Skies just skies....

In Patagonia skies manifest themselves in a lot of fascinating ways. Evening, early morning or daytime, be prepared for some fantastic shows.

Clouds like rays coming from behind the mountains.

Or piles of cotton wool hanging above the landscape.

Turning more and more golden and orange as the sun sets very slowly.

Now this looks like an airplane to me..... it was flying over the Beagle Channel.

Something falling out of the sky? 

The unobstructed views are awe inspiring.

Sunset....

 ...... or sunrise; the skies are magnificent.

 The morning sun reflecting on the mountains.

But the most fantastic show I ever saw, was a long time ago in Puerto Natales. One evening the clouds looked as if they were on fire. Imagine people being inside their homes and missing this....

  

Snow, Sacher Torte and golden plates

In Europe winter is almost past. The statue Danubius (personifying the river Danube) and probably his wife or some river nymph don't seem to care much about their little layer of snow. Imagine Danubius trying to get her attention for something really important. Maybe the fountain is frozen? She pretends to listen but in the mean time she waits for the opportunity to have coffee and a piece of Sacher Torte with her friends .....



Further down the Burggarten is transformed into a winter fairytale. The empress Sissi must have seen it like this more than 100 years ago (ahh without the waste paper basket ...).

The snow keeps falling and the wind makes nice patterns on the steps. 

The giant glass house (Palm house) looks even better with this thin layer of snow.

 Sissi lived just around the corner in The Hofburg, a huge palace well worth visiting. 

There is an enormous collection of glasses, plates, dishes, candlesticks; anything related to the wining and dining of the Habsburg family.

Glasses rimmed with gold.

Gilded plates, dishes and bowls for banquettes. They have been used often. You can clearly see the wear and tear on the plates. There are also silver plates and fine porcelain for lesser occasions.

The art of folding napkins this way was a secret that had to be kept within the Hofburg. 

On the tables were exuberant conversation pieces.

Maybe they had Sacher Torte for dessert....  Nowadays the original Sacher Torte is to be had at the Cafe Sacher in the Sacher Hotel. Just across the street at the fountain of the nymph and her Danubius.

More about Sissi and Sacher Torte

Give way to penguins!

The colony of Magellan penguins at Punta Tombo is famous. Lots of tourists went there. And many will come. In 2006 it was possible to walk anywhere. People would even touch the animals....the young are so cute!  I even saw a picture on the Internet of someone holding 2 chicks. The penguins,  already going down in numbers were to much disturbed by the increasing number of tourists. 

Now there are wooden walkways and clearly marked paths. A museum at the entrance of the park gives a lot of information about the penguins. Cars stay at the parking and a small coach brings you to the beginning of the route. 

There you are met by the locals ...... Yes, get aside! I am walking here.....   

Punta Tombo is an unique place if you want to see penguins. 

How fantastic to be able to see the baby penguin being fed.

Here the babes are fighting to be the first one.

An area with nest holes at Punta Tombo

 The beach is near...... and I was expecting the same large numbers of penguins as I saw 9 years ago..... How disappointing; this was the lot! Where did they go? 

These are pictures of the same spot 9 years before....

I had some local information, that the fishing grounds were less good. The younger penguins (these are the ones on the beaches) have to look for new fishing grounds about 400 miles away. A search on the Internet brought the same alarming news. The number of penguins at Punta Tombo is going down fast due to over-fishing and climate change.  Worse: In general 12 out of 17 penguin species are already in danger of extinction.  And note: this report dates from 2009, 6 years ago!!

From: TheWildlife Conservation Society feb 2009
Boersma’s data reveal that penguins at Punta Tombo are traveling farther to find food than they did just a decade ago due to changing ocean conditions and overfishing—particularly of anchovies, a favorite penguin food. This has forced some penguins to attempt to nest outside of protected areas where they often fall prey to predators. Meanwhile, changing weather patterns have also led to increased instances of heavy rains, which have caused high mortality of penguin chicks in five of the last 25 years.

All told, penguin numbers at Punta Tombo have declined by more than 20 percent in the last 22 years, from 300,000 to just 200,000 breeding pairs, Boersma said.

“Penguins are having trouble with food on their wintering grounds and if that happens they're not going to come back to their breeding grounds,” she said. “If we continue to fish down the food chain and take smaller and smaller fish like anchovies, there won't be anything left for penguins and other wildlife that depend on these small fish for food.”

Outside the window.....

At the Retiro bus station we wait for the (night)bus to Patagonia. It is a huge bus station. We are told to  keep together and form a circle around our suitcases. When the bus arrives we have to board quickly. Just a short stop and there it goes.

The bus leaves around 3 in the afternoon and arrives the next day late in the morning in Puerto Madryn. It is a rainy day. Before the bus reaches the pampas, it drives for almost 3 hours through the outskirts of Buenos Aires and trough La Plata. It is fascinating to see what is happening along the road. To see the the city change. To see endless streets with a depressing amount of poverty. On the other hand there is also a lot of optimistic "entrepreneurship". Streets where people live and work day in day out.

There is poor...

and there is rich.

And there is the harbor along the river Plate.

Sometimes it is wet....

But there is always something to eat....

There are small businesses everywhere... Scaffolding for rent next to a mix of sandwiches, car washing and a place to play pool. There is not much order along the streets. Being a pedestrian is hard work. Look good because the pavement is full of surprises. For people from Europe certainly the way of building might look chaotic, but believe me you get used to this. The houses are purposely built to keep the sun, the rain and unwelcome strangers out. So they have smaller windows, mostly with some sort of bars, to prevent entering and to be able to keep windows open for fresh air.

Oil change next to the stairs to heaven.  Who left this garbage under the tree?

Many street corners; but where is the traffic?

Lots of pretty things for the garden. Next door they sell large swimming pools. It means we are already out of the city center.

In many places garbage is dumped along the road....

Probably this castle is also a home.....

Second hand things for building and new play-houses for children for sale.... and it is possible to rent the rooms upstairs. 

At the bus stop people wait in orderly queues. 

Nice fruit, but to get there.....

This building must be "under construction".....

Meanwhile some orderly queue of people waiting for a bus....

Now the business is done "The small market" is parked in the verge.

A fence made of three different pairs of gates (interesting use of wheels in the middle set).

After some time there is a change. This part of the city is so rural that horses graze along the street.

But then we are in the next city; La Plata.  We pass a main street with a building in the colonial style. 

Further down the road also these kind of derelict looking places.....

The municipality tries to lift the spirit: "La Plata - we share the city" .....

..... with this small railway that winds through this neighborhood.

Here you want to have an ice cream.....

As we leave the city Christina Kirchner (the president of Argentina) waves us goodbye. Yes we still have a long way to go - 1300 kilometers...

The never ending streets with the houses and shops and other constructions make way for a never ending landscape....... We are in the countryside. It is completely and absolutely FLAT; you could think you were in one of the Dutch polders.  It starts getting darker. The landscape has no more surprises.... The bus is very comfortable. We can close our eyes now.