0238 Ubatuba

28^th – 31^st March 

Presents, surfing, and birthday lunches

After breakfast, Leticia gave  me a present – A lovely little plate with “Ubatuba” written on it, and a picture of two  little fishes making eyes at each other – And signed by Leticia !  Gorgeous.  It my take me a while to get it home, but I know I will find a great place to display it when I get there ! Thank you, Leticia !

Soon afterwards we set off up the road, back to Itamambuca Beach for another

surf.  This time Giovanna came with us as well – Not because she wanted to go surfing, but because she wanted to just sit on the beach !  She settled down with a fresh coconut drink while Mauro and Leticia went surfing !

It was lovely to see Mauro and Leticia going into the surf together, and even catching a first way in together – And I was lucky to get a photo of it ! 

0237 Off to the beach in Brasil

27^th March 2015
We go surfing at  Itamambuca Beach

Mauro and Leticia were going surfing this morning, so I went with them to see how it is done in Brasil !  We went to Itamambuca beach about 15 minutes north out of Ubatuba, and this is a private beach which is part of a gated housing community.

I wasn’t in the mood to hit the surf myself (I hadn't brought my special

board wax), but it was a lovely beach, and I spent most of the first hour splashing around at the water’s edge, trying to get photos of Mauro ad Letitia surfing.  The problem is that with my (increasingly poor) eyesight, bright sunshine, and not exactly the most ideal camera, it was hard to see who I was taking photos of !  But I got a few really good ones (not all of Mauro and Letitia, as you can see from the pics !) before my camera battery went flat………

0236 A trip to Paraty and Trindade

26^th March
Snakes in the jungle, and a hippy surfing haven.

After Pedro had gone off to school, Mauro and I set off in my car to go and explore the amazing coastline around Ubatuba.  We were going to drive north to Paraty, about 60 kms up the road in Rio de Janeiro state – As against Sao Paulo state in which Ubatuba is located.  The coast line here is quite amazing – a kind of cross between parts of Vietnam, that place in China with all those islands, and Coffs Harbour ! The mountains to the west are thick jungle, and then you get glimpses of the sea and islands through the trees to the east, as the road winds though the foothills.

0235 Ubatuba Brasil

25 March 2015  
Giles gets a Brazilian, and other fun things !

The first morning in Ubatuba was spent getting a few of my chores done.  A haircut first, with Nil the barber.  Not being able to communicate with him other than by sign language meant I wasn’t sure what I was going to get style-wise (my first Brazilian Ha ha !), but it all went well (the bits I can see from the front, anyway !), and should see me through until I get to Europe !

0234 Iguazu Argentina to Ubatuba Brasil

22/23/24^th March
Don’t cry for me, Argentina…………..

After 50 nights in Argentina overall, (in and out of Chile repeatedly since 8^th December when we crossed from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile to Purmamarca in Argentina) today was time to leave it for the last time.  In the past 12 months, this is the longest time in a single country apart from Alaska / USA.  What comes to mind when I think of Argentina ?  Fascinating.  Amazing scenery. Problems getting money.  Maté. Wind. Barbecues. Never ending (and somewhat boring) pampas. Maté (yes I wrote it twice on purpose !) Penguins and Orcas.   Argentina is enormous, and therefore extremely diverse. I preferred the western and southern parts, with the mountains of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, but the eastern coastline certainly had some amazing places and wildlife.  Yes, I have enjoyed Argentina, but it is time to move on……….

0233 QuiraOga Rescued Animal Refuge

21^st March
Lots of amazing animals being saved.

Like many other countries, Argentina has a problem with animals injured not only by vehicles on the increasingly busy roads, but also from predators (some human) who kill their parents, and other unfortunate situations. And the problems are increasing due to loss of habitat for the animals as us humans take over their land.  But occasionally we are fortunate enough to find wonderful places like QuiraOga here in Iguazu – A

private business that is focussed on rescuing injured animals, helping them recover, and then (hopefully) returning them to the wild.  We had found an amazing sanctuary in Honduras that was very similar, and was also extremely active in breeding and then setting free native macaws, so they could fly amongst the Inca ruins just as they did hundreds of years ago.  Here the macaws are not so lucky – Destruction of their native habitat means that the ones here can never be returned to the wild in Argentina – There are no trees suitable for them remaining in the wild !  But for other injured animals, the outlook is more rosy.

0232 Iguazu Falls

0232 20^th March  Iguazu  F

                                               A

                                                   L

                                                      L

                                                         S !!!!!

Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow.

