Tikal, Guatemala

The next morning we woke up in time to explore the property a bit. Casa de Don David is located next to a lake near El Remate, 15 minutes outside of Tikal itself. There are some cute fruit trees and all the rooms are well air-conditioned, which turned out to be really important, as it was much much hotter in El Peten than in Antigua.

After a hot breakfast, we were picked up by our driver and our guide for the day, Samuel. We made a quick stop to buy our entrance tickets (about 20 USD per person) and then we were on our way.

We started out over by Complex Q (and the matching Complex R). Pretty much every place we stopped, Samuel asked us if we wanted to climb up to take a look, and we said yes. At the top of the Complex Q pyramid, we had our first glimpse of some howler monkeys, but they were too far away to get any good photos.


We wondered why Complex R and Complex Q were so similar, and Samuel told us that each set of twin pyramids was built at 20 year intervals to mark the end of a "k'atun", a unit of time in the Mayan calendar. These particular pyramids were built in the late 6th century.

At first we were really psyched to see these coati running around, but we soon realized they were really common.


From there we hiked up towards Temple IV, the highest point in Tikal. This is the view from the top of Temple IV, with Temples I, II, III, and V visible in the distance:


There were some people working on replicating of the original carved lintels that had been inside of the temples, and Samuel persuaded them to let me (and my camera) take a peek:


It was a hot day and we were a bit tired from all the climbing already so we stopped at some picnic benches after descending from Temple IV for a snack and some cold drinks (amazingly there was a guy there selling drinks, and even more amazingly, they were not a total ripoff).

Afterwards we looped by Complex N and saw some of the giant underground caves that the Mayans had used to store food and water, and then went to climb "El Mundo Perdido", aka the Lost World. Samuel explained to us that it was the oldest part of Tikal, and had been built in the 4th century.

Nearby he showed us a series of seven temples which were built for astronomical observation purposes; when viewed from a nearby platform, the first would line up with the sun at the winter solstice, the middle one at the spring and fall equinoxes, and the last at the summer solstice.

Next we attempted our highest climb yet; Temple V.


The climb was not so bad despite the wooden stairs being a little rickety, but it was a little scary to look down from the top.


After catching our breaths again at the bottom, we headed for the famous Great Plaza. On the way we spotted some spider monkeys at close range:



The Great Plaza and its temples (I & II) are probably the best known structures at Tikal. Samuel told us we could climb up Temple II, so we went up and were able get some nice shots of Temple I.


That was pretty much the end of the guided part of our tour; from there he set us loose in the North Acropolis and we wandered around exploring by ourselves for an hour or so. It was amazing that there weren't more tourists; I think the whole day we ran across maybe ten small groups of other people. We guessed that the rest had been scared away by the reports of gang violence on the Mexican border, and enjoyed the peace and quiet immensely.

On the way out we spotted some toucans; one living inside a tree trunk, and this one just hanging out on a branch:


We got back to our lodge in mid-afternoon, and were eager to shower, change, and just lounge around in our hammocks for the rest of the day while we waited for the heat to subside. For dinner we had beef shortribs and some delicious fresh juices (mango and watermelon), and of course eventually we ended up playing some Settlers.

We'd had a good time with Samuel the previous day, so we asked him to take us to another site the next day called Yaxha. It's most famous for being the site of Survivor Guatemala, but also has several impressive ruins and borders a lake.

This is one of the temple pyramids at Yaxha:


I think we were all a bit tired from the previous day's excursion, and certainly Yaxha is not as impressive as Tikal, so we mostly just wandered around, occasionally climbing some ruins and spotting monkeys and other wildlife.

There was a large ballcourt near the entrance, which prompted Samuel to explain the Mayan ball game to us. The players were not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or feet, but were expected to put the ball through stone rings to score points. The games were sometimes played as part of rituals and could even involve human sacrifice (we were unclear if it was the winners or the losers who would be sacrificed).

After leaving Yaxha, we proceeded on to the Belizean border. We had arranged for Samuel and our driver to take us all the way to our lodge near San Ignacio, so they coached us through the border crossing. First, we had to pay an entrance tax to Belize. Then, we got our passports and unloaded all our luggage from the van. We crossed the border on foot with our luggage, so they could inspect it if they liked (they didn't bother), and then we reloaded the van on the other side. Samuel cautioned us not to speak to him in English while we were crossing; I wasn't clear on the rationale but it seemed there was some hostility between the English-speaking Belizeans and the Spanish-speaking Guatemalans.

