10 days in El Chalten

We arrived in El Chalten to introduce the boys to trekking. 

Patagonia, not a bad place to cut your teeth, although I think the boys' interest in a stunning glacial view is probably more transitory than ours, unless there is something extra, like a huge chunk of ice falling from a glacier, in which case their undivided attention is assured.  

We’d passed by La Leona on the way, where Butch Cassidy is reputed to have stopped during his bank raids in Southern Argentina with the Sundance kid. We made a note of that being a film to show the boys. (select "Read more" below to continue)

Travelling George - Episode 2 - by Frankie

In September we circulated a note to Frankie’s old class, J2.4, who had very kindly given him a St George’s Bear as a travel companion.  Frankie named him Travelling George. 

Frankie now picks up the trail on Travelling George’s progress..........(select "Read more" below to continue)

Awesome Cabo Polonio - by Frankie

My favourite new sport - hammock flinging!

We arrived at Cabo Polonio by 4x4 over the dunes.  Cabo Polonio only has 50 people in it and 5 children. In our hostel there are broken sun glasses, a dead fishing rope that I don’t think you would catch many fish on and a rusty saw. On the third day I started doing things where Louis pushed me on a hammock and my record is Louis flinging me 5 1/2 metres. 

Just now we saw a big frog that swallowed a bug.  The shower is weird because you have to put a match in this bucket thing to make the water warm.  Our room is the smallest we have had so far on our trip, but to make up for it, it has got a double swing! (select "Read more" below to continue)

Magellan penguins - by Frankie

Sometimes they try and get a closer look at you

We had rented a car called Bertie in Puerto Madryn. We had just seen the Commerson Dolphins and we jumped in the car, it was a 90 minute journey to Punta Tombo, which is where you see the Magellan penguins.

When we got there, I said “Look, a penguin!” but then we realised we were surrounded by them but we had never noticed it!  

The penguins were black on their backs and white on their tummies and bigger than I thought. They had big fat flippers in the place of their arms, and a small stubby tail.  They have got pink near their eyes, and pinkish black feet.   (select "Read more" below to continue)

Trials and tribulations of long bus journeys with children

Hooray - another long bus journey!

We've taken some fairly long, arduous journeys over the last few months, and become increasingly ambitious about what we can achieve. Initially, we had plane trips punctuated by the odd 4, 5 and 7 hour bus ride.  Once or twice these stretched to 30 hours or so, but with the odd few hours in a hostel to catch up on sleep, or different modes of transport involved.  At the start of our travels the idea of this was not appealing as the children, when at home used to complain about a quick hour and a half trip to the coast and Frankie, in particular, suffered from car sickness.  Now we've done a number of these trips ( South America is HUGE! ) the boys are getting quite blasé about it all and a mere 4 or 5 hours doesn't even raise an eyebrow anymore!   More recently we took an 18 hour bus ride, followed immediately by another 4 hour bus trip to travel south in Argentina from Puerto Madryn to El Calafate.  (select "Read more" below to continue)

High risk car rental in Argentina

We were down in Puerto Madryn last week, and we hired a car for a couple of days to explore the Valdes Peninsula, as the tours looked very expensive and we rather fancied having the independence and freedom to stop and start as we wish and turn the music up if we like.

After hunting around the rental car companies, there seemed to be something of a cartel there, it was very hard to get a car for much under about £70 a day once you add in petrol, which is fairly important.  So you’ve worked out the numbers and decided you want the rental experience, you then have to test the strength of your decision against the onslaught of disclaimers and waiving of responsibility that the completion of paperwork involves.  (Sorry Matt, I am sure it´s much easier with Enterprise!)  (select "Read more" below to continue)

Happy 50th Birthday Russell

Hi Russell,

We put a little birthday video together for you but I tried to send you the link when I tested it, it came up "not available" so we're using this method as at least we know you'll be able to see it if we paste the link in to a blog page.

Happy Birthday!

Phil, Jules, Louis and Frankie

Whales vs dolphins

We have been privileged to have observed Killer whales, Southern right whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Commerson dolphins and Magellan Penguins in the last couple of days down in Puerto Madryn, on the south-east coast of Argentina.  This place is on the entrance to the Valdes Peninsula and is probably most famous for the intentional stranding of orcas during February to April every year which most of us will at some time have marvelled at on television.  It’s where the most skilled orcas steam into the beach at 50kph, grab an unsuspecting sealion or elephant seal (the latter are easier to catch as they can’t move as fast) and wriggle their way back out into the deeper water, with the unfortunate prey in their mouths to share with the family.  

