We spent about 10 days in Buenos Aires, met loads of really cool people and had some wicked nights out: We saw an amazing modern tango orchestra, Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro, live at one of Buenos Aires' swankiest clubs, which was excellent - it started off sounding like Gotan Project (but without the electronic stuff) and built up to an amazing finale of abstract composition that left me genuinely impressed and clapping hard!!! There are a lot of bands that look similar in pictures and on the street, but seriously, if you go to Buenos Aires don't settle for anything less - these guys are the real deal! We also had a great night out doing the electronic thing in a huge techno club called Big One, which was err.. quite spacious!
So, after loads of 'going out' fun in Buenos Aires we went to Peninsula Valdes, Puerto Madryn, to see if we would be lucky enough to spot the elusive Orcas (Killer Whales) snatching seals right off the beach! It was prime season for sightings but they are still very rare so our expectations couldn't have been lower. The morning of our trip to the peninsula, in a perfect start to the day, our alarm clock failed us and we overslept! High tide was going to peak in just two hours, the only time the Orcas attack, so we legged it to rent-a-car and, ignoring all the "please drive carefully, it is very common for tourists to roll cars on the peninsula!!!" warnings, we tore across the tricky gravel roads in a 120kph dust ball, terrified the whole thing would be a waste of time. We had after all travelled more than 1000km from Buenos Aires to see this and there was no bloody way I was gonna miss it! About 20 minutes after reaching the Northern tip of the peninsula we saw Orcas' fins slicing the water far in the distance. We hoped that they would venture closer and have a pop at the seals swimming in the shallows along the edge of the beach. A little while later our prayers were answered: We saw two very dramatic frothy thrashings
in the shallows just a few meters off the beach right in front of us! The Orca would rush towards the seal with incredible acceleration, catch it and drag it underwater in a wriggling mass of activity and foaming water. A few seconds later the seal would come shooting out sideways, escaping to safety - awesome!! All you could hear were excited shouts - attack attack attack! - from the tourists and photographers legging it up and down the paths trying to follow the action! We didn't get the full 'seal hanging from bloodied teeth' spectacle that you might see in a BBC documentary, in fact the Orcas failed and went home hungry, but it was incredible nevertheless and really made my day! Definately a major highlight of our trip so far, though our photos are rubbish and don't do it justice at all, sorry! Incidentally, on the way back to town afterwards, we did see a very crumpled up car containing a very red-faced tourist, so they weren't lying to us at Rent-a-car!More recently we spent a few days in Argentina's lake district which was, well, FREEEEZING! After just one day walking around El Bolson and a day around Bariloche, which is very beautiful by the way, we basically ran away from the cold and arrived here in Mendoza this morning! I didn't come to South America to get snowed on for god's sake! So this is where we will be for this coming week: Our final week in South America, for now... Steve x
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