The border crossing took a good half hour, and it was really hot, but otherwise everything went smoothly. There were tons of guys trying to help us exchange money on both side of the border, but they were pretty good at going away once we refused.

It was less than twenty minutes from the border to the town of San Ignacio. We stopped there briefly to get some Belizean dollars from an ATM (roughly 2:1 vs the USD). We had booked two nights at the Table Rock Jungle Lodge, and distance-wise it was only about three miles from San Ignacio, but unfortunately it was down a really nasty dirt road. I think it took us another 20-30 minutes of very bumpy driving to get there, so we were quite exhausted when we finally arrived.

Antigua, Guatemala

In late May, D and I went on a trip with a bunch of college friends to Central America. I've been delinquent about posting trip notes, so I've probably forgotten some stuff, but I'm going to try to remember as much as I can.

The eight of us set out from SFO on Thursday night. We transferred through San Salvador early the next morning (the airport was nicer than I expected) and then arrived in Guatemala City around 9:30am. It took a few minutes for us to get oriented, find an ATM, and find a shuttle driver, but eventually we were on our way to Antigua via shuttle bus. The fixed price was quite reasonable; 10 USD per person for an hour-long drive.

The Guatemalan quetzal seems to be pegged to the US dollar in the high 7s, but a lot of locals would use 8 to do calculations, so it turned out not to be a bad thing to have brought some US cash.

We arrived in Antigua before noon and checked into our hotel, the Posada de Don Rodrigo. It was located centrally and was quite nice, with a couple of courtyards, traditional decor, helpful staff, and even some free internet terminals (and very weak free wi-fi).

After we got settled in we headed out for lunch. We decided on Fondo del Calle Real, which was recommended by several tourbooks as having good traditional Guatemalan food. I ordered a combo plate which came with a pupusa, chili relleno, fresh cheese, beans, plaintains, rice, and salad. It was pretty good; I especially liked the plaintains and the pupusa. Others ordered various meat stews which they did not like as much. So much for tour books.

For dessert we picked up some chocolate bread from Dona Luisa Xicotencatl bakery, and then hung out munching on it in the Parque Central; a cute square bordered by a cathedral and lots of shops, with some benches and fountains.

Later we visited the Cathedral de Santiago, a ruined church from the 1770s. It was rather peaceful walking around inside the high walls with no ceilings.


For dinner, we ate at our hotel, which was pretty pricey by Guatemalan standards, but the food was better than at lunch.

The next day we were up bright and early for our Lake Atitlan tour. We were picked up by our driver and driven several hours to one of the villages bordering the lake, where we met our tour guide, Lee Beal.

Lee and his wife Elaine fed us some delicious tropical fruits (the mangoes were especially tasty) and then hooked us up with some kayaks so we could explore the lake.



We kayaked for about an hour, and then got cleaned up and proceeded onward by boat. We stopped in the village of Santiago first for some lunch (delicious fried chicken plates for about 5 USD) and then to hunt down the current home of Maximon, a local Mayan god. Maximon is a very interesting kind of god; his worshippers offer him cigarettes, alcohol, and money, in addition to prayers, and his effigy appears to smoke continuously. I didn't take a photo because it would have cost us 10 quetzels, but I did find this photo online:


We got back on the boat in order to get to a smaller, more peaceful village named San Juan. There we visited a women's weaving cooperative where we were given a weaving demonstration.


The quality of the material and the work were quite good, so many of us bought souvenirs to take home. I myself bought a large shawl which was dyed in bright blues, greens, and purples.

From there it was another short boat ride and then a 30-45 hike back to Lee's place, where we were picked up by our van driver and taken back to Antigua.

For dinner we decided against trying to find more Guatemalan food; instead we ate at a panini place called Tartine's. We had a much better experience there than at either of the restaurants we'd eaten at the previous day; there was a nice roof deck and the food was tasty. Some of the neighboring tables seemed to be annoyed that we were talking and laughing, and kept looking at us oddly (they were all couples), but the staff were perfectly nice so we didn't let that ruin our evening.

