Such a pretty scene, believe me.

I'm sitting having my morning cup of tea (made in the camper) at first light. I haven't brought my camera, so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you how pretty it is. 

The scene is mostly shades of soft pink. I'm looking at the water of the Uruguay river, almost where it all becomes sea, so the water stretches so far in front that I can't see Argentina. 

The water closest to me has reeds and to my right there is a daisy-like yellow flower growing in the water, and another plant with small white flowers. Next the water is reflecting pink, beyond that a soft blue. The sky is cloudy on the horizon and reflecting pink again, and above me the sky is a soft blue. 

Halfway through the scene there is a manmade breakwater of rocks (to guide the yachts into the marina, which is to my left), and at the end of the breakwater there is a bright red steel framed lighthouse which adds such contrast to the scene that it makes it all the more better. 

Large fish keep breaching the surface of the water, in the way that whales and dolphins gently do the same. And a soft yellow breasted bird has just come singing beside me (as I write this!). 

All in all, aside from the mosquitoes, it's a most pretty and tranquil scene. It's called Juan Lacaze. 

Eating river fish in Rosario

Read any tourist information on Rosario and it says to try the river fish. So, we left our camper at the Municipal Campground of Granadero Baigorria (a northern suburb) and took the bus to the city to go sightseeing and eat fish. Really there wasn't a lot to interest us for sightseeing, and we failed to find a restaurant with river fish and ended up watching a movie at a cinema (this made me happy). 

On doing some research I did find out about a recommended restaurant for a river fish dinner, which happened to be closer to our campsite than to the city. 

So, we took the bus back to the campsite and prepared ourselves for a late night. H and I are usually quite early to bed, but Argentines think 10pm is a good hour to have dinner. So, we joined them. 

The fish were good. The preserved specimens on display were 2 and 3 feet long. I had a particularly ugly (but equally delicious) fish called Surubi, and H had Boga. 

The restaurant, Escauriza, was big and popular. 

The next day we drove across the big river Parana towards Uruguay. I found the countryside to be interesting swamp and farmland, and the drive quite spectacular. 

Another day later, we arrived in Uruguay. 

A lot of miles with little to see.

After Peninsula Valdes our destination was Uruguay and there wasn't a lot we wanted to visit in between. So we did a lot of driving. We did stop at Las Grutas (a fun seaside resort place) overnight, and did 2 nights in Sierra de la Ventana (a hill hiking place), but aside from those stops there was just a lot of looking out the window at farm land until we got to Rosario. 

I actually quite like seeing the farm land and what is being produced, but it gives little reason to stop. We saw mostly Soya bean crops (Argentina is, I believe, the 3rd largest producer in the world), corn and cattle. 

Sierra de la Ventana was a 'fix things and laundry stop' as the campsite, belonging to the church, was lovely and trouble free. I intended to hike on the day we left but the fog was too thick to bother. Still, the town itself was lovely. 

Many people reading this and knowing the geography might ask 'but why wouldn't you have gone through Buenos Aires?' . City sightseeing is fine for regular travellers, but it's right painful in a motorhome. Even in Rosario we found a campsite in an outer suburb and took the bus into town to sightsee. Plus, we've both been to Buenos Aires and although I'd love to see a friend there again, I wouldn't drive in or ask H to. 

Back to Peninsula Valdes

We were last on Peninsula Valdes in October.  We stayed about a week, and had a great time spotting lots of Southern Right Whales right off the beach,  along with a lot of other animals.

Now it's not whale season anymore,  so why did we go back? Because it's considered to be the best time to see Orcas (in English,  Killer Whales.... but since they aren't whales, it's a terrible name), hopefully (!) snatching baby seals from the beach (gruesome, but nature can be).

In October I got lucky and saw Orcas, quite unexpectedly,  from the coast.  This time H also got lucky,  and we both saw an Orca... Although the photos are very disappointing, and they were just swimming,  not snatching baby seals.

We also had a much improved experience of Orca spotting by the chance meeting of a young man from New Zealand who is quite fanatical about Orcas, studying them, and visiting Peninsula Valdes for the second year in a row. He told us where he was going to look for Orcas that first day,  and so we went there too, and by doing so saw the Orca. We tried again in the prime spot for possible baby seal snatchings on both of the following 2 days,  but had no luck. 

Sean (the young man from NZ) taught us a lot though, and he was also able to identify the 2 orcas I captured in my photo last year.  (Sean, if you read this,  sorry we didn't get to say goodbye,  I really thought we'd run into you in town.)

As you can see from the following photos,  the other wildlife was much more cooperative.  I especially liked how the armadillo appeared under the information sign,  it helped me check the facts.  The funny rabbit thing is a mara, or at least I think that's the name.  And the pengiuns...lots of them!  Last year while we were on Valdes they were laying eggs, now the chicks seemed about as big as the adults and shedding the last of the baby feathers.

We also returned twice more to the fisherman's village and bought more seafood,  they had remembered me as the woman who eats kangaroo in her country (we'd had this discussion when I'd asked if people ate Guanacos).

If we ever go past Peninsula Valdes again,  I definately want to return again.

The Old Patagonian Express: La Trochita

From Esquel there's an old train, run just for tourists a couple of times a week. La Trochita, or, in English, the Old Patagonian Express, runs on tracks just 75mm wide. It was a fun experience to ride it up to the Indian village of Nahuel Pan, although we were dissappointed that the museum at the top was closed.

Inside the little train it was rather cramped.  H was too big to be comfortable in the seats,  but we found there was much more room in the cafeteria carriage and so we drank coffee going both up and down.