Clear air and mountains

Our last day in Buenos Aires featured a speedy trip to La Boca, the old immigrant dockside area famed for its multi-coloured houses. The story has it that the dock workers lived here in BA's early years and would beg borrow or liberate bits of leftover paint which they then used to decorate the outside of their houses. El Caminito is the central point, which has become a tourist feeding frenzy; painted statues, photographers with tango cutouts for you to pose in front of, and tango dancers by the dozen - not one of which we saw. In fact, our stay in BA was notable for managing to avoid seeing a single tango pair; last time I was here you couldn't move for them, but try as we might this time there was nary a one. The Brother became very excited when he glimpsed a dock across the road from Caminito and dragged me across the road to go and peer into its oily depths. The water was grey, littered with flotsam and the odd dead dog, but the highlight was the exciting boat hard against the wharf, which had (ah, the bliss!) a crane with a caged grab which was dredging up the mess. The delight on the Brother's face! He glimpsed some fascinating winding gear in the distance, and had to be led to a place of calm and safety before he was overcome. And so to the airport for the flight to El Calafate - delayed by an hour - where we arrived at 8.30 to a glorious evening, fully light, a temperature of 20 degrees, a stiffish breeze and vast skies with the Andes on the horizon. El Calafate is a small town, dependent almost entirely on tourism to nearby Glaciar Perito Moreno and the Glaciars National Park,and it appears to be expanding rapidly from its pleasant tree-lined main drag. Our hotel is up a dirt track and has stunning views of Lake Argentino and the mountains. It stayed light until well past 11, and the temperature was comfortable all night. Our rooms have jacuzzis which will probably feature in our evening after a day spent at the Moreno glacier. Once I work out how to attach photos to these pages, there will be some to give you a sense of what we're seeing.