25 August – Buenos Aires
Hola! At last we meet in Buenos
Aires, Argentina! Like most of us on this expedition, we have been making
arrangements with Kirsten in the Odyssey office for months now – it felt like
an eternity to wait, and we all know now that the day has come, time will start
flying by.
My name is Nico, and I will write
the blog for this tour. I also drive the truck, Ithaca. With me are Brooke, our
expedition leader, and twelve young spring chickens ready for adventure. You
will get to know them and see what we get up to over the next three months if
you watch this space.
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| Eva Peron plaque, Recoleta Cemetery |
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| First breakfast |
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| First dinner |
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| Frank |
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| Graffiti |
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| Colourful La Boca |
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| Library El Ateneao Gran |
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| Puerto Madero |
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| Recoleta tombs |
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| Sue & Carol at Contitution Station |
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| Patagonian Mara at BA Zoo |
26 August – Colonia del Sacramento
We jumped on a ferry today. It
took us from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Colonia in Uruguay. Ithaca, our truck
and home for the next three months, was waiting for us in Colonia. The spring
chickens got to know her a little bit better and then we spent the afternoon
wandering around the old cobbled streets. The town started as an old Spanish
fort, and a part of the wall with a moat crossing is still intact.
27 August – Montevideo
Montevideo is the capitol city of
Uruguay. It is a short drive from Colonia. We got there before lunch and spent
the afternoon wandering around, exploring the markets and waterfront of the old
city.
28 August – Ranch near Salto
After about eight hours of
driving yesterday (including a surprise zoo visit and roadside breakfast) we
arrived at Granja Santa Maria. Granja is their word for farm or ranch. It is
almost like a homestay. There are rooms of various sizes scattered around a big
lounge-dining-room-kitchen building. In the evenings the farmer makes a big
fire in the hearth to sit around and have a fine Argentine malbec before
dinner. And of course the dinner is a big parilla (BBQ or braai). These guys are not shy. They
throw a whole cow ribcage on the grid and braai it all afternoon until they can
pull the ribs right off the meat. Yummy! What’s a vegetarian?
Today the farmer’s son took us to
his granja, where he showed us how
they do things. We rounded up sheep and cattle on horseback, castrated the
young bulls, marked and clipped their ears, and helped a cow give birth to a
stuck calf (yes, you read it – we tied a rope around the calf’s hooves and
pulled it out!). It was a very involved day and quite interesting.
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| Our hosts |
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| Tom counting teeth |
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| Sheep boy |
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| The group with our cow girl |
30 August - Mercedes
Our next stop is back in
Argentina. We are on our way to Carlos Pelligrini, and are stopping over at
Mercedes to visit a shrine and restock on fresh food and diesel. We also need
to find out about the road condition to the wetlands, as it is a dirt road that
becomes impassable after heavy rain. So far it looks positive. We pulled in at
a farm and made a deal with the farmer to camp in his back yard. He reckons the
road will be no problem for us. His farm has a strange distant feeling of the
African savannah – low acacia trees scattered all about, with grass kept short
by the grazing horses. A great place for our first camping night of our
expedition!
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| Gaucholito Gil memorial |
31 August – Carlos Pelligrini
We made it to the wetlands with
no problems. The road is only about 120km, but it is in poor condition and took
about four hours to drive. This is of course after a man, Philipe, in his old
model T Ford, offered his services in case we need anything, and the local
police in Mercedes gave us a private tour of their town earlier this morning.
They stopped us in the middle of town and asked what we were doing. We told
them we were coming to do some shopping, and two officers on their motorbikes
took it upon them selves to show us the biggest and best supermarcado of Mercedes, and then also the best way to get on the
road to Carlos Pelligrini. We are feeling very welcome! Everybody is friendly
and helpful.
Carlos Pelligrini is nice little
tourist area in the middle of the wetlands. On the way there we saw lots of
birds, caimans, and some antelope. The camp we are staying at has nice bomas
for cooking, lots of grass, and capybaras grazing around, always near the
waters edge. These big critters are the largest rodents around. They are almost
like pigmy hippos.
In the evening after dinner a big
toad visited us. It was the size of your hiking boot and sat there gobbling up
insects that were unlucky enough to stroll by.
The plan is to go for a morning
bird safari on a boat and a night walk tomorrow.
1 September – Yapeyu
So, this morning the wind picked
up and the thunder storm clouds started building up around us. This did not sit
well with us. Wind is no good for bird watching or boat riding, and rain is no
good for the dirt road back to Mercedes. We made a group decision to pack up
and high tail it out of there. As overland travelling goes, this is no problem
and Brooke quickly made a new plan to go and see some other interesting places.
We made it out just in time – the rain caught up with us and we had to
negotiate some slippery roads. Slow going, but no problem for Ithaca.
We went north and entered the Jesuit
Missions area of Argentina. This is
an area where Spanish priests came to establish secluded villages, or forts, to
protect the locals from slavery and teach them a different way of life
(monogamy and non-canibalism). It is quite interesting. There were only two
priests in every mission, and the rest were the local indigenous people. They
built big stone buildings and walls, and some of the ruins are still visible
today.
Today we are staying at Yapeyu.
It is one of the smaller missions. We are staying at a campsite on a big river
the Rio Uruguay. On the other side is
Brazil, our next country.
2 September – San Ignacio
Because we got out of Carlos
Pelligrini early, we had extra time to visit some of the missions around San
Ignacio. We went to the San Maria and San Ignacio ruins. These are quite
impressive old ruins and well worth a visit.
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| David & Carol |
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| Sue |
3 September – Puerto Iguazu
This is our last stop in
Argentina. Puerto Iguazu, if you hadn’t guessed, is the town at the Iguazu
Falls. We will spend the next four days around the falls – first on the
Argentine side, and then on the Brazilian side.
Watch this space for our next
blog – Brazil. We will visit some amazing places, like the Pantanal, Paraty and
Rio de Janeiro.
