Photos finally! Pinguinos!

Here are some pinguinos!  They love the shade of the walkways, and it was helpful because we could see them up close.  It was a perfect day when we were there.  No wind, no rain, warm sun, and just perfect conditions. The adults are silent unless another adult comes up, but the young ones (above) are squalking constantly.  One of their parents have headed to the Ocean for food for a couple days.  They are impatient waiting for the food to return--typical kids.

When the pinguinos get on the walkway, you cannot go within 3 feet of them, so if they are near the edge, no problem, but toward the end of our day, we got stuck behind a curious penguin who kept toddling along the middle of the walkway bridge and no one could go past--it was comical and suspenseful.  I thought of the movie Happy Feet because he was so curious and a definite non-conformist.

Another Post From Rachel The Awesome

OKAY.  Here we go! So, I left off when we were in Puerto Madryn. We only stayed there one night, but it was an... interesting time. In the evening, we decided to go along the beach in search for a place to eat (this is where I crack up). While we were walking, a dog (I named her Becky) decided to come up to us. My mom made the mistake to pet it. If you are thinking Becky bit her hand off, your wrong. No, Becky decided that we had adopted her. Hence, Becky following us all over town in our search for food. When we stopped, she stopped. It was really sweet actually,because when we went into a restaurant she sat in the middle of the doorway waiting for us to come out. The problem was, we couldn´t seem to get rid of her! In fact, several other dogs came up to us as well because of her (please note, we were trying not to attract a crowd, and three grown dogs following us like lost puppies wasn't helping all that much!).  So, after we got rid of Becky (I suggested that we actually should bring her home, but Erin booed me down), we ate a nice buffe (is that how you spell that?) dinner, and went back to the hostel.  Erin wrote in her post the following day about our awesome trip to the penguins -which took up nine hours of our day- they were extremely adorable and I can show you the eighty pictures I took when I get home (run on!). At nine thirty that night we boarded a double-decker-overnight bus for Bariloche. Unfortunately, I am unable to tell you all how long that bus ride was. Reason number one: I was to lazy to count. Reason number two: see reason number one. ANYWAY, when we got to Bariloche, we got a cab to our friends Oscar and Jovita´s house. for the rest of the week we toured around, bought chocolate, ate chocolate, saw lots of pretty lakes, that sort of thing. Anyway, I have got to go to dinner at the moment and will post more later.

Erin the Coolest´s post

Today we saw the pingunos.There were thousands of them-little ones(that were not so little anymore)and big ones.You could see them in their nests(some times the nests were part way under a bush, and some times they were just holes in the ground)so cool!!!.It was so funny to see los pingunos in such hot wether!!  We will send photos once in Bariloche and can get help with the computers.  Hasta manana!

Rachel the Awesome´s Post

This is Rachel the Awesome´s post:  So! Here we are in Argentina, where keyboards are insanely complex and it is boiling hot. Not even joking. Seriously. We got into Buenos Aires on Monday, even though we left on Sunday (I swear! Those airplanes need more room!) where we stayed in the Circus Hotel and Hostel. We stayed in Buenos Aires for three days, in which time we saw La Casa Rosa, the really big national cathedral (no idea what it´s called) ate tons of delicious food (empanadas, lomo, pizza, that sort of thing<9 and visited La Recoleta, lots of taxis, my parents buying tango shoes, and my parents going tangoing.  At three o´clock on Wednesday afternoon, we boarded a double-decker over night bus (we got the upper floor) and headed for Puerto Madryn. On the way there, they played at least forty horrible songs and three movies (two of which were Kung Fu Panda 2 and Red, I didn´t pay any attention to whatever the third one was). We were all more than willing to get off that bus nineteen hours later. The darned bus never went above forty-five mph. After we left B.A., it was all trees and fields. However, when we woke up, it was low shrubs/grass for miles on end. When we reached the hostel (we walked those trecherous six blocks from the bus terminal. sarcasm.) we dropped our stuff in our room and and went to find something to eat. Unlike B.A., there was a grand total of two taxis that we saw. Anyway, we decided that we would walk along the beach (in the eighty degree weather) until we found a place to eat. We finally found a hamburger stand and the hamburgers were square. When we got back to our room at the hostel, I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This was not pleasant, as it was the only Harry Potter book I had brought. Now I am typing this on the computer downstairs and getting extremely annoyed. Who knew keyboards in Argentina were completly different from the ones in the United States? Signing off, Rachel the Awesome. 

Bonnie from Puerto Madryn

Differences we noticed other than the obvious ones: toilets-always a new experience-are for business only. TP is put in a bin. After initial culture shock, we began our Spanish (castillano) and then everyone launches right in at 100 mph. In the 80's here but no one sells drinks on ice. We are drinking our meals as much as eating them-so warm here. No piano yet Jay. Rich, it took 5 stores to get John shoes.

Departure note

Buen dia!  As Seattle thaws out from a several day snowstorm, we depart tomorrow (Sunday, January 22) for Argentina.  It is almost 4 hours to DFW then 10.5 to Buenos Aires.  Our itinerary as it stands is Buenos Aires from the 23-25 when we will take an overnight bus to Puerto Madryn for 2 days before taking another overnight bus to San Carlos de Bariloche (Bariloche).  We will be seeing Oscar and Jovita and staying with them for most or all of the next 4+ weeks.  We hope to tour around the area and take day hikes into the Andes.  Puerto Madryn is close to penguins and whales and much other sea life and birds.  Bariloche is known as the Switzerland of S.Am.  There are lots of German immigrants and delicioso chocolate.  If we fit it in, we want to go to El Calafate and the Perito Merino glacier.  We will see...  Our goals for this trip are to see old friends, make new ones, travel abroad experiencing another culture, and practice our Spanish...and see wild pinguinos.  Thanks for following us on our Argentine Adventure!  You can sign up to receive our updates when we make them.