Visit to Patagonia

We'll drive to Richmond for a flight to Houston, followed by the overnight flight to Buenos Aires.   We land at the international airport and will transfer downtown, about an hour away, to the Hotel Boutique Recoleta. 

Recoleta is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city of  Buenos Aires, Argentina; it is an area of great historical and architectural interest, principally because the Recoleta Cemetery is located there. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city.  It is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods, and the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city.  it is the district chosen by the most exclusive brands in the world, plenty of art galleries, restaurants, museums and exhibition centers. There are excellent restaurants with outdoor seating allowing patrons to enjoy the December sunshine and warmth.  Steaks are world-famous and affordable and Argentinian wine flows freely.  Nate and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner in Recoleta on our visit to BA.  Many tango lyrics reflect life in the Recoleta neighborhood. See the Naional Geographic walking tour.

The hotel is a suites hotel.  Our 25m²-one-room suite is decorated with contemporary furniture and fully equipped. Single or double bed, kitchenette (including dishware, portable stove, convection oven and mini-bar with in-room refreshments) complements a fully-equipped bathroom with bathtub.

The next day (8th) we will take an afternoon flight from the nearby national airport to San Carlos de Bariloche, the jewel of Patagonia, which sits amongst Andean lakes.  We'll stay at the lakefront Hosteria del Lago  in the lively downtown area with views of the Andes across Nahuel Huapi Lake.  On the 10th we will begin our journey to Chile with a boat excursion across the lake then a short bus ride then another lake crossing in the high Andes to Peulla.  We spend the night at Hotel Natura Patagonia or Hotel Peulla, leaving the next afternoon for sailing on Lake Todos los Santos.  Afterwards we visit the Falls of Petrohué enjoying the capricious shapes of volcanic rock, bathed in green waterfalls before continuing on the border of Lake Llanquihue, Chile's largest lake, Towering over the lake is Osorno Volcano providing breathtaking views. We arrive at the conference where we are staying at Dreams of the Volcanoes Hotel.  The conference continues through 15th December; we have Sunday 16 Dec free.  We leave from nearby Puerto Montt on the 17th, flying though Santiago, Buenos Aires and Houston back to Richmond, arriving at 10am on the 18th.

October Oysters

Sorting the 500 oysters, larger ones in the bucket, smaller ones on the left.

Darby and I sort oysters.

A great deal of life enlivens the oyster environment including this worm--we tried to wash them away.

Some of the larger oysters could be eaten now.

Emptying the oyster bag for sorting,

We hauled the oysters out for what may be their last inspection of 2012 as the water temperatures dip into the 60s.  Many of the oysters are getting fairly large now though a fair number remain small so I sorted them into big and little.  I cleaned out the Taylor float--it had a lot of growth including Filamentous algae which I scraped off as best I could.  I then place the larger oysters in a layer on the bottom of the float and put the smaller ones back in the more finely netted insert atop the other oysters.  I only dessicated the oysters and float for about two hours.  I cleaned off as many secondary organisms--mostly the sea grapes--as I could.  There were about two dozen small oysters which had perished.  Then I threw them into the Creek while I shouted Oysters Overboard! 

I moved the float to the shady northern side of the pier in order to try to cut back the algal growth.  With the sun low for the winter it isn't possible to get it very far under the pier but hopefully growth is curtailed in the winter months.