argentina 12 [eng]

hello dear friends

it's time to let you know again what's going on in the south, it's all about christmas, even though i can not really build a festive mood, because we have 25 degrees and work in bathing trunks at the earthship or at the truck.

off we go now with the experiences of the first week in bariloche and our trip to peninsula valdes and the unique nature that awaited us there.

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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DateA2pja57LOJoFK52BEGDuXJ0hwJzh&usp=sharing

11.17. - 25.11.

I slept pretty badly in the bus, because here I am a giant and i can never stretch my legs in the bus. however, we reached esquel without any further problems in the morning and chris and i set out to exchange the tickets he had already bought online for the afternoon on a previous bus. However, it was only a cama bus (bus with more comfort, only 3 seats in a row, instead of 4) available , that is awesome, because I could make up for my missed sleep. Around 2 pm we reached bariloche and chris booked his ticket for the trip to la plata at the next morning.
the city bus took us to the fortaleza hostel, i had stayed here before, in my first month of traveling, en route to the nomade festival in chile.
At the hostel we just dropped our backpacks and then headed off to Cerro castillo, a mountain just two kilometers from the hostel, from where you have a nice view of the lake.

Afterwards we went by bus to the Patagonia brewery. They have a really nice beer garden and I wanted to show them to the guys. unfortunately, the brewery had closed because of a private event and so we hitchhiked to the supermarket and then to the hostel, where we had baked a few pizzas and then went to sleep.

We were the first and somehow the only one at breakfast. it followed the farewell, chris made his way to the bus and we hugged us all again firmly and thanked us for the great journey and the way we went together, or were driven. I'll probably see him again soon, when I'm back to La Plata around Christmas.

Nils and I spent a very relaxed morning at the hostel and left at around 1pm walking to Johnny's house. It is not far and when we arrived and realized that he was not awake yet, we waited in the quincho for a sign of life, with good wifi.

When he showed up at 5pm then at the big screen, the joy was great, we had not seen each other for a long time. Together we shot a round on the property and I could admire the dome in final position, just great to see how a piece of my work will have a solid and lasting place in his life.

besides me and nils there were two more friends to visit and in the evening we cooked delicious spanish tortillas before we talked for a long time about the different things we wanted to do here in the next weeks and finally went to sleep.

I slept first class in the same big double bed as last time. After the small breakfast, we started to clean up the quincho and organize it. the place was not much used in winter and so it was dusty everywhere.
Then we armed ourselves with a ladder and freed the gutters from the leaves that had dammed the water flow.
After a delicious healthy lunch, we all went to the city together, but here everything is closed, as today is a national holiday.
I really wanted to bring the first film roles to development and was very disappointed that this had not worked out.
the evening we spent in the cold, in front of the zona growler, this is a store that belongs to one of johnny's friends and you can buy beer in growler here, that are simply larger bottles, in which the beer is then freshly tapped.

So we stood for a while in front of the store, because you can not drink inside and talked to the friends of johnny who came by.
Later we went to the city, where we ate a pizza in a small bar and then drove back home around 2 o'clock.

The fact that we fell asleep relatively late yesterday, we had breakfast late today and started the day with great weather.

There is a woodshed at the garage, where the firewood is stored dry and waiting for its combustion. we took on this chaos and stored a lot of wood outside, while johnny borrowed the hydraulic ax in the city and before noon we played a round paddle in the court.

we eat late, today we had chicken, that was grilled for a few hours, almost an asado. we had also vegetables and then it was too late to go on, so I lie down for a nap.
The evening I spend with building the travel map, which was mentioned at the beginning.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DateA2pja57LOJoFK52BEGDuXJ0hwJzh&usp=sharing

In addition, we had discovered a special type of wood while logging, it is a wild growth, which is relatively common here in Patagonia.

this grows at irregular intervals on the branches of one tree on the property and is usually covered with bark, but you can easily scrape it off when it is dry and then you have this beautiful structure of nature.
I want to make something out of it and prepare some of it to dry before I go to sleep.
Today it rained steadily, we got up, had breakfast and then we went on to organize the woodshed and crack a big pile of wood with the hydraulic ax.