OK, they look like they are miles away, but they are still orcas!

Before we came here, we wondered whether we might feel conflicted in seeing some poor, cute seal pup munched before our very eyes, but I’m afraid to say that as we stood on the beach and watched some killer whales passing a few hundred metres from the shore, we were willing them to come in for some lunch, sorry. As it happens, they didn’t.

When it comes to whales vs dolphins, I’ve come to the conclusion that whilst they are all beautiful in their own way, the southern right whale has the edge overall.  Let me explain. 

Dolphins are exciting to watch. They are playful, jump out of the water a lot, and move in perfect formations of sometimes four or more.  They can swim rapidly along with the boat or dive over bow waves.  They can get some serious air beneath them when they put their minds to it.  You can be looking at one group - sorry pod - and then one of the boys will urgently call “Daddy, Daddy, over here” to look at some other ones. There seems to be so much going on at once, over here, over there, in front of the boat, behind the boat, it can be quite chaotic, but the very clear water helps to see their activity below the surface, and observe how little effort they seem to be putting in to achieve such great speed.

Commerson's Dolphin......just

With the whales however, everything happens much, much more slowly.  The orcas were amazing, their special colouring making them a favourite with many people, even though to be fair, we only saw them at a distance. 

The southern right whales are incredible when you witness them, even though you know what to expect.  The first whale we saw was a mother, 15 metres long, and she was quite happy to float lazily towards our motionless boat.

They are strange creatures to look at. Its very hard to make out exactly what’s what on their head, as there are no obvious eyes, ears or mouth, it just looks like a large black shape with what looks like curious white limpet-like objects clinging to their head.

Every now and again, a powerful jet of spray shot up, accompanied by a loud exhalation, almost as if someone enormous was blowing through a huge wind instrument at slightly the wrong angle and not quite getting a musical note, but you heard the enhanced sound of the air rushing through. 

Other whales soon joined and the most amazing moment was surely when the mother passed just in front of the boat, directly under the ledge we were lying on that protruded over the front of the boat.  We had never seen anything so vast, it was enormous, quite extraordinary. The water was crystal clear, so you just saw this giant green-blue body passing by - and keep on passing by - until finally the tail, all one tonne of it, slowly swept through.  

Maybe its the sheer size of these giants, that subliminally reminds you of dinosaurs, or just the fact that they are so huge but so gentle and harmless (unless you are a krill), but the boat went completely silent, save for the odd click, whirring and bleeping of cameras. Truly awesome in every sense of the word.

A little later there was another lovely moment when there were two “babies” (Ha - a five metre baby!) lying on top of their mothers next to us. They were all stationery, just floating peacefully in the sunshine. 

She held the tail to give us plenty of time for a photo.

But the clincher for me in choosing between these two water stars comes down to photography.  Dolphins tease you.  They say: “Here I am - ha! - too slow. See ya!”  I have too many shots of just water to count.  In the end I just sat back and enjoyed the dolphins and forgot about the camera, and it was only with a huge amount of cropping that we managed to have anything at all for Louis to put with his “Bottlenose Dolphin” entry on our "Animals we have seen" blog.  And even then I missed the most crucial asset - his nose!

The southern right whale on the other hand, understands.  She takes her time, gives you ample opportunity to change your battery, fiddle with the zoom, make sure the sun isn’t directly in front of you and is still there holding her tail in the air as if to say “Go on, take a couple more, just in case, try and get one with the sun reflecting off my tail in the water too!”

On that basis therefore, the southern right whale gets my vote!

Southern Right Whale

We had seen the amazing orcas but then we were heading off to the bigger Southern Right Whales!!!!!!   When we got there we were surprised that the office was a boat!  We put our life jackets on and hopped in the real whale-watching boat and sailed away.  About 2 minutes after we got in the water we saw about 7 bottlenose dolphins, they looked like they were performing a show for us.  About 10 minutes later, we saw our first southern right whale.  We didn’t think we would see one of these huge creatures, because  its the end of the season, so we were stunned. The one we saw was a mother and about 15 metres long. The water was so clear you could see the whole body under the water. At the end it flapped its tail up gradually and we got some brilliant pictures.  

