PERITO MORENO GLACIER

Another beautiful bush!  

This is outside of the glacial park….. much of Patagonia in this region has a terrain like this…...

After our day of  meetings in El Calafate, we had an extra day before Hermano Tossen could meet up with us.  Presidente Guibe told us that we must see the Perito Moreno Glacier, so we made arrangements to do so!  We had the hotel make up a sack lunch for us so that we could picnic in the cold and watch the glacier! A small tour van picked us up at our hotel and we drove about an hour outside of El Calafate to the glacier. This glacier is the third largest in the world and is truly a magnificent sight.

This glacier is almost 300 km. deep and about 90 km wide!

The very beautiful "fire bush" had just begun to bloom and they were gorgeous!  There is a sweet Hummingbird that is attracted to the "honey" in the blooms and the hummingbird also has a red head!  Our guide told us that the honey was very sweet and delicious.

The blue tinge of the ice was absolutely breath-taking….

All of the people in the Patagonia Region, in particular, are very proud of their country and it's beauty.  They are always very anxious to show us and tell us about beautiful and amazing  Patagonian sights.  We have learned a great deal about the region not only by seeing sights first hand buy by further discussing what we saw with our new Argentine friends!

A close-up of the "Fire Bush"

EL CALAFATE!

Many months ago, Hermano Tossen, our assistant auditor in southern Argentina, invited us to come to Ushuaia this November.  We were very excited to venture into this part of the country!  Hermano Tossen covers districts and branches south of Comodoro Rivadavia.  These include the cities of, El Calafate, Rio Gallegos, Rio Grande, Ushuaia, and Puerto Williams, Chile.  This section of the church is      
all districts and small branches and many members are very spread out.  We started our journey on November 6, and we flew to El Calafate, Argentina.

Our purpose here was to meet with Presidente Guibe the branch president and his counselor, Hermano Guiterrez.  Presidente  Guibe met us at the airport with books in hand to tell us what to see in this very beautiful part of the world!  He was so adorable!  He is the dear man with the mustache! He served in the area presidency many years ago with President Robert Wells, (who was Michael's mission president) and President Guibe was baptized by Richard G. Scott.   Hermano Guiterrez is a local policeman.  He was also the first convert to the church in the Calafate branch in 2006, when the branch first began………..

The beautiful glacial lake is turqoise blue and soooo beautiful!  The lake is called, Lago Argentino.  It is the largest lake in Argentina.  

We walked around Calafate before our meeting and enjoyed a few of the sights of this very popular small town in the heart of Patagonia.

This is the plane we flew in on.  Areolineas Argentina has a new airplane fleet and the planes are great!

This sweet sign was in front of a restaurant.

The Calafate city park!

A sweet little house we walked by…...

The lilacs were in bloom!  I was in heaven!!  There were huge bushes of these lilacs throughout the park.

Our trip to Calafate was amazing and memorable to say the least.  We will never forget Presidente Guibe and his wonderful kindness.  Our second day in Calafate was an extra day that we had……. on that day we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier, which was amazing…….

CHELSEA ARRIVED!

We ate at this wonderful restaurant in a little courtyard.  Chelsea picked a fresh orange blossom for her hair!

Our wonderful day in San Antonio de Areco!

Our daughter, Chelsea arrived a few weeks ago and we are enjoying her very much, to say the least!  It has been truly wonderful to have her here...... she loves all of the amazing sights of Buenos Aires, but she mostly loves the neighborhoods and she and I have done some great exploring!  On Saturdays, the three of us have walked, and walked, and walked seeing markets and the beginnings of spring around the city.  Some of our Saturdays have been spent walking through, the Botanical Gardens, a great farmer's market, (near China town), San Antonio de Areco, and a great day visiting parks and a yummy vegetarian meal at our favorite restaurant in Polermo for Michael's birthay!

Here are just a few photos of our visit.  We leave for Salt Lake City tomorrow and will be there for five days..at our annual audit conference.  Rebekah will drive down and meet us there which we are looking forward to!  Our visit will be very short but it will be great!

