Saturday, February 25, 2012

Last day in Buenos Aires

Day #9
We decided to make the best of our half day in Buenos Aires before flying off so we headed to the open air markets. After wondering around & also exploring the cemetery we headed to an early dinner, it might have even been considered breakfast for Argentineans.

In front of Evita's grave.

This flower opens during the day and closes at night.

I just love how there are trees everywhere in the city.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Goodbye Ushuaia

Day #8
My 7th day I was exhausted. I couldn't keep up with my parents, plus I had a lot of homework to catch up on by that time.  So I took a relaxing day and studied my little heart out.

Day #8 we all prepared to go our separate ways. My mom, aunt Sharlene, uncle John, and I were on heading back to Buenos Aires while my dad and Derek were off to Calafate. They got there just in time to see the glacier which I'm not going to lie, my mom and I were jealous we didn't get to tag along for that part.


You would have never guessed that yesterday there was snow everywhere. This is their summer right now.

Crazy mountains in Ushuaia.

The city of Ushuaia. Our hotel was one of the 3 on the mountain side. Gorgeous.


Goodbye dad and Derek. Have fun on your adventure.

Flying into Buenos Aires at night. The city is huge. This is just parts of it. I still couldn't believe how far it span out. It is one of the largest cities in the world.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ushuaia National Park

Day #6 of Ushuaia

We took an individual tour of the National Park. We went to the most southern post office in the world and sent ourselves postcards.  After that we went on a hike  took a tour of the museum.  My brother is huge into fishing and was fishing in a lake while we ate lunch outside of the museum and then we headed back to the hotel.

This is the most southern golf course in the world. There were people golfing when we were there but it looked like a miserable day to me.

This is the most southern post office in the world. It is so little and cute. The guy was awesome that owned the place.

Here is our group shot with the owner.



Derek of course took off to go fishing for a while.


The museum was really interesting. It was intriguing to see how the people survived down here back then.  Now you will notice in the pictures that the people were naked.  Now I am here in their summer and I am freezing even with my layers upon layers so I can't imagine how these people stayed naked al the time.
Well for starters this city was called "the city of fire" and now I know why. When it was discovered there were fires all around to keep the people warm. Once Europeans discovered this place and introduced clothing and other products to the people, people started getting ill and dying.  The people's clothing held diseases and got many people ill. The men would head out in the boats and since they had clothing on they would stay out longer thinking that they would be warm enough, but instead would get hyperthermia and lose limbs.
You can't see it from this picture but they would build fires in the center of their boats and have their children tend to them when they did head out in the water. That was how they stayed warm before.
They would put mud, dirt and rocks on the bottom of the canoe and build a fire on top of the debris. They were very intelligent people.


There is a road that goes from this National Park all the way up to Alaska. As you can see the km it takes to get to Buenos Aires and also to Alaska.  People have jogged this road to earn money for red cross, biked it, and driven the road. Someone drove it in 5 days I believe for a world record. Someone else drove it making stops and enjoying their travel along the way. It took them about 2 years to do this. It was very interesting to hear about.


I wish I could claim these bikes were ours and we went on some adventure but they are bikes of these Brazilians that biked here from Brazil. It was very interesting to talk to these people.




Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I'm on a boat, again!

Day #5
While in Ushuaia we really wanted to go on a boat tour to see the penguins and seals. We must really have a thing for boat tours.

There were two options with this boat tour, 1). Once we get to the little town that we are headed to you can stay on the boat and head back to Ushuaia, or 2). you get off the boat and do a little tour of this town & take a bus back to Ushuaia.  
We opted for getting off the boat and seeing the little town. I HIGHLY recommend STAYING ON THE BOAT. The town was cute but you have 1 restaurant, a little museum, a house that has old furniture & things.  It isn't worth your time or your money to eat at this restaurant.  The tour wasn't that interesting, the restaurant has around 2 items on the menu to order & the museum is one room with bones of whales & other sea life.

I loved the boat tour and was impressed with all the animals that we say, I just wasn't impressed with the little town tour afterwards so STAY ON THE BOAT.


This is the hotel that we are staying in. It is very nice and the staff is very polite.

This is the tour we are going on, Rumbo Sur. It was very good and comfortable on the boat.

My parents and I standing in front of the Rumbo Sur sign.

My aunt and uncle, parents and I on the tour. We took the upper deck which is worth it.

Goodbye Ushuaia. It was super windy as you can tell. Oh my poor feet, I should have prepared better.

Ushuaia

Our first stop was the seal stop. There were tons of seals and they had these birds that looked like penguins.  I couldn't wait to see the penguins so I freaked out when I first saw them. It took me awhile to realize that they weren't penguins since we were a distance from these animals.


This brave guy broke off from the rest of the group and gave us a show. He moved to the lower rocks and dove right into the freezing ocean.

The lighthouse. It was very beautiful out there in the middle of no where.

I guess we were more exhausted then we thought. My dad and I both took a snooze while headed to the penguin area.

While heading to the penguins we got circled by whales. They said its very rare to see them on the trip. We got to see about 6 whales or more total on the adventure.

The penguins, finally.  There were so many, you honestly couldn't photograph them all in one photo.

There were 3 different types of penguins on this area which is rare.  There were ones that are the next size below the king penguin. This is a photo of one of the orange beaked penguins.  


This little guy was hilarious.  He was playing with the waves chasing them, but when they would head back up the beach he would run. It was so cute.


This is on the tour of the town at the end of the boat trip. Not worth it, STAY ON THE BOAT. They gave us a tour about how the people settled here. This is a washer dryer. Glad thats not how it is done now a days.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Where'd you go, Bernadette. Here we come Ushuaia

Day #4 of Argentina
Today was an exciting day for me, we were getting on a plane and flying to Ushuaia, Argentina. Now I knew nothing of this place before coming here, this trip was mainly planned by my father and brother. I was told that it is the southern most city in the world and I thought that would be interesting to have my travel list so I was excited.  Ushuaia is called, The end of the World. Something that is also interesting about this town is this is where people go to travel to Antarctica. If you have ever read "Where'd you go, Bernadette" they mention this city and how she never got off the boat here.


Flying over the Andes mountains. Pictures don't do this justice. Its breathtaking in person.


This is the city of Ushuaia. Our hotel is outside of the city in the mountains with about a 7 minute drive to the center of the city.


Down by the harbor of Ushuaia. Now I have to mention how horribly I packed for this trip. Now its winter in Utah right now but it is their summer. I was ready for summer weather. Now I knew we were going to the southern most city in the world but I also though, oh their summer, I will pack a light jacket. My brother laughed at me when he saw what I was packing and tried to warn me but I though, I'm not going fishing like you, I will be fine. I was freezing to death, so so cold, but I didn't want to fully show it knowing my brother would say, "told you so." I've very stubborn as you can tell.

A better look at the harbor area.



Down main street of Ushuaia. 




Cathedral amongst Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires day #3 
Today was Sunday so we went to church. After church we headed to a gorgeous cathedral.  I love looking at the architecture of old buildings.  I have always had a passion for architecture and considered going to architecture school instead of dental hygiene, complete opposites, I know. The stories behind this church were also very interesting. History of these magnificent buildings always intrigue me.