Shiny whale tail

The whales were right beside our boat

Then from out of nowhere we saw another 4 southern right whales including the first baby southern right whale with the first mum.   They were black with little white humpy things on their head. They move by flapping their tail under water very slowly. At the end the two baby whales were lying on their mums backs. They don’t seem to go very fast at all. It made me feel excited, amazed and proud to watch them. 

Baby whales on their Mums' backs!

Facts

1. The tail weighs a tonne.  
2. They are born with the grey humpy calluses on their head. The lice are white and hop on their back and make the calluses look white.
3. In Argentina, there are a lot of seagulls.  They peck the southern right whales' backs because they like the skin.  The whales lose a lot of energy trying to escape from the seagulls, and some of them die.
4. The mother is bigger than the father whale because she has to feed the babies. The babies drink 150 litres of milk a day from their mum.   The dad gets to about 14m long but the mum can get to about 16m long.
5. They can live up to about 70 or 80 years old.

BY FRANKIE

Why did the spider cross the road?

While we had the rental car, and were travelling on the muddy gravel roads on the Peninsula Valdez in Patagonia the day after very heavy rainfall, Jules at one point saw something like a blob of mud crawling across the road, but wasn’t sure what it was, something spidery or crab-like, perhaps. 

On our return journey in the early evening, I was driving at about 110kph and thought I’d run over a small bird or something.  There were no cars around so I backed up, careful not to run over what ever it was that had passed underneath us.  It was a giant spider!  We parked the car and had a look.  Not too close though, it was a big hairy tarantula.  It was stationary in the road, we just looked at it, and it reared up a little with its front two legs and we stepped back just in case.  Then a 4x4 appeared on the horizon and we wondered if it was going to be squashed.....the 4x4 passed within inches but missed it, but the wind from it passing causing the spider to roll over a couple of times though, whereupon it decided to head for the safety of the road-side.  Thinking quickly, I felt we needed to record the size of the spider with a suitable reference: "Quick, Jules, put your hand on the ground right next to it so that I can take a photo and we’ll have a reference to its size!”  (Well I'm taking the photo, so I can't very well do it, can I!) I can’t print the response, suffice to say that instead I put a training shoe on the side of the road in the tarantula's path. Not sure what we’d have done if she had decided to nestle inside the shoe, (not mine, thankfully) but she passed by the side. 

We remembered seeing one of these at London Zoo, they are apparently harmless, and actually quite fragile, but I wasn’t about to pick it up in case it was a different variety that was poisonous.  Plus it was big and hairy and I wouldn’t pick it up anyway.

That’s undoubtedly the biggest spider we’ve seen in our 3 months or so here. We wouldn’t be disappointed if we didn’t see any larger ones now, thank you very much. 

Relaxation and calm at Estancia La Margarita

We wrote a couple of days ago about our horse riding experiences, but that is only a part of the story of our relaxing stay at the Estancia, and in the rushing about of the ensuing week, albeit with fantastic animal observation experiences, and very long bus journeys, we have found ourselves looking back on the calm of those few days and wishing we had a few more to spend there.  

On the first day, within an hour of arriving, the boys had a great time milking the cows and enjoyed a very fresh cup of warm milk.

"But there's not much coming out?"

"No Frankie, it's like THIS!"

And whilst the horse riding was the main focus for channelling the boys energy it was by no means the only one, participating in a variety of other activities including cycling (bikes for both on the estancia) table football and table tennis....

Brian entertaining the boys as usual!

Spoilt for choice

......and indeed sideways hammock jumping, which the boys took to very enthusiastically, Frankie unable to beat his record, though, of 5 metres at Cabo Polonio! 

On reflection too, it was one of the rarer times this trip when we could give the boys some independence and just let the boys run around on their own and be confident that they would be fine, which, aside from Louis somehow cycling into a window - no damage - to Louis, at least, (sorry David) they achieved, giving Mummy and Daddy some relaxation time ourselves. 

Glass of wine please, Louis!

Aside from the activities above, plus the horse riding, sleeping and eating, if we couldn't find the boys, we know they would be off playing with the four kittens....

