With February being summer time in Argentina, it is time for the annual professional tennis tour stop. With this being the first round, the crowds were light, but the action and scenes at the grounds were entertaining.
It was a good day to bring the kids to the tournament.
In true Argentina fashion the trophy is a mate cup.
As with most events like this there were numerous corporate sponsors.
A nice collection of food trucks kept everyone fed.
There was an exhibition of Beach Tennis.
But the best action was on the courts where a number of the top players in the world were competing.
One of the newer museums in Buenos Aires is the Latin American Art Museum, in Spanish Museo de Arte Latinoamericao Buenos Aires – hence it’s acronym MALBA.
It has an extensive collection of 19th and 20th century avant garde art.
There were a number of works from Ernesto Neto, a contemporary sculpturist.
One of the main galleries had a large collection of mid century Latin American art.
Easily the most interesting was the work called La Pileta by Leandro Erlich. This piece looked like a swimming pool, both above it as well as being ‘in’ it.
Another piece by Erlich were these boats, which appeared to be floating.
The MALBA is a very nice museum, well worth the visit in the city on a hot Saturday afternoon.
This photography blog started out as a way to share some photos with friends, but after a number of years it has reached a milestone – posting number 1000!
To celebrate I give you my favorite 40 photos of all time. (I tried to make it less but could not)
Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Milwaukee sunrise
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan
Duluth, Minnesota thunderstorm
Yellowstone National Park – All Hail the Geyser Gods
Back on the Rio De La Plata for a late afternoon cruise – this time towards the city of Buenos Aires. The city and suburbs runs for about 40 miles along the coast of the river, mostly lined with mid rise apartment buildings.
The shore itself has a number of parks and other features that add to the scenery. The highlights include the soccer stadium for River Plate, and the airport Jorge Newberry.
We spent two wet days in the rain forest of Argentina and Brazil at one of the world’s natural wonders – Igauzu Falls. Generally considered one of the two or three best waterfalls in the world, it is in reality 250+ separate waterfalls.
The challenge of photographing such a vast scene, in the drizzle and mist, was daunting. In the end the lighting and coloring provided many interesting views. – resulting in a long posting of 40 photos.
The Teatro Colon is considered by many as one of the best opera houses in the world.
The theater was completed in 1908, with a four year restoration finishing in 2010.
The entry hall and initial rooms have many artistic details.
The main hall has room for over 3000, including standing room. The acoustics in the hall are legendary, so perfect you can hear people on the stage having a normal conversation from anywhere in the hall.
You have seen the Patagonia jackets, but how many people know where it is? Well, it is in the far south of Argentina, and El Calafate is in southern Pategonia – not that far from Antarctica.
With a few hours to spare before our flight, we stopped by the Laguna Nimez Nature Preserve. It is a beautiful area along the shores of Lago Argentino, with grasses, flowers, and birds.
In our travels across North America we have visited the Badlands in South Dakota, seen fossils in Arizona, and dinosaur bones in Colorado. In Southern Patagonia we had the chance to do this all in one place, La Leona.
And because it happens to be on a 30,000 acre ranch owned by one person, it is very restricted as to who can go there. We arranged a tour through one of the agencies in El Calafate, and were very pleased the next morning to see a mini van come to pick us up. Our group had 7 people, a driver and the guide!
The area is about 1.5 hours north of El Calafate – the scenery was fantastic along the way.
After a long drive up a bumpy dirt road, we got out and took off through the badlands.
It wasn’t long before we came upon the first dinosaur bone. They have been removing nearly full dinosaur skeletons from here for more than 20 years, so what is left are the ‘scraps’.
Still very impressive, they welcome you to touch them, hold them, and examine them – just leave them. They even gave us instructions on how to tell bone from rock – lick them. Or rather, lick your finger and press it against the object. If it sticks it is bone, otherwise it is rock.
There is even interesting vegetation throughout.
Our hike through the badlands continued with our guide Roci, until we reached the ‘petrified forest’. Roci was very knowledgeable and gave an excellent overview of what we were seeing, and how it got to be that way.
It is amazing how heavy small fragments of the petrified wood weighs.
We spent about 3 hours wandering around the badlands, finding plenty of petrified wood, and the occasional dinosaur bone.
What an amazing place, and fantastic day. To be able to see and touch these wonders of nature was great – and with such a small group at that.
