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Lagos
On to Evora, an ancient city with Roman ruins and the Chapel of Bones, a room within a cathedral made with human bones. Then to Lagos on the Algarve coast. Here we discovered that a guy on the trip did not have his passport. The hotel in Lisbon said it was not in his room, so it had to be reported as stolen to the police, which our tour leader took care of immediately, then it was found the next day since they were looking in the wrong room. ?? But on the positive side, the 800 euros (about $1200) with it was also found. In the meantime he has…
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Lisbon
We did a walking tour of the old city of Lisbon, including the spectacular gate to the city built after the 1755 earthquake. I had seen a lot of the city the day before so took a bus to Sintra, a beautiful medieval town with a palace on top of a forested hill, when kings used to have their summer homes. On the way back to Lisbon, the bus stopped at Capo da Roca, the westermost point on the continent, on the Atlantic Ocean. Here the bus broke down so we waited a couple of hours in the sun for a new bus to come for us. We drove past…
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Lisbon
I finally flew in to the most western capital in Europe. It has a gorgeous setting, where the Tagus River meets the sea, on seven hills. The taxi driver dropped me at the corner of a cobbled street, pointing out my hotel a couple of blocks down, and the scent of warm garbage wafted through the heat (garbage is everywhere). The hotel’s location is perfect, there are outdoor restaurants for blocks on pedestrian walkways. There was a wine tasting at my hotel (“white” or “red” were the choices) that I attended, then strolled along the cobblestones until I found a place with a television outdoors. I had a shellfish and…
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Spain and Portugal
Air Canada how do you stay in business? My flight to Toronto left 90 minutes late, my flight to Frankfurt apparently left 90 minutes early so I guess it didn’t matter. No communication, no explanation, no apology, no customer service. Oh, except for the $10 meal voucher that covered half my meal. I ran into Kirsten Karwandy and son Mike here, he works for Air Canada poor thing so they are travelling standby, and will likely get on their way before I do. They were hoping to fly to Rome but are more likely to get to Paris first, so will take the train to Italy for a three week…
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Back to Bs As
On our last day in Ushuaia, I went to the museum now in the old prison. The first inhabitants were convicts used to populate the area. There were a few big ships in port, on their way to or from Antarctica. The weather has turned cool and rainy, but we really lucked out for the weather when we needed it! 3 1/2 hours later by air, we are back in Buenos Aires and sticky heat. We missed 17 strikes blocking major arteries in the city the day before. It’s almost time to go back to work for the fall, and everyone wants a big increase to their wages. So, steak…
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The End of the Earth
Leaving Torres del Paine behind, we set out for Punta Arenas, a port city, where we visited a Magellan penguin colony. They are so cute! If they can’t see their mate they howl out for them. This seems like a cool city but we didn’t have much time to explore, but went straight to bed in out nice hostal just a block away from a seedy area where port workers hang out. The next day we set off by bus, then ferry across the Magellan strait, then back on the bus, across the Chilean border back to Argentina, to reach the End of the Earth – Ushuaia. It’s the southernmost city…
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Torres del Paine
Our guide, Mariano, an Italian guy who also dives under ice for fun, held a meeting with us to make sure we are prepared for the 3 day 2 night trek. He predicted fabulous conditions and we had them! We were all prepared for wind and rain, but instead had sun, 25 degrees, and no wind. The first day was the longest and toughest trek, 22 km over 10 hours, the toughest part bringing us to the base of the granite Towers of Paine. Views can often be obscured by clouds but we had perfect photo ops. Our tour leader carried a bottle of champagne to the top so we…
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Petito Moreno glacier
We headed back to El Calafate by van, past herds of sheep and Hereford cattle originally brought here by the English settlers, after a genocide of the natives of Patagonia. Immigrants were offered free land to settle here, and the history goes back only about 150 years. The next day we had a handsome guide Alejandro, who led us to the marshes outside the city to see the flamingos and black swans there. The black swans are the symbol uses for 50 years of marriage here, since they mate for life and if one dies or is killed, the other stops eating and dies also. Some other types of birds…
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El Chalten
From El Calafate we drive another few hours through the barren countryside until reaching El Chalten, the newest city (3000 people in the summer, far less in the winter) in South America, developed in the 1980s to handle tourists hiking in the area. Along the way we stopped at an estancia, 10,000 acres of land for sheep with each of these estates. The scenery changed dramatically along the way with sightings of glaciers and the Fitzroy massif range of granite mountains. We also saw condors gliding along (they have no pectoral muscles so don’t really fly) and guanacos, the larger cousin of the llama. It’s summer here, and high season.…
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Buenos Aires
I arrived in Buenos Aires in late afternoon, missing a day of pouring rain. The next day was sunny and hot. I was in BA five years ago for a few days so have seen most of the sights, including the fantastic Recoleta Cemetery and the Eva Peron museum, so set off to see a couple of things that were closed last time. I walked to the Casa Rosada, the president’s office, so named for its pink colour, possibly originally because the paint was mixed with cow’s blood, in the Plaza de Mayo. This time I was allowed inside part of the palace, with pictures of the country’s most famous…