Peninsula Valdès, the coastline is inhabited by marine mammals, like sea lions, elephant seals and fur seals

The Valdes Peninsula is a peninsula along the Atlantic coast in the Viedma Department in the north east of Chubut Province, Argentina. Its size is about 3,625 km². The nearest large town is Puerto Madryn.


The only town on the peninsula is the small settlement of Puerto Piramides. There are also a number of estancias, where sheep are raised.

Southern right whale cavorting.

Most of the peninsula is barren land with some salt lakes. The largest of these lakes is at an elevation of about 40 m below sea level, until recently thought to be the lowest elevation in Argentina and South America. (The lowest point being Laguna del Carbón, Argentina).

It is an important nature reserve which was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. The coastline is inhabited by marine mammals, like sea lions, elephant seals and fur seals. Southern right whales can be found in Golfo Nuevo and Golfo San José, protected bodies of water located between the peninsula and the Patagonian mainland.

These baleen whales come here between May and December, for mating and giving birth, because the water in the gulf is quieter and warmer than in the open sea. Orcas can be found off the coast, in the open sea off the peninsula. In this area, they are known to beach themselves on shore to capture sea lions and elephant seals.

The inner part of the peninsula is inhabited by rheas, guanacos and maras. A high diversity and range of birds live in the peninsula as well; at least 181 bird species, 66 of which migratory, live in the area, including the Antarctic Pigeon.

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Buenos Aires: La Boca and Calle Caminito

La Boca is one of Buenos Aires' most colorful districts. Italian immigrants were the first settlers of La Boca, and the working class neighborhood was Buenos Aires' first port.

Today the buildings in the barrio are painted in bright colors.

We wandered down the famous pedestrian street of La Caminito, which was named for a popular tango song.

Many local artists were selling their wares, while others danced the tango for the many visitors.

One word of caution -- all the guidebooks caution tourists to visit La Boca during daylight hours or to be sure and stay only in the La Caminito area.

The history of Caminito is basically as follows:

• The Caminito in its days as a railway lot, 1939.

• The Caminito in 1960, newly restored.

* During the 1800s, a small stream flowing into the Riachuelo River ran along the same route where the Caminito is now found.

* Later that century, this area of the stream became known as the Puntin, the Genoese diminutive term for bridge (a small bridge allowed people to cross the stream here).

* When the stream dried up, tracks for the Ferrocarril Buenos Aires y Puerto de la Ensenada were installed at the site, and disused tracks remains at the end of Caminito, along Garibaldi Street.

* In 1954 the rail line was closed and the area where Caminito now is became a landfill and the neighbourhood's worst eyesore.

* Over the following three years, Argentine artist Benito Quinquela Martín, an abandoned orphan who was adopted by a Genoese immigrant couple in La Boca, painstakingly prepared the walls facing the abandoned street, applying pastel colors and, by 1960, having a stage put up at the southern end; the wooden-plank stage was replaced with a nearby theatre house in 1972. The artist was a personal friend of Argentine tango composer Juan de Dios Filiberto, who created a well-known 1926 tune by the same name. Quinquela Martín, who always maintained feeling he owed his neighbourhood the labor of love, died in 1977.

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The National Park Monte León is a representative sample of the patagonic coast

The National Park Monte León is situated in the southeast side of Santa Cruz, over the National Route Nº 3, 210 kilometres far from the north side of Rio Gallegos.

The reason was that this area constitutes a representative sample of the patagonic coast in good state of conservation, with paleontological value places.

A 60.000 penguin's colony lives in PN Monte León (Monte León National Park). It is the fourth colony in the world. It is situated in the southeast side of Santa Cruz, over the National Route Nº 3, 210 kilometres far from the north side of Rio Gallegos. The approximately surface of the area is 61.700 hectares. The Administración de Parques Nacionales have incorporated this region as an equivalent area of the Argentino Sea, so that it is the first continental coast's national park.


These caves disseminated near Monte León give shelter to colonies of sea birds and mammals, which search for places like this one to mate and breed their offsprings.

There are Imperial and Rock Cormorants, Seagulls, Black Oyster Catchers and Biguaes among other species

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Lago Escondido is surrounded by forests and steep mountain ranges.

Lago Escondido is a village and lake in the Ushuaia department in Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina. As of 2001 it has a population of 71, growing from 46 in 1991.

The villages which thrives lives mainly on logging and tourism, is located 57 km north of Ushuaia. There is a major sawmill works and timber operation in the area.

Lago Escondido is surrounded by forests and steep mountain ranges. The lake on which the village lies (and shares the same name) tends to change color depending on the sunlight.

50km away from the city of Ushuaia, by crossing the Andes Mountains through Paso Garibaldi, we reach Hidden Lake. We begin our trip from the Petrel Inn's dock (where companions and fishermen can take shelter in case it rains) and we go in search of excellent pieces of Brook Trouts In the edges of streams and “castoreras”.

