What did we do in Piriapolis???

I have to back up a bit here....we are now in Punta del Diablo, however need to do some work on our wonderful week in Piriapolis.

Below: Our cute little cabin

Below: Walked to the marina several times....wonder why......and saw new boats and fisher boats with their catch of the day

...and yes, the old truck was parked at the marina

Received a call from Margarita and Michael and took them to lunch down by the water. Then Bob and I took the chairlift to see what Piriapolis looks like from the top!

Continue to ponder why anyone would name a hotel "Colon" (remember the pic from Buenos Aires??)

Evidently a bit too much time on our hands.

Piriapolis was turned into a tourist town in the 1930's by an Argentinian developer with the last name of Piria. One of his brilliant ideas was to build a 350 room hotel called The Argentino. It's quite something! Bob's lense isn't wide enough to show you the entire building.

The same dude built this little shack for himself on the edge of town. I suppose it's what super-ego's did in those days....but really, is it any different today???

(Photo's tomorrow....hopefully!)

Enjoyed Carnaval!!! Every evening, something different....hippy drummers, dancers, rides for kids, gymnasts, .........people truly enjoy the outdoors here and events go on into the early hours of the mornings. Dinner is usually after 10 pm; parilla's (bbq's) are the order of the day and all done on wood fires so the entire city smells like our campgrounds in the evening. Beautiful!

The kids were great on the mechanical bull and it was rewarding to see that the only child who stayed on through the entire ride was a girl!!! Power to the chicas!!!

We had read about a recovery centre for injured animals and Margarita and Michael told us about finding an oil covered penguin on the beach a couple of years ago. They took the bird to this place where the owner cleaned it up and helped it make a full recovery.

It's just a tiny place and is funded by adoptions and donations. There weren't any animals to adopt and he didn't have many that day, however we learned a lot about what is happening in the oceans. He said that in the year 2000 he had 100 oil covered penguins to work on and the numbers have been increasing dramatically until last year when he had 480. Man of course is the biggest threat to all wildlife and he told us that large freighters and other ships are dumping their bilge into the seas, causing disastrous consequences to marine and bird life. He had two turtles that had ingested plastic bags and two juvenile seagulls with droopy wings, due to toxins they encountered on the shore. Two orphaned sea lions are to be released back into the wild in April and several small birds; one that flies 40,000 kms on it's migratory path, were just simply exhausted and fell to the ground. They too will survive to fly another day.

The little marsupial you see below, was one of 5 that were babies in their momma's pouch when hit by a car. She died and all of the babies survived. (photo's to follow)))))))))))))))

Ok! Now, after an hour of photo's easily uploading to the blog....I'm stalled and can't get any more... Will try again tomorrow so that you have the full story....THEN we'll move on to Punta del Diablo!

Cheers!!!