San Ignacio Miní

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March 11, 2019 – March 13, 2019

The mission at San Ignacio Miní was built in 1666 and is one of many missions built by the Jesuits in what the Spanish called the Province of Paraguay, an area which today includes parts of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The Mission was built with the aim of converting the local Guaraní people to Christianity, but it also protected the people from ongoing wars and from the slave trade. The Mission was abandoned after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, destroyed, along with about 30 other missions in the area, by later invaders and was soon after overcome by the rainforest. Restorations of the site began in 1940.

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Iberá Provincial Reserve

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March 9, 2019 – March 11, 2019

Iberá Provincial Reserve is a little visited, remote area located in the Argentinian province of Corrientes. The reserve is a mixture of swamps, bogs, lakes and lagoons, and, of course, the associated wildlife, and is about 13,000 square kilometres in size. We headed to the small town of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, where we camped for the night before hiring a small panga to take us out into the waters of the reserve for a safari, Argentina style.

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Continuing North in Argentina

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March 5, 2019 – March 9, 2019

The distance between real tourist attractions on the east cost of Argentina are large. We try to visit an interesting destination each day, but sometimes the distances are too great. We then, at least, try to find a nice spot to camp for the evening.

We camped here for one night and had a nice asada (BBQ). We were the only guests. If we had been here in January or February, the place would likely have been packed.

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Parrot Cliffs at Balneario el Cóndor

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March 3, 2019 – March 5, 2019

Since we quit our jobs, we rarely set an alarm to wake us in the morning. I love letting my body decide when it is ready to get out of bed, of slowly waking up without any annoying, demanding “beep, beep, beep”…who doesn’t? But, there are a times that are worthy of setting an alarm…..to go skiing, to go hiking, to go to the airport…..and now we can add, to go and see the parrots on the cliffs at Balneario el Cóndor as the sun rises.

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Valdes Peninsula

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March 2, 2019 – March 3, 2019

Valdes Peninsula is a marine nature reserve on the south Atlantic coast of Argentina, famous for its protection of the southern right whale, its elephant seal breeding grounds, and for the unique hunting strategy that the local orcas use….they go so far as to temporarily beach themselves in order to grab at young sea lions at the water’s edge. We headed to the peninsula for the day to see what we could see.

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Heading North up Ruta 3, Argentina

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February 21, 2019 – March 2, 2019

To get off the island of Tierra del Fuego and continue north in Argentina one must first re-enter Chile, then take a ferry to the mainland, and then re-enter Argentina. We drove to a small municipal camp on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego on the first day, then took the ferry to the mainland before re-entering Argentina the next day. We were tired of the frequent rain, wind and cold, and hoped to make some longer driving days north in search of warmer temperatures.

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Ushuaia, El Fin del Mundo

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February 17, 2019 – February 21, 2019

On February 17th, 2019, after 480 days on the road and 47,370 kilometres, we arrived in Ushuaia, affectionately known as El Fin del Mundo, the end of the world. It is the farthest south that one can drive, farther south than Cape Horn in Africa, farther south than the island of Tasmania, and about 1,000 kilometres from Antarctica.

Derek and Piper give each other a congratulatory “high five” at the gates to Ushuaia.
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Tierra del Fuego and King Penguins

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February 14, 2019 – February 16, 2019

We drove along the Strait of Magellan to where we would load Seymour onto yet another ferry, to make our way to Tierra del Fuego. Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego…..names that I had read about in history class so many years ago, but that my teenage self never, ever would have imagined having the opportunity to visit. It was a bit surreal.

The Strait of Magellan
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Puerto Natales & Punta Arenas

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February 11, 2019 – February 14, 2019

What I left out of our last post was how, on the way to El Calafate, we had stopped at a mirador, and when we got back into the truck and tried to start it, it would not start. Dutch tourists that we had been chatting with, and who were also about to pull out of the mirador, knocked on our window to see if we needed help. “No, I think we are okay,” said Derek, and so they pulled out. We sat. We cursed and we both pondered a bit. Finally, Derek “bumped” the ignition to cycle the new lift pump a few times, and then was able to start the engine. We continued on our way to El Calafate, neither of us stating the obvious….the truck was clearly STILL not fixed.

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El Calafate and Perito Moreno Glacier

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February 8, 2019 – February 11, 2019

Our next stop along Ruta 40 was the town of El Calafate, where most tourists stay before and after a visit to Perito Moreno Glacier. Calafate is the name of a berry producing bush that grows in the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina and that tastes similar to the Saskatoon berries we have at home. It is said that if you eat a calafate berry that it ensures that you will return to Patagonia….so we bought a jar of calafate jam, as this is a region of the world that is definitely worthy of a return visit.

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