Definitely a 5 Wow day today !  Not only were the Falls themselves just amazing, but the whole thing was laid out really well, all the basic things you needed to see were free, and they had lots of restaurants with all sorts of different empanadas – Yup, I did Iguazu Falls powered by empanadas !  And it was GREAT !!!

 

0231 El Palmar NP to Iguazu

18^th & 19^th March
From the open pampas to forested jungles !

As I drove out of El Palmar NP, I realised how lucky I had been to have driven into the park at dusk last night, when all the capybaras and other animals were out and running (or laying) around.  This morning ?  Nothing….Nada….rien.  They were obviously all snuggled up in their holes or wherever, and trying to keep out of the heat of the day ! On the way out of the park, I went down several side trails to see what they had in store – And was surprised to find ruins of a town started by the Jesuits in the 18^th century – I was to find out over the next few days that the Jesuits had a major impact and presence in this part of Argentina.

0230 Lobos to El Palmar NP

17^th March 2015
Pampas, bridges, rivers, and a major brush with the Law !

Well, today was certainly a mixed bag. I started off from the lovely lakeside campsite in Lobos, and to start with it was more of the flat and exciting  pampas. I was headed NW towards a town called San Antonio de Giles – I mean, after all this time of people not being able to pronounce my name, I was determined to go there and find out how they DID pronounce it !!  So after a couple of hours driving I was there,

pulledinto the gas station and asked – And the answer is “Heeless”, just as I had thought, and just like I have been saying for the past 6 months or more !!   Really, how difficult can it be ??

 

 

0229 Villa Ventana to Azul and on to Laguna de Lobes

14^th & 15^th March 2015
Not an awful lot to write home about !

It was a beautiful sunny day when I woke up beside the now sedate river, and I knew I had to do something instead of my hike up a mountain.  I checked and found the park was still closed (they obviously have a lot of cleaning up to do after the rain, even though it is clear blue skies now), so I decided to go and explore Villa Ventana. 
 

0228 El Condor to Villa Ventana

13^th March
Parrots, straight roads, and floods !!

Nice sunny morning – But the wind was blowing hard again, which made it quite cool.  Thought there was a familiar sound in the trees – Not only do we have parrots round here, but the entire camp site was full of gum trees !!  It was also Friday the 13^th – For the second time in two months !  Let’s hope I get through this one unscathed like I got through the one last month ! When I left I went for a drive up to the end of the road, along the beach, and the wind was blowing so much sand off the beach that I couldn’t even open my window without getting an eye full.  And the big Rio Negro empties out into the sea here – I couldn’t work out why the sea was brown – I was to find out later !

0227 Puerto Madryn to El Condor

12^th March
Long straight roads through the pampa !

I spent two nights in Puerto Madryn because I just needed some time to do things.  I had tried to get Toyota to give me an oil change but for the first time on this entire trip, they were too busy to help me.  I was quite surprised, because all the others have fitted me in despite being busy – Interesting !  So I ended up at a little “Lubricentre” where all they do is change oil and fluids.  Funny little place, with just a pit to drive over rather than a hoist, but they know their business – It’s all they do !  Within an hour they had changed the oil, checked all the other fluids, greased all the nipples on the prop shaft and steering, and blown all the dust out of the air filter.  $100 for labour and 10 litres of oil – Not bad !  After that I went back to the camp site and just had a day doing things……More laundry (Man, that never stops !!), trying to clean some of the dust out of the inside of the car, getting the blog up to date, and of course chatting to several people who came over.  One very nice Brazilian, Daniel, in a Land Rover – When you meet some of these people you just wish you had more time to just get to know them better – Some great people out there.  Have a great trip, Daniel, especially next Saturday with the Land Rover guys !

0226 Playa Punta Pardelas to Puerto Madryn

10^th March
A bit of a wild goose (elephant seal ?) chase !

Lovely quiet night on the beach and woke up and had a very leisurely breakfast and fiddle about before setting off to the last unvisited point on the Peninsula Valdes – Punta Delgarda, over on the far south eastern corner.  Supposedly a colony of elephant seals over there……  I thought it would take most of the afternoon so I was planning to return to the camp site in Puerto Piramides for the night.  But first I drove the short distance back to P Piramides to go to the panaderia for some fresh bread, and some insect spray for the mosquitoes and bush flies (just like the little aussie ones !) that are becoming more prevalent as it gets warmer. 

0225 Around Peninsula Valdes

9^th March
ORCAS, ORCAS, ORCAS !!

Yes, Today I again got a whole packet of black wine gums when I got to see Orcas up on the beach chasing sea lions for lunch – Wow, wow, wow.   But more of that later !



 

0224 Puerto Madryn to Peninsula Valdes

7-8^th March
Lazing around, vultures, whales, and sea lions.