For dessert, we returned to Fondo del Calle Real to try "traditional Guatemalan desserts". We ordered four of five of them, and they were all terrible. Sigh.

On our last day in Antigua, we had a late afternoon flight to Flores, so we decided to fit in a Pacaya volcano hike in the morning. Unfortunately the volcano had just erupted the previous year and no actual lava flow had been visible since then, but it was a good workout and we certainly saw a lot of ash and could feel the pockets of hot air near the top of the volcano.

On the way down we ran into this cow, which was very much not amused by us. Our guide Jose finally chased it away with a stick so we could proceed.


As we were walking down, I noticed that an older Asian man was wearing a baseball cap with a Taiwan flag on it, so I asked him in Chinese if he was from Taiwan. He said he was but had been living in Guatemala for over 20 years. We had a nice chat (later he discovered D and I spoke Taiwanese and he was even more excited) and at the bottom he ran to his car to get us some pineapple cakes. I was quite amused.

We got back to Antigua in plenty of time to shower, pack, and check out, and even had time to grab a proper lunch before heading to the airport. Again we went with the non-local food; we had some sandwiches and pasta at Dona Luisa Xicotencatl, the place we'd been buying bread from, as it was just down the street from our hotel.

After checking in for our short flight, we sat around playing games for awhile, and then headed to our gate. There we were informed that our flight would be delayed 1.5 hours, but we were immediately given vouchers for free meals, which turned out to include our choice of sandwich, drink, and dessert. I was quite impressed with TACA's handling of the situation, actually.

Nevertheless, when we finally arrived in Flores, we were quite exhausted, so we were happy to see the shuttle driver from Casa de Don David (our lodge in El Remate) was still there waiting for us. Upon arrival David immediately showed us to our rooms and told us we could figure out registration at breakfast. Nice.

It makes me feel old when...

...I refer to "Army Street" and no one knows what I'm talking about. Boo.

honey walnut shrimp

D loves honey walnut shrimp, so I've tried a few recipes previously (mostly unsuccessfully), but I think I finally hit on a good one last night.

Honey Walnut Shrimp

1. Boil walnuts in water, changing water frequently, until water runs clear. Add 1 cup sugar and boil again.

2. Remove walnuts from water and fry in hot oil until golden brown, then add honey and cool on cookie sheet.

3. Whip 4 egg whites until white and foamy, add 2/3 cup mochiko and water. Dip deveined shrimp in batter and fry.

4. Toss fried shrimp with mayonnaise, condensed milk, and honey, then top with walnuts.

how my brain works

I think I may be a terrible person.

friend #1:	Didn't you see my super cute photo of <his kid who I've only met once doing nothing particularly interesting> on Facebook?
me:	No, I found Facebook kind of tedious, so I stopped using it.

friend #2:	Didn't you read about me meeting Tyson Beckford on Facebook? He has a little bit of a Jamaican accent! And he called me baby!
me:	Hmm. (briefly considers reactivating Facebook account)

In my defense, Tyson Beckford continues to be super hot.

chloroquine monday

I got back on Saturday night (Sunday morning, really) from a week-long trip to Guatemala and Belize with friends. The eight of us spent two nights in Antigua, two in El Remate (near Tikal), two in San Ignacio, and two in Caye Caulker. After that, four of us left so we could attend a wedding on Sunday, and the remaining four stayed for two days of diving. Details to follow, before I forget everything...

Anyway, we were advised to take precautions against malaria, so we all started on a chloroquine regimen about a week before the trip. The pills are supposed to be taken weekly, on the same day each week, for a week before and four weeks after exposure. I took the first dose on a Monday, and I didn't feel any severe side effects (a little headache maybe), but one of my friends experienced some dizziness. "Chloroquine Monday", as we've been calling it, hit again on the day we spent hiking all over Tikal. Most of us were okay but the same friend had really bad nausea and fatigue all day. I just took the third dose last night, and again it wasn't too bad, but nevertheless I will be quite glad when we're all done.

positive identification

I ran the Bay to Breakers again this year with some friends. I was definitely not in good running condition, having had knee problems and a lingering cough over the past few weeks, but managed to finish anyway.