In the evening we drove to julian, another friend of johnny, he got his finished earthship about a year ago and since i visited him before, when i was here for the first time in bariloche, i was not that surprised like schnilsi. However, it was still nice to see that he continues to build steadily and is very creative in terms of construction methods.
In the earthship community, great attention is paid to sustainability and for this reason, traditional materials, such as bricks or windows, are used as often as feasible, preferably recyclable materials such as glass bottles, beer tins, car tires and plastic bottles. The use of these materials reduces the cost of building, they are available almost anywhere in the world. with proper use, not only will something new come of it, but even less waste of incineration and less greenhouse effect. an all around wonderful thing so and a lot of room for creativity and own free construction. In this short video, Michael Reynolds introduces his own ideas to you.

For this reason, Julian was just trying to come up with an idea that squeezes small plastic packaging into empty plastic bottles, filling this space and adding a little more thermal mass.
possibly a construction material for the future, which also consumes waste and limits emissions, at the same time.

Before we headed home and went to bed, we also learned that Julian's cat had babies two days ago that are very sleepy and cuddly. we also had really good pizza with lots of cheese ...

Today we slept a bit longer and the sun was shining again, while we all eat breakfast and even cooked some eggs.
The morning I actually spent it then to split wood and stack. johnny still has a few half trees waiting to be sawn and split. easy work with the hydraulic ax.

At noon, Johnny told us that he had to drive to Puerto Madryn, a city about 11 hours away by car. the next monday, a new store sign will be added to an alquilo todo franchise store. even if it's just a franchise shop that does not directly belong to johnny's family, the design of the store front and the logo must be perfect. That's why he asked us if we would like to travel with him. He suggested that we could leave tomorrow and spend the weekend on the peninsula valdes.

Of course we were extremely enthusiastic, partly because we had skipped this special feature of nature during our journey southwards.
In the evening we ate rice and salad, then I wrote a new blog entry and then we went to bed early to get away early tomorrow.

at about 8 o'clock I was showered and with a half-packed backpack almost ready for departure, after breakfast johnny was still not up and so i started, to make, the hydraulic ax and the ladder ready for transport, because he wated to return them downtown.
Finally, we were heavily loaded with mattresses, the stuff and the food box on the way to the city.
after we had brought the tools back and stopped again at the bakery, it was 14 o'clock and we heades east on the Ruta 23.

This long road is the direct link between Bariloche and the Atlantic. unfortunately, it is not completely paved and so we are also facing several hundred kilometers of sand paths ...
johnny deliberately chose this street because he had been camping here with his grandfather a long time ago. the landscape is reminiscent for chubut, with hardly any trees or plants, but there is also some variation in the rock formations or mountains that have formed over thousands of years of erosion.

When driving we alternate and it remains quite boring, for a long time, until the following happens.
The road is paved on some sections, but as long as the entire section is not completed, the workers pile sand on the road, as a barrier, so that no one can use the path.
Unfortunately, I have no photo or video, but while johnny attempted to drive over one of these barriers, the bus got stuck on one of the piles.
So all man out and push, or scrape the earth beneath. in the end we got rescued, with the help of some of the workers who happened to see us.
we finally got to the beach at playas doradas shortly after the sunset.

our day started with the beautiful sunrise that we marveled at the beach of playas doradas before we had a sandwich and made our way to the peninsula valdes.

since we wanted to avoid driving on the ruta 3 and johnny meant somewhere here would be Jane Goodall
own an estancia. we took the opportunity to let tijo run after yesterday's long drive.

Around noon we reached the small town of puerto piramides, the only larger settlement on the peninsula. the whole peninsula was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in 1999. All in all, it is very barren sandstone, except for some salt lakes, there is little exciting in the landscape. The special capital of this peninsula, is the wildlife that lives here.

this was our reason to spend a few days here, before we drove on to puerto madryn.
I had read in a blog that you can, equipped with neoprene and diving goggles, go snorkeling with sea lions. So we were looking for a diving station in the city, with a boat we could experience this adventure as well.

we drove out, wrapped in 9 mm thick neoprene. on the other side we saw some dolphins jumping in our rear axle.
Having arrived at the rock, where some sea lions already sat in the sun, we jumped into the water. The underwater world here in Patagonia is relatively unspectacular, so we dumbled in the water about 3 meters deep around the rock. but when two other sea lions appeared, dived around us and looked at us curiously from all sides, the experience was perfect, so close you can hardly ever come to these stunning animals. I, as a boy raised with "robby", (famous german movie series for families) fulfilled one of my dreams here.