Shhhhhhhhh! Tigre's asleep!

Louis, Frankie, Tigre, Negra, Chaussette and George

And it wasn't just our boys who were fond of the kittens - Antoine, from Belgium, one of the great volunteers, was very keen too!

Antoine with Chaussette, which explains why the kitten has a French name!

We were never too far from a mealtime, where we got to enjoy the food that Raquel, Veronica and the team prepared for us.

Breakfast is served

Mealtimes at lunch and in the evening also gave us a chance to chat with owners David and Susana, and some of the other people staying at the estancia, including three English girls travelling together whom the boys in particular really liked and were sharing stories with, and two lovely Argentinian couples from Buenos Aires, all very patient with my faltering Spanish (thanks for the Atlas Luiz, very useful when we rented a car a few days later!).  On the first night, after a delicious meal, we all sat round on the comfy seats in the lovely lounge, with host David leading the guitar playing and us all singing songs together, and although it was late we let the boys come back to join us, as they'd been sitting up in bed anyway, singing along too!

Estancia owner David, without guitar, with Baders on tour

So we were sad to leave when the finally day arrived all too quickly. We'd all improved our horse-riding significantly, and had really unwound and as well as the boys having plenty of time to play with each other, had shared many experiences altogether too, it was all in all a super time. 

One last photo before we leave

Two very sad boys who didn't want to leave. Mum looks a bit wobbly too....

We got a nice mention from David in his blog "The English Gaucho" a few days later which gave us all an opportunity to relive it for a while. Thanks for this David. 

http://englishgaucho.blogspot.com.ar/2012/11/thanks-phil-and-family-for-your-lovely.html

My extremely sporty 9th Birthday - by Louis

Eeeeeee! I'm 9 today!

We woke up and I was 9.  It didn’t feel any different to yesterday when I was 8, but I knew that it was my birthday and I was so excited.  

We began to open my presents, I got a Generala (also named as Yahtzee, Five Dice and Kniffel) Uno Dice, a multi-coloured skipping rope, a sand-boarding lesson and a surfing lesson. The sand-boarding was at 10:00 and the surfing was at 4:00 in the afternoon.  

After that we decided to read some of my birthday messages that luckily had been sent the day before so I was able to read them on my birthday, because in Cabo Polonio there is no internet. 

Happy Birthday to me!

Then we had breakfast, we had some cornflakes, some toast with jam and some fruit.  After that we headed off to the sand dunes with our teacher.  First we went down a small one and after a few goes we had that sussed out so then we went on to a bigger one. We fell over a few times and rubbed some go-faster wax on the bottom of the board and we wanted to stay on that one but we moved on.  We found ourselves on a slope that was virtually vertical and that time I asked to move on because the slopes a little further on were not quite as long on that side and Fabry actually let me.  The slopes were shorter and steeper and I zoomed down and almost went to the beach. When we had had enough we saw our teacher writing on the back of the board "Happy Birthday" and he gave the board to me as a present!!

I meant to do that!!!!

That's better.......

Happy Louis with unexpected birthday gift from teacher Fabry!

Next we went to lunch and had an omelette then it was time for my surf lesson.  We went to get our surfboards and walked down to the beach and we did some stretching, and some surfing skills on the sand to help my muscle memory with the surfing.  We got in and I was a bit cold because I only had a short wetsuit on and the water on this beach was colder than on the other beach we'd been to the previous day. He pushed me to catch the wave and I stood up the first time and it was a amazing. Mummy and Daddy were cheering me on and after a few goes I really got the hang of it.

The best moment of my birthday!

When we got back to our hostel we literally left immediately to go to the place we had booked at lunchtime, it had a lovely name called La Golosa (something to do with greedy) we had lovely food.  Frankie, Mummy and I had spaghetti bolognese with special prawn sauce, it was so lovely and sweet. When we were walking back Daddy said we were going to a pudding place and when we got there I saw people lighting candles from the lanterns and bringing them inside. I started getting a feeling that I was in for a little surprise like a birthday cake and everybody started singing "Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Louis, Happy birthday to you!"  It was a lovely peach cake with chocolate drops to make my name "Louis 9". It was lovely unfortunately a girl staying at the hostel ate half my cake because I left it in the fridge.  She said she needed a top up from her 6 burgers and 10 pancakes at lunchtime!!!!