Afterwards we walked back to a friend's house, where we'd stashed a change of clothes and some groceries. We took turns showering and cooking, and eventually we ended up watching the party (she lives on Fell Street, which is pretty much party central) while munching on French toast and breakfast sandwiches.

I told everyone to keep an eye out for my coworkers, who were dressed as lemmings in green wigs and blue snuggies. We finally spotted them shortly after noon, at which point we had an exchange that went something like this:

friend:	Wow, the guys in the back are holding someone up. She looks really drunk! Do you know her? It's a dark-haired girl.
me:	(glancing out the window) Hmm. No, I don't think so, I only know like 4 out of the 13 lemmings, and they're all white guys.

Then, this morning at work:

me:	Hey, I saw you guys on the course yesterday. Who was the drunk girl?
coworker #1:	Umm. No comment.

A couple hours later:

me:	How was your weekend?
coworker #2:	Oh, good. Met up with J and some of the lemmings after the race.
me:	Hmm. (J is an Asian female, a coworker from another office.) Hey <coworker #1>, was J the drunk girl?
coworker #1:	I said no comment!

Hehe.

bike to work day

Goal #2 achieved! Yesterday in honor of Bike to Work Day, I finally biked to work.

My bike is 18-years-old and crappy; my parents bought it for me when I was in high school. I was a little concerned about the bike surviving all the way to work since it's nearly 20 miles door-to-door.

The first three miles from my house down to 101 are a steep descent; I literally did not have to pedal for over a mile and a half. I stopped by Oracle briefly to meet up with a friend, and from there we took the second half of the bayway route.

The route was pretty complicated but luckily I had written up a little card with directions and pasted it on my bike. Also, there were often little colored arrows pasted on the ground at the more confusing intersections, and then as we approached Mountain View there were lots of other bikers to follow.

In the end it took about 1 hour and 40 minutes, which works out to roughly 12 mph. Not great, but then again it was my longest bike ride in over fifteen years.

Anyway, that's ten items done or in progress, which gives me 2.5 years to knock off another twenty. Still on track!

whew

me:	Hey, what's with the teeny tiny font on <product>?
other engineer:	What are you talking about, it's not teeny tiny!
me:	Are you kidding? It's making my eyes hurt.
him:	Hmm...screenshot?
him:	(upon receiving screenshot) Eww, okay, that is eye-hurting. Maybe the fonts on your box are messed up.
me:	Heh, I told you! I know I'm old but I'm not that old.

We later figured out that it was his fonts that were messed up and everyone else was seeing the teeny tiny ugly fonts, so we filed a bug.

six years later

Six years ago, D was given a $200 on-call bonus that could only be used to go out to a nice dinner, so we booked a reservation and went to Michael Mina. We had a really great experience; at the time they had a three-course prix fixe where each course was itself a trio. For instance, my "citrus" dessert featured orange, lemon, and lime.

We finally returned to Michael Mina last month for the first time. I've never been to Aqua, so I'd never seen the "new" location even in its previous incarnation. Initially I thought it was nicer, because it wasn't located off of a hotel lobby like the old spot (now Bourbon Steak), but after awhile I decided I liked it less; it's noisier and feels more casual.

We went with some friends, and the four of us decided to order a la carte.

First we were served this grilled cheese sandwich with artichoke soup. I guess it was a large amuse. The soup was quite tasty but the sandwich was unremarkable.


D ordered this pork belly and geoduck clam "salad", which was served with butternut squash puree and vadouvan curry. I liked it very much; more than my own appetizer.


Mine was this "Australian wagyu" shabu shabu, served with foie gras torchon, radish salad, and a hot dashi broth, in which we cooked our own meat. It was pretty good (hard to complain about wagyu and foie), but I thought D's was more unique.


We also ordered this kabocha squash souffle with black truffle cream, for the table. It had been awhile since I'd had a savory souffle, and this one was well-flavored as well as being properly light and airy.


D ordered a duo of crispy fish with pea shoots, hearts of palm, and Thai lobster sauce.


