We are again surrounded by high mountains, peaks covered with snow, deep valleys, blue/green lakes, chocolate stores, wooden mountain huts and nice ski resorts. We missed them all so much! We have a view on a 100km long, banana-shaped lake, with mountains just next to it. I bet they have a Read the rest of this entry »
November 30, 2009
November 26, 2009
Indigenous Fauna: Penguins, Sea Elephants and Whales
photos: whales & sea elephants, penguins
videos: whales, sea elephants, penguins
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Punta Tombo would be a long forgotten piece of coast if not the penguins. For some reason thousands of them travel here every year all the way from Antarctic to bread and have kids. They knew where to settle, because Read the rest of this entry »
November 22, 2009
Buenos Aires
(photos)
BA is a city of contrasts. The rich modern Puerto Madero district neighbors with the local ‘favelas’. The saying ‘rich get richer, poor get poorer’ is very true here. Indeed, this was one of the observations that inspired Che Gevara and gave him revolutionary thoughts.
The metropolis, the home of 1/3 of Argentina’s population, Read the rest of this entry »
Colonia – the city of old cars
(photos)
Uruguay is just across the bay from Buenos Aires. We had to go there – it is an easy way to increment our country counter 
We decided to go to Colonia, a little, quiet and… colonial city. It was the object of battles between Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. It used to be a fort located on a nice peninsula. We could still see the remainings of defence walls, a nice light-house, some low old houses and little fishermen’s bay. All this was inscribed into the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites.
Hablamos espanol! (un poco) *
La primera parada de nuestra vuelta al mundo fue Buenos Aires. Por allá estudíamos español y aprendimos un poco a bailar Tango. Acabamos de terminar un curso intensivo de español, y desde hoy estamos por nuestra cuenta. Ahora vamos a aburrir a la gente con nuestro precario español a cada ocasión.
November 21, 2009
Latino concert
Last night, just after our evening tango classes that were just after our noon Spanish classes (only one week here and we’re already into routine…), we decided to try out the local ‘Salseria’ and see how a typical salsa club differs from Lausanne’s ‘Atelier Volant’, and how our “epfl-Carlos” style of dancing blends in the locals. We ended up in a really cool club. This evening happened Read the rest of this entry »
November 19, 2009
The definition of unreliability, or the buses in BA
-geeky version below-
We had heard that the buses in BA are “not always punctual”, but yesterday we had the opportunity to verify this criticism trying to catch #29 from La Boca. Well, probably the only thing that roughly matches the schedule is the total number of bus runs per day. Otherwise, that’s a mess – or a special kind of order, if you want. Indeed, the buses seem to be nicely grouped by numbers and to come in bunches: e.g., 5 times #152, then 3 times #33, next 4 times #64, and #152 again… We were waiting for #29 for more than one hour observing this amazing pattern. And, of course, when our bus finally arrived, it was followed by another #29. Well, at least there is a local transportation, in contrast to most of US, for example.
November 18, 2009
Bailamos Tango!
Today, I finally managed to DRAG Maciek to a tango lesson. And he liked it! From now on vamos a bailar todos las noches espero! Only in San Telmo, the backpackers quarter where we stay, there are tens of ‘milongas’. Some begin already at 2 pm, others last until 8am. So theoretically, we could go directly from such a “tango disco” to our morning Spanish classes In BA tango is danced literally everywhere, Read the rest of this entry »
November 13, 2009
Vamos a hablar Espanol
(We are going to speak Spanish)
Just a quick update. We have just signed up for an intensive course of Spanish, Monday to Friday. So we are going to stay in BA until 22 Nov, or so. After that, we might switch to blogging in Spanish only
November 12, 2009
Bienvenido a Buenos Aires
The air is indeed good, warm and cloudless in Buenos Aires. We have a good value for price, a bit moisty hostel. Still a bit jet-lagged we’re searching for some speed Spanish/Tango course.