If you are a vegetarian I suggest you find somewhere else to have a holiday!
Argentinians LOOOOVE their meat, they eat huge slabs of it for lunch and dinner.
We ordered steamed vegetables and mash potatoes with our grill one night and the waiter laughed. I thought that was a bit odd until the people on the next table got their meal...a huge slab of pork each...nothing else...just pork!
You can get your potato as fries (like chips) , espanol (round fries) noisettes (fried balls) or mash! I saw mashed pumpkin once!
They also had loads of Italian immigrants back in the 1800s, so the menu choices are pasta, pizza, schnitzel or a slab of meat. If you order a salad it is usually lettuce and tomato.
They also have an obsession with ham and cheese. Every place has ham and cheese sandwiches, pizzas and tostadas.
Add to that the beer and wine and I am definitely putting on some weight!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Argentinian fashion
I had this bizarre idea that I would buy some new jeans and clothes over here, thinking that these people are pretty fashion conscious and I could get something nice.
I didnt take into account that the majority of the beautiful people are tall and skinny...not short and ...well...with some padding.
The women wear their jeans incredibly tight, I think they are spray painted on. It doesnt matter what size you are really, they all do it. Not sure how they sit comfortably!
hee hee I just did a spell check, nearly every word is wrong...it is not in Spanish!
I didnt take into account that the majority of the beautiful people are tall and skinny...not short and ...well...with some padding.
The women wear their jeans incredibly tight, I think they are spray painted on. It doesnt matter what size you are really, they all do it. Not sure how they sit comfortably!
hee hee I just did a spell check, nearly every word is wrong...it is not in Spanish!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Gone Hiking
I joined a tour to go hiking in the mountains, not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to that! There was 10 other people and the oldest was 81 - what the hell was he thinking?
We went to Chile first to the Torres del Paine National Park and did an easy walk the first day, then the second day a much harder walk that was mostly uphill for the first 5 hours. The group has now renamed that walk the ´Towers of Pain´. It was quite hard towards the end as it involved scrambling over boulders, but the view was worth it.
Chile was wonderful, at least the bits that we saw. so I am keen to go back there and explore some more.
We jumped on a zodaic (inflatable boat) for a ride down the river and saw some more glaciers. Then it was a big boat for the journey to our next town called Peurto Natales.
Then it was into Argentina again for some more walking. Better this time, not so hard, but just long. All up we covered about 75km, not including the walking from the hotel to town, because apparently if you are on a walking trip you want your hotel to be on the outskirts!
Now we are off to BA for some culture, then to northern Argentina.
We went to Chile first to the Torres del Paine National Park and did an easy walk the first day, then the second day a much harder walk that was mostly uphill for the first 5 hours. The group has now renamed that walk the ´Towers of Pain´. It was quite hard towards the end as it involved scrambling over boulders, but the view was worth it.
Chile was wonderful, at least the bits that we saw. so I am keen to go back there and explore some more.
We jumped on a zodaic (inflatable boat) for a ride down the river and saw some more glaciers. Then it was a big boat for the journey to our next town called Peurto Natales.
Then it was into Argentina again for some more walking. Better this time, not so hard, but just long. All up we covered about 75km, not including the walking from the hotel to town, because apparently if you are on a walking trip you want your hotel to be on the outskirts!
Now we are off to BA for some culture, then to northern Argentina.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
It wasn’t me!
You may have heard that there was a ship that ran onto some rocks in Antarctica. It wasn’t me! I had nothing to do with it!
OK, we did see the ship the day before and they were battling the force 11 winds the same as we were, but we left the area and headed out to sea.
OK, we did see the ship the day before and they were battling the force 11 winds the same as we were, but we left the area and headed out to sea.
Force 11 winds – let’s hide behind an iceberg!
We were experiencing force 11 winds down on the Antarctica Peninsular. In layman’s terms, that means one off a cyclone. A cyclone is force 12 or winds above 117km hour.