The peninsula's two large gulfs are used as nurseries each year by the southern right whales (whale species) and other marine mammals, so there are good chances to see giant whales even from the beach.
however, we were very lucky and on the way back we were able to observe these gigantic animals from the boat at a distance of one meter. At first, a head emerged from the water and I thought: 'hmm, that's pretty big, but I had always imagined that somehow bigger'. That was before I realized, we had only seen the calf and behind it appeared a moment later the mother animal, which was about three times as large.

you can not really get it from the picture, but these animals are just special ...
we then reached puerto piramides again with the setting sun, after nilsi did another small dive.

the warm shower thawed my freezing toes again and the pizza we beaked afterwards rounded off this gigantic day perfectly.
We awoke on the beach of puerto pirámides, ate breakfast and then started our península tour. There is a network of sandways that you can use to explore the whole area.

First, we drove to the east coast to admire an old lighthouse and elephant seals. both relatively unspectacular.

then we went on to the penguins, yes penguins, here so far away from the Antarctic. they were just on the beach and waddled like the do, more precisely, magellan penguins, the same ones we've seen in ushuaia.

they look very beautiful, here they were a maximum of a meter away from us. just crazy that you can look at the wildlife here so easy and good.
on our way back to puerto pirámides we stopped at a fishing village on the island, johnny wanted to try to buy a few shells, unfortunately there was no fresh and they had only these giant snails.

In conversation with the fishermen, it turned out that there are also other colonies of people here on the island, more or less occupying territories and over the timespan of a few years they are building caravan settlements, even with fixed structures like small houses and sheds. they do not want to accept that the peninsula becomes so touristy and protest against the status of world cultural heritage.
also for argentinians, the visit to the island is a very expensive trip and before the late 90s, you could visit this for free, now it costs a hefty entry.
I do not really know what to think of it, the status of the UNESCO is supposed to preserve the state of the island, as it was found, maybe they need time to recognize this seal. in addition, the wildlife must be specially protected but we shouldnot forget the perspective from the people that live here, just because of western tourists who come to puerto madryn with cruise ships from around the world. However, it is also wrong to trample on this legacy and build a trailer park in this unique nature.
With mixed feelings, we drove to Puerto Madryn and got some empanadas before we found a place to sleep at a viewing point.

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that was, once again, a week out of my travel life, I hope, especially the photos you like as much as i do. soon there will be new stories of the day in puerto madryn, from lago vinnter and from bariloche. huggs
bye for now

love
pauli

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here my current contact data:

mail: [email protected]
Telephone: +54 221 454 7949
whatsapp: +54 9 11 2693-6601
blog: https://steemit.com/@schningelnatter
in case you want to be a bit more updated, instagram: @ snake snake

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previous posts from the south america trip (chronological)

argentinia 1 ger/eng
argentinia 2 ger/eng
argentinia 3 ger/eng
chile 1 ger/eng
chile 2 ger/eng
chile 3 ger/eng
chile 4 ger/eng
chile 5 ger/eng
andes 1 ger/eng
argentinia 4 ger/eng
argentinia 5 ger/eng
argentinia 6 ger
argentinia 6 eng
argentinia 7 ger
argentinia 7 eng
chile 6 ger
chile 6 eng
chile 7 ger
chile 7 eng
chile 8 ger
chile 8 eng
chile 9 ger
chile 9 eng
chile 10 ger
chile 10 eng
bolivia 1 ger
bolivia 1 eng
bolivia 2 ger
bolivia 2 eng
peru 1 ger
peru 1 eng
peru 2 ger
peru 2 eng
brazil 1 ger
brazil 1 eng
brazil 2 ger
brazil 2 eng
brazil 3 ger
brazil 3 eng
brazil 4 ger
brazil 4 eng
brazil 5 ger
brazil 5 eng
brazil 6 ger
brazil 6 eng
brazil 7 ger
brazil 7 eng
brazil 8 ger
brazil 8 eng
brazil 9 ger
brazil 9 eng
brazil 10 ger
brazil 10 eng
brazil 11 ger
brazil 11 eng
brazil 12 ger
brazil 12 eng
argentinia 8 ger
argentinia 8 eng
argentinia 9 ger
argentinia 9 eng
argentinia 10 ger
argentinia 10 eng
argentinia 11 ger
argentinia 11 eng
chile 11 ger
chile 11 eng
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