We will also have the chance to capture large-sized Brown and Rainbow Trouts.

For lunch we will have the typical Argentinean barbecue ("asado") accompanied with a “picada” (cold cuts and cheeses), wine, beer and of course, the taste of our region.

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Baritú National Park, the protected area belongs to the Yungas ecosystem

With its rough profile crossed by torrential streams in the southern hemisphere summer season, green and diverse vegetation and assorted fauna, the Parque Nacional Baritú National Park is a truly natural world with its deep smell of leaves and wet soil. An almost secluded place to the sunlight and man as well that reaches unknown magnitudes.

This is the Baritú Nacional Park, where the tropical forest goes all the way up to its highest peaks, and untouched nature rejoices itself in its unique specimens.

In order to preserve an area were the Cloud Forest has remained practically virgin, due to its inaccessibility and uneven terrain, the National Park was created in the year 1974, and its difficult terrain has been the main motive to prevent wood extraction from that area.

With an area of 72 thousand hectares, Baritú is located in the Northwest of the Province of Salta, in the Departments of Orán and Santa Victoria, on the border to Bolivia.

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Calilegua National Park, offers a an only environment of tropical rain forest with the largest biodiversity in Argentina

Calilegua National Park is located in the province of Jujuy. It comprises an area of 76.306 hectares, on the west slope of Calilegua Mountain range, with a very steep mountain relief. The economical activities of the first inhabitants of this area, the San Francisco aboriginal group, were hunting and collecting fruit.

During the spanish occupation, the main activities were minng and cattle raising.

Sugar industry started at the begining of this century, turning the transition jungles in the flatlands into crop field.
In 1979, the Ledesma sugar company donated land for the creation of Calilegua National Park.

The purpose of this Park is to protect a representative sample of the Mountain Jungle or Yunga, and to preserve an important river basin which supplies water to the agricultural areas and populations nearby.

The Park has a great difference in height due to is location on the mountain slope. This causes a great difference in rainfalls: around 800 mm. at the lowest areas, up to 1800 mm. in the high mountain jungles.

The winters are dry and mild, with an average temperature of 17º C. It often snows on the hilltops between june and september. The summers are hot, with maximum temperatures above 40º c. The rain season is fron November to April.

This jungle goes from the mountain base, at 450 m. above sea level, to the mountain tops, above 3600 m.high. This difference in height produces great variety in the types of vegetation, which grow in noticeably different communities, although the transition from one to the other is gradual.
Calilegua offers a an only environment of tropical rain forest with the largest biodiversity in Argentina.

DISTANCES TO:

Libertador
10 Km.

Calilegua
15 Km.

San Francisco
20 Km.

Valle Grande
70 Km.

San S. de Jujuy
130 Km.

Orán
150 Km.

Salta
170 Km.

Buenos Aires
1650 km.

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Nahuel Huapi National Park is the oldest Argentine national park, in Patagonia in the foothills of the Andes mountains

Nahuel Huapi National Park is the oldest Argentine national park, in Patagonia in the foothills of the Andes mountains. It was established in 1934, but the nucleus of the park is the land donated to the federal government by Perito Moreno in 1903.

The park covers approximately 7050 km² and is located in the southwest of the Neuquén and northwest of the Río Negro provinces bordering with Chile. The largest city within the park and a base for tourism is the city of San Carlos de Bariloche. Villa La Angostura is another lakeside resort also within the boundaries of the park.

The park is famous for its rich wildlife and it covers many biotopes, due to altitudes ranging from 700 to 3,000 m and precipitation ranging from rain forests with 4,000 mm/yr on the western slopes to steppes with less than 300 mm/yr on the eastern side. The alerce or Patagonian cypress is a slow-growing conifer seen in the park. Other flora seen in the park include arrayanes, coihues, ferns, the caña colihue reeds, lengas, ñires, amancayes and arvejillas. The llao llao fungus is seen as beautiful irregular growths on the trees and is a symbol of the area and the name of the Hotel Llao Llao, a famous resort. Animals include river otters, huemuls, pudus, guanacos, maras, parakeets and condors.

There are many lakes in the park, including Lago Nahuel Huapi, Lago Mascardi, Lago Gutiérrez, Lago Traful, Lago Moreno, and Lago Guillelmo. The area is known as the Argentine Lake District.

Lake Nahuel Huapi contains several islands, including Isla Huemul, which hosted the Huemul Project, the Argentinian secret research project on nuclear fusion in 1949-1952.

The Quetrihué peninsula in the north of the lake has been set aside as a separate national park, Los Arrayanes National Park. Cerro Catedral is a 2,388m high peak within the Park and an important ski resort.

Cerro Tronador, on the Chilean border, is the highest mountain in the park at 3,491m. Bordering the National Park to the north is the Lanín National Park.

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