇特城市設計和符號關係可以在這裏找到

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=zh-TW&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taringa.net%2Fposts%2Finfo%2F1799032%2FCiudad-de-La-Plata-y-masoneria.html

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=zh-TW&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsymbolos.com%2Femsebas0.htm

Stationing in Encarnacion for the visit of Jesuit Guarani Missions - II

With the pretty Bulgarian Tsvetty who was also couchsurfing, we went to San Ignacio Mini, a Jesuit Guarani Mission on Argentine side on the other day. We went to Posadas and took another bus San Ignacio; the whole trip took 2.5 hours and the border crossing was easier than that in Ciudad del Este. The San Ignacio Mini was more established for tourists than the mission site in Paraguay. More establishment also meant high entrance fee, but at least there was English translation of the exhibit description, audio recording of catholic songs modified with Guarani creativity. There were also audio information boxes (with different translations) set up in each important spot of the relic such as church, workshop, plaza etc. With such a good establishment it attracted more tourists and we had a hard time to find solitude.

Then we took a local bus to Loreto another site 10 km away. There were much fewer relics left but trees growing around. Without explanation from a guide, we just saw stones scattered around in a forest. The guide was very patient, first explaining in Spanish and then in English to us. We saw the effort of how the archeologist recovered the site bit by bit from a relics of 3 centuries ago and trees outgrew everything. She also showed us the tree branches used for making hammock. I climbed on it and it was soft but very tough; what an amazing material for the hammock.

Finished the visiting, we just found out that the last bus to Santa Maria, another ruin, passed and we had to wait another hour for the bus back to San Ignacio. While we were in perplex, the group of three who were in the same tour with us offered to take us back to Posadas. I would rather think that a guy in the group was interested in knowing Tsvetty; and he certainly asked for her email address and facebook account. Back to Posadas at 7pm, we called the local CS person who had invited us for meeting but turned out to be far away at that time. We hang around for cheap food and finally took cheap hotdogs. Then we took the bus back to Encarnacion.

Certainly Maria and I were not satisfied with the hotdogs, so we found a nearby parrilla and had a good final dinner in Encarnacion (thanks to the money returned from the immigration with the help of the samurai).

南美貨幣趣味豆點

在阿根廷及巴西，價列方式與香港大不同。如 (.) 號以後代表千，而(,) 以後的則代表毫，那麼，一千零四十五個二毫半便會寫成Ar$1.045,25 ！

小心！小心！

另外，在巴拉圭與烏拉圭，人們習慣說Dollar是指美金。因他們用Guanrani或pesos，不叫dollar。