My entree was a braised kurobuta pork with spring garlic, green polenta, bourbon, and apple. I usually don't like polenta much but enjoyed this green version very much; it wasn't just the color that was different. The sauce was a bit sweet for me, but the pork was nicely tender.


This "pre-dessert" was comprised of vanilla ice cream and cooked pineapple on some kind of cake. It was too strongly flavored to count as a real palate cleanser, and was probably too large as well.


For dessert, of course we ordered the full tasting.


The first course was a little bit savory; it was a passionfruit panna cotta with grapefruit, avocado, and passionfruit chicharrones. I liked it very much, after removing the avocado.


The next dish was deceptively simple; there were two wafers infused with jasmine & brown sugar. This was actually my favorite; I reallly liked the jasmine flavor and the flakiness of the wafers.


These crisps were flavored with white chocolate and grapefruit. D liked these very much but I thought they were a little bland.


The next dish looked really cool, but wasn't that interesting in flavor. The ingredients were listed as campfire marshmallows, devil's food, cocoa nib, and smoked sugar.


I also liked these tiny milk chocolate and honey lozenges very much, but I love fresh honey.


The final dish was a briquette of coffee and cardamom. The coffee flavor was very strong, which meant I liked it and D did not.


Overall I would say we were a bit disappointed. The first time we'd gone, we walked out thinking it was one of the best meals that we'd ever had. This time, we thought the food was good, but not amazing. We really missed the trio approach; when each ingredient was prepared three different ways, it felt almost like we were judges at an Iron Chef competition. I'm guessing that we're also less easily impressed now, having been lots of nice restaurants in the past six years. Anyway, it was a fun night out with friends, and I do think that the dessert tasting was very good.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina (2008)

After our second short stint in Buenos Aires, we flew to Iguazu, to see the famous waterfalls.

On the morning of our flight, I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose, and was afraid I was getting sick, but it went away soon after we arrived in Iguazu, so I later concluded it was due to smoke inhalation.

For once we had a lazy morning; we did do a little more shopping at the Galerias Pacifico but otherwise just hung out at the hotel until it was time to go to the airport.

We arrived in Iguazu in mid-afternoon. There was a small hiccup when one person went looking for a bathroom and ended up outside the baggage claim area, but she had all the baggage claim tags. In the end we apparently looked sufficiently clueless that the guy was convinced we weren't luggage thieves and let us through.

It was a short ride by car ($12.50) to our lodge, the Riotropic. The lodge grounds were quite pretty, and our room was large, but wooden walls meant poor sound insulation and encounters with some creepy crawly things on several occasions.


When the first person went to take a shower, the rest of us heard a blood-curdling scream a few minutes later as she'd discovered a gecko on the wall of the shower. She soon reported that the shower pressure was absurdly bad, and the shower "stall" was basically the entire bathroom.

For dinner, we headed into the town of Puerto Iguazu. We ended up at a place called El Quincho del Tio Querido, where we had a fabulous dinner. The entrees were about $7-8 each, the decor was nice, with colorful tablecloths and lights strung up along the ceilings, and there was even live music. I ordered the "Lomo Michael" special which turned out to be beef loin wrapped in pancetta with a delicious gravy, served with cooked apples, prunes, onions, carrots, and bits of jelly (almost like cherries). The overall flavor was a little sweet, almost Asian, and they'd cooked the meat properly medium rare, for once. Yum!


I also had a "licuado"; a shake of sorts with papaya, peach, banana, and pineapple. In the end we were all really happy with our meal. Afterwards, we stopped by a souvenir shop and discovered the T-shirts were really cheap there, so we bought a bunch.

The travel day had been somewhat rainy, but luckily for us, the next morning dawned bright and clear. After our hotel breakfast (quite tasty, and served on a patio), three of us caught a taxi to Iguazu Park. The entrance fee was about $10, which we later agreed was very reasonable. We spent some time trying to book a moonlight tour for that evening, and decided on the $23 option with dinner at La Selva, instead of the $13 option without dinner.

By the time we actually entered the park it was after 9:30am. We walked the Green Trail to the station, and then continued on the Lower Circuit (aka "Circuito Inferior") to San Martin Island.


Along the way, we saw some great views, some with rainbows, and lots of small animals (lizards, birds, butterflies, and other insects).