Wow my face is red!

It was a lovely birthday and one I will remember for the whole of my life.

Bottlenose dolphin

Probably a bottlenose dolphin

We all went to see whales at Peninsula Valdes in Argentina. So we got our life jackets on and headed off to the boat, Daddy gesturing to us to move ahead in the line. When we had got some way out to get to the whales, we spotted some fins in the distance, they were obviously (there is a clue in the title) bottlenose dolphins. They were doing so many amazing things Daddy tried to get all of the moves on film, but as soon as he pressed the record button the dolphins had moved into a different part of the places the eye can see.

facts

Where's my nose?

1. The bottlenose dolphins have curved mouths that makes them look like they’re smiling. They are good at mastering tricky tricks and are brilliant for circuses, not that I want them to be in circuses. 
2. In the wild bottle-nosed dolphins can reach up to and over 18mph (and 30kph).They normally travel in groups, all of them have their own complex whistles.
3. Bottlenose dolphins track their prey down through brilliant use of echolocation.They make up to 1,000 squeaking noises a second. These funny sounds travel until they hit something and then race back to the dolphin revealing the size, shape and location of the animal (unless it is a branch!!)
4. Bottlenose dolphins can live up to 45 to 50 years old. They are 10 to 14ft (3 to 4.2m) long.
5. Bottlenose dolphins are known to jump out of the water 16ft (4.9m) and land back down on their side or back. We weren’t lucky enough to see that amazing sight but even if we did Daddy would probably not have got it on camera!!!!    

    By Louis

Horse-riding at Estancia La Margarita

We arrived at the Estancia La Margarita yesterday and immediately warmed to the tranquility of the place.   A few hammocks dotted around the extensive lawned areas, some huge trees, the place almost like a large English country house.  Looking around, it was a beautiful setting.  Beyond the immediate gardens, green fields stretched to the horizon all around you, a lake not far away, some cows here and there and the occasional clump of trees, we were in the middle of nowhere and we’d have unlimited space for riding. 

The Estancia La Margarita

We had our first horse riding trip at 5pm on our first day, the four of us plus Jilde, a volunteer from Holland, and Brian, a seemingly unlikely name for a cool young Argentinian gaucho. (Bwian, Eh?) The horse trip was fun, we had a horse each, Louis and Frankie really excited at getting on their horses, Picasso and Dolores. They’d remembered how much fun they’d had in the Pantanal. Once we'd all inelegantly climbed on, we did a slow walk across some open fields, near the lake, with the occasional very bumpy trotting, it felt very relaxing.  Except for the trotting part.  Trotting feels very awkward, bouncing up and down seemingly completely out of time with the horse, it felt like my bottom was a foot off the horse each time.  I asked the gaucho for some advice, couldn’t understand a word he said in a long stream of rapid Spanish, but picked out the word "fuerte" - strong - and he seemed to be gesturing with his knees, so I tried that.  Might have helped a tad but not much. Did wonder how you ever get past that point, I seemed so inept and wobbly, and would have made a good advert for how not to ride a horse. Jules and the boys were looking pretty comfortable though and didn't seem to be bouncing around as much.

Ready for action!

The boys were loving it and always want to go faster, it reminded me of when we went skiing together, its all about speed for them.  You could see even that although the horses were just walking, the boys were trying to get their horse to walk a little faster than the others. Frankie in particular looked tiny astride his brown horse. We had already asked to ensure that we all had riding hats as people out here prefer the free-flowing “wind in your hair” approach. Fine if you are an expert I suppose, but I remember seeing the chunk that broke off my father’s helmet when he fell while rollerblading last year, (let’s just say he probably wouldn’t have got straight back up again if he hadn’t been wearing it).

Louis and Frankie vying for position

On our second morning ride, we had the same horses as before.  Antoine, a young Belgian volunteer was with us and given he spoke good English, I asked him for some tips as we were riding along.  He said "You need to keep your back straight, and pretend you are making love."  That’s all very well, I thought, but we are going to be out here for an hour and a half. 

