Nov 1-14, 2016: Argentina

Nov. 9, 2016.  El Galicho Hostel, Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

• Awoke to check the results - yes, Trump is our next President. Emailed my family that the next four years should be "very interesting".

• Then on to the penguins.  Thank goodness for this diversion.  

• First stop: the wonderful Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio, in Trelew.  Best dinosaur display I've ever seen.  It turns out most (all?) of the bones were dug up about 150 miles west of Trelow, in the province Chubut.  They included dinosaur eggs, a giant ammonite, and the largest dinosaur ever discovered: a titanosaur, 40m in length, 80 tons (equivalent to 14 African elephants).  Had a photo taken of me next to one of its legs, which towers above me.  Also some beautiful skeletons of tiny dinosaur reptiles, only a foot or two long, pure white, hung from the ceiling and highlighted in an otherwise dark room.  

• On to Punta Tombo, home to the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in South America, and their nesting ground.  When I visited, the eggs had not yet hatched; that takes place in a few weeks.  So you have adult penguins (male and female - they mate for life and share all duties} sitting on the two eggs, and periodically waddling to the water to wash off and have a bite to eat.  There were about 400,000 penguins when I visited (their numbers swell to a million once the chicks are hatched), but not in great masses: each penguin pair digs a hole some distance from its neighbors, so you don't see many together like in a National Geographic Special.  They were very tame, and easy to observe and photograph, especially when they clustered at the beaches, then jumped in for a swim - boy, can they swim!  And the weather was perfect: blue skies, warm temperatures.  Such a contrast with the Andes I had left a day ago.

• After returning I was told that it would still be windy tomorrow, so I've decided to head for Iguazu Falls via Buenas Aires.  No idea how to get there, or how long it will take, but that's pretty typical of this trip.

• Now to drown my Trump troubles in a fine Argentinian wine and my first Argentinian steak... which turned out very average: no such thing as rare in this country, unfortunately.  I should stick to seafood and lamb.