I decided to have a day off, so yesterday I went nowhere – I stayed in the Puerto Madryn camp site, did laundry, fixed some things up on the car (like the lights and charging the batteries !), tried to clean some of the dust out from the inside of the car

and the shelves etc (the books were becoming so dusty it was hard to pick them up !), and generally just lazed around. It was quite a hot sunny day, so I was in shorts all day, but the camp site shade was excellent and I was only in the full sun for a couple of hours.  And it was really pleasant just do “do nothing” – Driving from place to place every day is actually quite exhausting, even if it is fun, so I enjoyed the day immensely.  Finished it off with a walk over a nearby hill before supper, catching a lovely sunset of Puerto Madryn Bay.

0223 Camerones to Puerto Madryn

6^th March 2015
Penguins, wrecks, pumas, missiles, cuises, and no lights !

Woke up in Camerones to a beautiful morning, just a light breeze, and the smell of fresh toast wafting through my window – Brigitte and Joel were making toast from a (relatively) fresh baguette for their petit dejeuner !  That got me moving quite quickly !! There was even some wifi down outside the office, but it was so s-l-o-w that in the end I gave up, and we hit the road to go and find Xavier and Elena who must have spent the night somewhere up the coast.

0222 Pico Truncado to Camerones

5^th March 2015
Wind, dust, wind, dust – Did I mention the wind and dust yet ?

Yes, I found out this morning that I was about 40 kms south of a place called Pico Truncado, and I am very glad I was that far short of it when I stopped !  Now, I am not sure, but I think of Pico as meaning a Stick, and Truncado as being Shortened, so I reckon in English it was called Shortened Stick.  And when I saw it, I think that is a very generous name for such a terrible place (Mucho apologies to any residents of Pico Truncado who may be reading this !!). But the streets were both gravel and filthy, the houses were not quite “designer” homes, the wind was blowing dust everywhere, and right beside the main road was the local tip with a digger pushing a car body into the pile of all the other refuse, scavenging dogs everywhere, and all the paper from the tip was blowing everywhere for miles in the high winds.  Sorry, but I just cannot recommend it as  somewhere where one would choose to stop to buy an empanada, let alone send a vacation there !!

0221 Puerto San Julian to God Knows Where !

4th March 2015
Flamingos, a Petrified Forest, and incredible scenery.

Some pics of sunset over the camp site last night, and then Brian came over with some hot water for my cup of tea this morning, saving me the trouble of boiling my kettle, but wearing a T shirt that said “Alaska to Tierra del Fuego” along with a map just like the one on my doors !  Hey, that’s my logo !!  I knew I should have patented it !  We got a few pics of his bike and T shirt in front of Troopie with my “Australia to Tierra del Fuego,…..via Alaska” writing on the front, as we are probably the only two who have done the trip all the way like this !! Then Brian set off to BA – He is flying back to the US with his bike in about 2 weeks so needs to keep moving north.  I left shortly afterwards. 

0220 Around Puerto San Julian

3^rd March 2015
Wifi, Sea lions, deserted beaches and Patagonian grouse

The wonderful thing about doing a trip like this in your own car is that you can do and go what you want when you want.  And today was just one of those days.  In the camp site office they had told me I could drive up a coastal track and see sea lions – So that’s what I did !  But I had a leisurely morning,  reading a rather good detective novel I had found on my kindle (how would I ever live without that wonderful invention !) until I just had to get moving.  I then found that the wifi in the office was really strong, probably the best and fastest I have seen in weeks, or even months, so I parked outside the office and caught up with posting my blog.  And only when I had finished did I eventually set off to see if I could find some sea lions  - I think it was about noon !!

0219 Monte Leon NP to Puerto San Julian

2^nd March 2015
Penguins. Pumas, and Sea Lions

 

Surprisingly we all woke up reasonably early.  Robbie reckons a puma took a chicken bone he had carefully put on the tire of his car, but as he has no photographic evidence, we reckon it was only a fox !

0218 San Sebastian to Monte Leon NP

1^st March 2015
Leaving Tierra del Fuego and too much wine !

 

Woke up at a reasonable hour, only to find Gary and Joan already almost packed up and ready to hit the road.  So they set off south while I had a leisurely breakfast before heading on up the road to the north.

Today was really a day of animals – Hundreds of them.  Fortunately many of them were still alive and grazing or running beside the road, but there were also unbelievable numbers of dead ones too.   As I headed towards the ferry to (sadly) leave Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, not only were there guanaco and rhea, but I also had a fox cross the road right in front of me, who then proceeded to trot along the fence line beside me for a while – There was a flock of sheep in that paddock, so I am not sure if he was headed towards them……