Dave Albeck

Seal Island

With a few extra photos of flora and fauna of the Deep South.

Protected: Boulders Beach – Family

Protected: Seal Island – Family

A very foreign place, with dramatically different fauna and flora. The camera I have with me does a miserable job with close-ups, otherwise I’d be posting hundreds of studies of Protea, Watsonia, and many more.

Sights along the Cape Peninsula, a.k.a. the “Deep South”:

We made a special trip to see the penguins at Boulder Beach. The “dassies” (hyraxes) almost stole the show.

We did a scramble up Lions Head.

Protected: Cape Town, part 1 – Family

Sao Paulo and Capao Bonito

Sao Paulo is the largest city in the Western hemisphere and also the largest city in the Southern hemisphere. It’s so vast that it’s impossible to get a sense of its scale, even from the air. It’s noteworthy that you can expect to drive for an hour from the airport without leaving the city limits, but something similar is true for other big cities with terrible traffic.

We spent a bare minimum of time (plus a few hours in traffic) in the city itself, and headed out to a town called Capao Bonito, on the forested hills to the west. Unbeknownst to us, Capao Bonito is the source for the red granite used in expensively-renovated kitchen countertops throughout the U.S.. In town, of course, it’s used for benches, staircases, cobblestones, and so on.

After an exciting day at Intervales state park (featuring venomous snakes – no I did not stop to take photos) and a quiet afternoon visiting new friends in the hills above town, we bid adieu to the burrowing owls for the last time and began the long trip to Africa.

Sao Paulo cathedral:

Capao Bonito, Ribeiro Grande, and Parque Estadual Intervales:

Glaciar Perito Moreno

We took the “alternative” tour bus, via a dirt road, with a stop at a ranch. This allowed for some wildlife sightings along the way, notably including condors, rheas, and a fox.

Protected: El Calafate and Glacier – Family

El Calafate

The name of the town has nothing to do with Islam – it’s the name of a Patagonian thornbush (a barberry), which was once used by Magellan’s fleet as a source of oakum for ship caulking (from the verb calafatear).

Travelers compare El Calafate to Iceland – it’s got a similar windswept aspect. Even the stray dogs spent much of their time hunkered behind whatever windbreak they can find. The outlying houses don’t blend with the landscape; they seem to have landed, as if from space.

Our first stop was a bird sanctuary on the lake shore.