Our ship was big and stable and had all sorts of gadgets that could make it stay in one place, so we were fine, especially when we went and hid behind an iceberg. We only moved when bits of the iceberg started falling off and were threatening to run into the ship.
We actually did get broadsided by a big piece of ice, that left us with a dent and some damage to our gangway.
Our ship was big and stable and had all sorts of gadgets that could make it stay in one place, so we were fine, especially when we went and hid behind an iceberg. We only moved when bits of the iceberg started falling off and were threatening to run into the ship.
We actually did get broadsided by a big piece of ice, that left us with a dent and some damage to our gangway.
The adventures of Percy the Penguin
I bought a stuffed king penguin in Ushuaia and he has proved a bit of a hit on the journey. He has been playing with some of the staff on the deck, driving the ship, hanging out in the engine room and he got second place in the fog photo competition when he sat outside our porthole and Jo took his photo in the fog.
He went ashore in the South Shetlands to visit his king penguin cousins and had a great time playing in the tussock grass. He had to be confined to cabin after he had a bit of a big happy hour in the bar!
He went ashore in the South Shetlands to visit his king penguin cousins and had a great time playing in the tussock grass. He had to be confined to cabin after he had a bit of a big happy hour in the bar!
Killer whales and Leopard seals
Just when we thought that we had had our whale show, we went for a Zodiac cruise in Wilhelmina Bay in the Antarctic Peninsula.
We had Andy as our driver who was really good. The call came out for killer whales and it was a zodiac race across the bay to where they were. To our absolute delight we almost immediately saw 3 orcas swimming around and 'skyhopping', which is where they come straight up out of the water and look on the ice floes to see if there are any seals there that they can have for breakfast. They were swimming around curiously and even came under the zodiac and showed us their beautiful colours and their size. They were surfacing just near zodiacs and checking us out and deciding that we were not seals and then moving on.
We cruised some more, looking at icebergs and eventually got the call for more whales, so headed in that direction. They are totally awesome. We found a lone gentoo penguin sitting atop an iceberg, well out of the reach of the whales, but he was wary of us as we went by.
Then someone found a mother leopard seal and cub sleeping on an ice floe. These probably wouldn't be bothered by the whales unless they tried to get the cub. Otherwise the mother is too big for the whale to wrestle with. The cub was trying to get a feed from mum and it took ages for her to bother turning over so it could get to the teat.
Cruised some more found more whales and icebergs and finally ended with a zodiac race with Graham's boat back to the ship.
As if that was not enough, in the afternoon we had walked up a hill and played in the snow...oh and looked at penguins. On the way back in the zodiac we went on a detour via a glacier and found 2 minke whales. They didn’t want to play like the orcas though.
We had Andy as our driver who was really good. The call came out for killer whales and it was a zodiac race across the bay to where they were. To our absolute delight we almost immediately saw 3 orcas swimming around and 'skyhopping', which is where they come straight up out of the water and look on the ice floes to see if there are any seals there that they can have for breakfast. They were swimming around curiously and even came under the zodiac and showed us their beautiful colours and their size. They were surfacing just near zodiacs and checking us out and deciding that we were not seals and then moving on.
We cruised some more, looking at icebergs and eventually got the call for more whales, so headed in that direction. They are totally awesome. We found a lone gentoo penguin sitting atop an iceberg, well out of the reach of the whales, but he was wary of us as we went by.
Then someone found a mother leopard seal and cub sleeping on an ice floe. These probably wouldn't be bothered by the whales unless they tried to get the cub. Otherwise the mother is too big for the whale to wrestle with. The cub was trying to get a feed from mum and it took ages for her to bother turning over so it could get to the teat.
Cruised some more found more whales and icebergs and finally ended with a zodiac race with Graham's boat back to the ship.
As if that was not enough, in the afternoon we had walked up a hill and played in the snow...oh and looked at penguins. On the way back in the zodiac we went on a detour via a glacier and found 2 minke whales. They didn’t want to play like the orcas though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