After we return back to Buenos Aires we will be busy traveling and training new auditors, and heading down to Ushuaia in November, where we will travel with our assistant Auditor, Hermano Tossen for about five days.   We will hold our annual Assistant Auditor conference the first part of December, so we are busy putting that together.  We have a lot of work plans for January and will be very busy right up until we leave to return home.

Our wonderful friend, Axel and his beautiful wife had Chelsea and Michael and I over for dinner one Saturday evening!  Homemade pizza on the grill!  It was truly delicious!  Abril, their adorable daughter, had fallen asleep by the time we took the picture!.  We work with Axel and have traveled with him as well.  

After our trip to the "Mendoza" store where we buy olive oil, olives and tomatoes!  Chelsea insisted on carrying everything!

Chelslea and I at the Recoleta Cemetary

Our day in San Antonio de Areco!

CATAMARCA, LA RIOJA AND CORDOBA

We finished up our northern Argentina tour with visits to about four stakes and districts.  We had some great meetings and met some great leaders and members.  In total we drove about 2,000 miles and saw lots of goat herds along the side of the road and acres and acres of sugar cane fields.  We brought home some problems to solve and had some great engaging discussions with leaders who needed someone to listen and help them with some of the new changes in the audit program.  We were able  help some and will continue to work on some of the issues from our office here in Buenos Aires.  It is always a meaningful experience to meet with the leaders and members, feel of their spirit and embrace the moment!

Here are a few of our photos from the last part of our trip.  (We arrived home this last Monday evening, and Chelsea arrived today, Thursday!  We are so thrilled to see her and enjoy her for a few weeks.  It feels somewhat strange to have her here but very comfortable and comforting!)

The doors on this same building as below.

I captured this sweet little spring scene in downtown Cordoba while we were lost trying to find a chapel!  This is one side of a huge Catholic church.

La Sierras Stake, Cordoba.  Our Assistant Auditor, Hermano Herrador on the far left.

Sugar cane fileds

More sugar cane fiels!

La Rioja stake in La Rioja , La Rioja Province  (This stake has leaders in both Catamarca and La Rioja)

La Rioja- one of our favorite small towns.  This is the central plaza in the city!  It is early spring here and the Jacaranda trees are blooming in the north part of the country!

Jacaranda tree - La Rioja

La Rioja - There are many wonderful pink buildings in Argentina!

This very large goat by the side of the road!

La Rioja Stake - - Catamarca, Catamarca province

We will be home in BA now for a few weeks.  We head to Salt Lake City the middle of October for our annual audit conference organized by the church audit department.  All of the Area Auditors from around the world will be there... about twenty couples.

After returning from Salt Lake City, we will be home a few more weeks then will head out on a trip to see our Assistant Auditor in the southern most part of Argentina, in Ushuaia , Tierra del Fuego.  It will be an exciting trip as we will travel with Hermano Tossen for about four days.  After we return from there we will return to BA to prepare for our Annual Conference with our assistant auditors during the first part of December.  We have a few odd trips to make inbetween all of this..... Stay tuned!

PURMAMARCA AND THE HILL OF SEVEN COLORS

After our one night stay in Sanitago del Estero, we drove north to the provice of Jujuy and the capital city of that province:  San Salvador de Jujuy.  We had a few hours on Tuesday morning to take about a 40 minute drive north into the beautiful red and green mountains of this northern region of Jujuy.  This province borders Chile and Bolivia.  We were about 200 miles from the Bolivian border.

Our wedding anniversary happened to fall on this trip.... but on the day, Septemer 8, we didn't have time to celebrate.... so we took part of Tuesday and did that!  (We celebrate 43 wonderful years)

I had done some reading about Jujuy Province before we left and confirmed some of my findings with our dear friend, Axel.  One of the most fascinating sights to see was Purmamarca a lovely little Argentine village nestled in the mountains  at the foot of the very famous "Hill of Seven Colors".  We enjoyed a few hours here wandering around and eating the regional empanadas which are the best in the country and are far better than what we can find in Buenos Aires!  Jujuy is famous for their empanadas as is the nearby province of Tucuman.

Enjoy these few photos of the South American charm we drank in!

Many wonderful Alpaca blankets!

Hill of seven colors!