I think this must be some kind of giant rodent; they were all over the place.


These coatis were too fast for me; I only caught their tails.


We met up with the fourth person for lunch; she'd stayed back at the lodge that morning. Lunch was not exciting (pizza) and not cheap. Afterwards we took the train to Devil's Throat (aka "La Garganta del Diablo"), through which flows half of the overall volume of the river. It was an amazing feeling just to stand there at the top getting sprayed by the mist and looking all around. My camera kept getting wet, but it was well worth it.



We rode the train back down and then took a "Grand Adventure" tour. As we were waiting for the tour to start, there was a small commotion among our fellow tourgoers, and we looked up to see several toucans.


The first part of the tour involved riding in a 4x4 through the jungle. After that there was a boat trip, during which we got drenched by several of the falls, including the San Martin (the second largest fall). I thought the jungle part was kind of hokey and we'd spent plenty of time walking around the jungle earlier in the day already, but the boat part was really fun.

We spent our last hour on the Upper Circuit, until we were subtly herded out by a park ranger. The moonlight tour got cancelled due to weather and/or lack of a moon, so we got refunded and went back to town for dinner. This time we ate at El Charo, which was about the same price as El Quincho, but the food was noticeably worse in comparison. The four of us ordered various types of lomo, with pimienta, ajillo, champignon, etc., and it was all okay but not awesome like the previous day. We did discover caipirinha by accident; someone ordered it because she saw "azucar" and thought it would be a soft drink, but when it turned out to be alcoholic, she had the rest of us help her finish it. I decided very quickly that I was a fan.

Back at the lodge, we had an incident with someone discovering ants in her hair, and I managed to break the flusher on the toilet, but eventually we all got to sleep.

On the day of our return journey, we slept in and got up around 9am. Our air conditioner had gone wonky overnight so we were pretty cold in the morning, but luckily no one got sick from that. At breakfast we ran into a couple from Los Angeles who spoke excellent Spanish. Their month-long itinerary included Mendoza, Bariloche, El Calafate, and Ushuia. I was madly jealous.

We caught a taxi to the airport at noon and arrived at 12:20pm. The check-in agent automatically moved us up from our 2:10pm flight to a "12:25pm" flight which he said was leaving 20 minutes late anyway. It ended up leaving at 1:10pm, so we got to Buenos Aires a bit before 3pm. We claimed our luggage and found a car to take us to Ezeiza (the international airport) for $25. The air was even nastier than before, and it was at this point we finally found a newspaper and figured out what was happening. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get the car, and the ride took another 40 minutes, with me covering my nose with my sleeves practically the entire time.

Once we got to Ezeiza, the rest of our trip home went smoothly.

I'm quite amused reading through these notes now, because I wrote that I bought a Peruvian alpaca scarf at the airport, because "who knows when I'll be in Peru?". I guess there's no way I could have known that I'd be hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu only a year later.

Peninsula Valdes, Argentina (2008)

On our second day in Argentina, we took an early morning flight from Buenos Aires' Jorge Newberry airport to Trelew, a small Welsh-influenced city in Patagonia. One of my friends developed really terrible stomach pain sometime in the middle of the night (which persisted for the rest of the trip), but we packed up her stuff and she managed to stick it out through the ride to the airport, the two hour flight, and a subsequent bus ride to our hotel, where she spent the rest of the day.

The rest of us were picked up at the airport by Cuyon, our tour company. Our tour guide's name was May and she spoke excellent English. There was one other passenger, a Spanish-speaking girl named Silvina. We headed to directly to Punta Tombo, about an hour away. Punta Tombo is the home of the largest Magellanic penguin colony in South America. It cost us about $7.50 per person in entrance fees, but soon we were surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of small penguins. There was other wildlife as well; mostly guanacos (similar to llamas), rhea (large flightless birds that looked kind of like small ostriches), and even an armadillo.




The penguins were clearly the stars of the show; they came super close to us and were often right next to our feet. We were strictly instructed not to approach them, but May said it was fine if they approached us. We spent several hours there enjoying the friendly penguins.




