StephenDMalone

 Dec 14, 2025 It was one loooonnnggg day getting all the way from Iguazu back to Seattle.  We got up in Iguazu at 5:30am for a quick breakfast, pack and the bus to the airport to fly back to Buenos Aires.  All the groups flights back to the US left in the evening so to we all shared two hotel rooms during the afternoon to clean up and repack for the return trip. I spent part of the afternoon with Jorge in a sports bar (see below). I actually got some sleep in the business class lie-down seats but it was not much more than dozing. Lyn and I parted company in Huston and I got home about 3pm today.  I spent part of the plane ride putting together this blog post (which may be little more than a bunch of random words based on how tired I feel now. Our whole group At the end of a trip I like to sum up some of the highlights, problems and maybe some statistics just for future reference.   To start with, the statistics.   I was gone from Seattle 20 and 1/2 days tak...

 Dec 10 - 12 Another half day of airplane hassle got us to Puerto Iguassu, Argentina in time for a late lunch at a butterfly farm.  The lunch was much more filling than just eating butterflies. We are now in the tropics (25 degrees south) and in the jungle…. Sort of. The food was typical of the region including a ceviche of fresh water fish, three different empanadas, two different corn breads, two unknown grains, a tree bark soaked in something sweet and a passion fruit mousse; all interesting and mostly very good.  We then took a jungle path with a local guide explaining about many plants and birds to an enclosed butterfly “farm”; enclosed area with several different types of butterflies being raised. Butterfly lunch Butterfly enclosure From there a 45 minute ride in the back of a truck bouncing over increasingly bumpy and narrow roads brought us to a “glamping” spot where a local guarani’ person took us down paths through the jungle to different places they had set up ...

 Dec 7 - 9 A city tour around Ushuaia easily got us orientated to this farthest south “city” in the world (there is a “village” across the Beagle Channel in Chile farther south but claimed by the locals not to be a city).  There were a lot of memorials and reminders to the Malvinas (Falkland) war that Argentina fought with Great Britain and lost in 1982.  It is a particularly sore point here in Patagonia for Argentinians since this was the major staging area and many from here fought in it. The history of these disputed islands is complex and it was interesting to hear a Chilean version from a local guide when in Chile and now an Argentinian version.  I guess the Chileans helped the British with intelligence because of a worry that if the Argentinians won they might want to acquire some Chilean islands in south Patagonia.  The politics of Argentina and the effect of the war in bringing down the very unpopular military dictatorship in Argentina after the war was ...

Dec 3 - 7 We had a good night’s sleep with no rush to get up early the next morning. I still was up by 6:30am and snuck down to the lounge so as not to wake Lyn to try and catch up with some of this blog. After yet another full on breakfast with everything available including omelets made to order I took a walk around town.  It seemed that every other shop is a trekking/hiking/gear/clothes store catering to the tourist trade, and most tourists are here for the outdoors.  I was told that Puerto Natales is the biggest tourist center in Chile and it seems this could be so.  When tourist interest declines the town is hurting.  The wind was way down, so much that it was pleasant to sit on a park bench to take in the view; that is pleasant until the swarming gnats almost blocked the view.  I guess there is a reason for the ubiquitous wind. I did go into a tourist shop and bought a T-shirt. All mine were dirty so rather than washing just buy another.  I also bough...