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…

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…

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.…

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…

Local celebrity overload – Brad Wall on his way to Calgary behind me in security line, Joan McCusker on her way to Sochi, Tony Merchant in the Toronto lounge on his way to ..who cares, and Brett Wilson on his way to London (i know this because I stalked him for fun)