Afterwards, we took a bus to a small town called Gaiman where we had Welsh tea (for $8.50 per person) at a place called Ty Gwyn. The portions were very generous and the tea was unlimited. This photo only shows one plate of three; we were served jam and butter, scones, cheesecake, chocolate cake, pastries with dulce de leches, pastries with coconut and jam, apple tarts, fruitcake, and more.


We couldn't come close to finishing the whole spread, but packed the rest for later. We did walk around Gaimen for a few minutes after tea, to look at the unique houses; they'd used white stone from nearby bluffs to build them. The local industry was still primarily agriculture, and the surrounding farmland was lush and green in contrast to much of Patagonia, due to the town's proximity to the Chubut river. There were sheep with lambs nearby, and tall poplar trees planted as wind screens. On the way back to Trelew, we even passed by a canal with some wild flamingos.

From there the tour guide took us to Puerto Madryn, where we checked into our hotel, the Hosteria Solar de la Costa, where our friend was waiting for us. The total cost for the day's tour was $110 USD per person.

For dinner, three of us walked into the town of Puerto Madryn and found a nice-looking restaurant called Placido. We spent a total of $40 on sauteed calamari with veggies, cod, salmon, Patagonian lamb, and a couple of glasses of wine. Not bad.

The next morning, all four of us had our free breakfast at the hotel and were ready to go at 7:15am, which was our pickup time. By 7:45am we were getting worried, and then at 7:50am the agency (not the same tour company as the previous day) called to say they were having van trouble, and would be over in "a few minutes". At 8:15am we had the hotel call to figure out what was happening. Again, they said they'd be over shortly. At 8:30am we called Cuyun, the previous day's tour company, and asked them to come get us. At 8:35am the first tour company's van arrived, but we were pretty mad as they were an hour and 20 minutes late, so (with the help of the very nice hotel staff) we pretended we'd already left. At 8:38am the Cuyun van arrived, and we went on our way.

We went first to the Center for Interpretation of the Peninsula Valdes. The most impressive thing there was a right whale skeleton, plus a pretty vista of the isthmus outside.

From there it was a few minutes to Punta Norte, where we saw two or three large groups of sea lions. I thought it was especially cute when a mother sea lion returned from the ocean, and her calf went waddling down the beach to meet her.


At the next stop, Punta Cantor, there were a few penguins, but nowhere near as many as the previous day at Punta Tombo.


There were some elephant seals as well, but they were pretty boring and immobile. We did walk to a spot where we had a nice view of the mouth of the Caleta Valdes.


We'd hoped to spot some orcas, perhaps even as they were hunting the seals, but we were told they could only be seen at high tide; 7am or 7pm, so we were out of luck. We had lunch at Puerto Pyramides; the food was not very interesting but afterwards we walked around outside the restaurant and there were some random things lying around; old railroad equipment and the like, so I took some photos of those.

We got back to our hotel shortly after 5pm. Two of us decided to venture out for dinner; the other two stayed at the hotel. We walked along the shore a bit, bought some postcards and tasty Yenelen chocolate, and then had a light dinner at Cantina El Nautico. Unfortunately we'd left our best Spanish speaker at home, so there was an amusing exchange when I asked if the restaurant was "abierto" (one of my few Spanish words) and the guy at the door told me "ocho", so we had to go away and come back fifteen minutes later. Initially I was afraid reading the menu would be a huge ordeal, but luckily I tend to pick up food words best in any language, so we ended up with some pretty tasty "arroz con camarones" (rice with shrimp) and a salad.

We had another mad scramble the next morning; we'd been told the airport shuttle would come "as early as 7:30am" so we'd planned to wake up shortly before 7am. I forgot to set my alarm, so I didn't get up until someone else poked me at 7:05am. At 7:10am we got a call which was all in Spanish. I thought he said 7:15am and I thought I was saying 7:45am but basically no communication was happening. Anyway, finally I said, "Si, transfer" and hung up. At 7:15am the receptionist knocked on our door and said that the shuttle had arrived, setting off a frenzy of packing. We got everyone packed and out the door at 7:30am, but the shuttle driver was visibly annoyed.

After that our transit back to Buenos Aires went pretty smoothly; we mailed some postcards and did some souvenir shopping, but the only thing that looked vaguely interesting turned out to be a fruitcake, so that was the end of airport shopping for me.