We arrived in Argentina via the Andes from Puerto Varas to Bariloche which was quite interesting because the streets were full of ash from the volcanoe and we could see from the distance that it is still spitting ash...kind of scary to pass by so close. People in Bariloche told us that they expext less then half of the tourists than usually to come to town in summer because you never know whether you will be able to take the plane or if the airport is going to be closed again. And it will take months or even years until the ash will be gone completely. We were lucky, we had two days with good views so we could go cycling and enjoy the nice countryside which is similar to the Chilinian part of the lake district. We had the best hostel ever and met some nice people including one British guy who is retired and is traveling since 1999. Wow!
After two days we went to Puerto Madryn. Whales come to the Valdes peninsula at the atlantic ocean to reproduce as do a lot of other animals. We booked a tour including whale watching and that was the best thing we could have done. During the 12 hours we saw sooo many animals we had never seen in our life. It was amazing! Sea Lions, Sea elephants, seals, penguins!, whales, orcas, some kind of tarantula!!!(it was huges, so disgusting!!!), ostriches and many more! See the pictures, they tell a better story than I ever could.
Next stop was Buenos Aires were Steffi joined us and is going to travel with us for two weeks. I think Buenos Aires is the nicest big city in south America so far. Very big, 13 million people, but it doesn't seem so busy as Lima for instance and has very beautiful architecture. Additionaly it is very fun, full of young people so you will never get bored but maybe just in the three siesta hours from 2 till 5 when everything is closed in Argentina even in Buenos Aires and the streets are literally deserted!
We made a small detour through Uruguay to visit Montevideo and Colonia and are back in the city on time for the weekend when we will meet Fede, Christians friend from Santiago and another friend of him who lives in Buenos Aires. The plan is to test the famous nightlife!!!
Funny story I nearly forgot...we are in a hostel in the middle of Buenos Aires and there are hundreds of hostels here. The owner is really nice and we were talking to him the other day when he told us that had lived several months in Germany back in 1985 at the house of a Spanish teacher. It turns out that he lived in Thedinghausen, near Bremen, where my good friend Wiebke comes from and that this Spanish teacher is a friend of her parents. The world is so small!!!