A sunny day in the limitless countryside

My horse, Diabla, is apparently a very good horse that others like to ride. In my very limited experience (one ride in the Pantanal and a slow plod around a circular pen in Thunder Bay a couple of years ago) a good horse would be one that does what you want it to do and doesn’t pursue personal ambition at your expense. I’d been pleased that Diabla had fitted that description precisely on the first trip, which was gratifying.  Every now and then she’d start to trot, perhaps if an adjacent horse trotted, but would obediently slow back down to a walk if you indicated as much with the reins. 

Today however, she seemed to have different ideas, and as we passed through a very large field with cows, the dogs with us were off chasing them and my horse decided to join in - apparently they do a lot of cattle herding - just at the moment I thought I’d try and capture a photo of the group behind me with the Bader ActionCam. I had to hurriedly put my camera back in my pocket with my left hand and hang on, hoping not to fall sideways. In my panic I forgot to actually pull on the reins and instead I was saying “Woah” - which I later found out in Spanish actually translates to Oooooooooooh! (seriously) which was why she ignored me.  Then I remembered the reins and pulled on them and she slowed right down again. I looked around and the group were already some way behind me.  Still in a group.  I felt very much on my own, no rescue party here.  I turned Diabla round - she was very obedient for slow turns - and headed back to re-join the group. Jules was the only one who seemed concerned, asking if I was OK, she knew I had no clue what I was doing even though everyone else had assumed I was just off for some exercise. I explained it was terrifying, but there was something almost intoxicating about it.  I remembered what one of the expert volunteers had said yesterday - galloping is smoother than trotting - and it was true, it had been smoother, but it was just the sheer speed and acceleration that took me by surprise.  

For a while after that I felt like somebody at Sothebys trying NOT to buy anything, with an over-zealous auctioneer reacting to the slightest twitch.  I didn’t want to give Diabla any signals to take off again.  However whenever we went through a gate to an open field, she was off, each time I let her go a little further before slowing her down.  It did feel really amazing, and I tried to follow the advice of sitting back in the saddle and squeezing a little more with your knees.  I had to admit I was starting to really enjoy this, even though I felt completely unskilled for the experience, and like I could topple off the side at any moment, wondering whether it was a good idea to have my trainers jammed into the stirrups after all. 

Afterwards, Louis said he had enjoyed it but wished his horse would go fast like mine. Recalling how I felt in the moment, and Jules seeing how white I had gone after the first galloping experience, we were nervous that the boys might panic if this happened to them and organised a separate lesson for them to practice that afternoon with the gaucho and Antoine, who is an excellent horse rider. We wanted our boys to feel in control so that if and when their horse starts going more quickly, they felt confident and relaxed about what to do.

Boys concentrating hard in their lesson

Frankie under instruction from gaucho Brian

The lesson was going well, Louis and Frankie trooping up and down the paddock in their 1-2-1s and gradually learning about the basics of horse control.  Then as we watched Frankie at the far end of the field, his horse started racing off ahead of Brian, the gaucho teaching him. Jules and I were talking to Pablo, the senior gaucho, at the time. We could hear poor Frankie crying out as the horse, oblivious to Frankie’s plight, galloped on at pace. Pablo was shouting something urgently to Brian across the field - no idea what - we willed Frankie to hang on, which to his credit and our immense relief, he did, and eventually Brian caught up with him and the horse slowed.  Brian got Frankie down and gave him a cuddle.  Poor Frankie was shocked and in tears.  After a couple of minutes, Pablo got back on the horse with Frankie this time and they rode around slowly together. By the end of the lesson, Frankie was riding on his own again, we were pleased that he’d agreed to try again in the same lesson and he seemed almost proud that he’d galloped!   He recounted, of the moment, “My hat kept falling in front of my eyes so I couldn’t see anything and just hoped for the best!”  He didn't get past a slow walk again in the ensuing rides, but next time we go riding it's something he wants to try.

Frankie rides with Pablo for a while after his scary gallop!

Louis meanwhile was getting on very well with Antoine, and we were truly amazed when the two of them came back along the dusty road at speed, Louis looking very natural and happy. He doesn't always seem so bothered about sports involving a ball, but is good where balance is involved.

Over dinner we reflected on what it was like being nine years old. Louis said he liked being nine, he’d already enjoyed sand-boarding down a large sand-dune, surfing on some rough waves, whilst remaining on his feet, and had fun horse-riding all just in the first nine days since his birthday!