El Condor, Argentina
Trip Start
Oct 08, 2007
1
11
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Trip End
Jul 03, 2008
El Condor, Argentina
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
We are currently writing you from the Viedma bus terminal, we are waiting to catch a bus to Puerto Madryn. Yesterday we arrived here and then took a short bus trip to Balneario El Condor where we saw the largest colony of Burrowing Parrots in the world: huge cliffs of sandstone with tons of holes in them, with their nests inside. The rest of the town however, was a ghost town, no one was around, everything was closed, the beach has taken over the sidewalks. We ended up camping for free in a deserted campground, it was kind of eerie.
Before that we were in San Antonio de Areco to see an enormous gaucho festival, weŽd never seen so many horses! It was really fun and we spent the sunny afternoons sitting in the shade, watching the activities (horse herding, trying to ride untamed horses, etc.), eating bbq steak sandwiches and drinking wine. We camped there too because all the accommodations were full.
Before that (sorry for doing this backwards) we were in Mercedes and did a day tour of a huge swamp reserve where we saw tons of birds, caimans, capybara and two different types of deer. The tour included guided hikes, a boat trip and getting there and back on muddy dirt roads through the Pampas, surrounded by enormous cattle ranches and real gauchos riding along the roads.
After our time in Uruguay, we crossed back into Argentina and went to see Iguazu Falls, which were incredible! They also did a really good job of keeping it natural, by turning it into a national park and making you hike to the falls. We took lots of photos, but they do them no justice.
WeŽll write again soon, Steve and Jess
