Lew n Merle

Our visit to South America started at Herman and Rosi's in Buenos Aires.

Donald was there to see us :-)

It was the 1st time for us to meet Duane Hopkins.

We flew over to Bariloche to see June:-) It's in the Argentinian Patagonia Lake region She took us to San Martin de Los Andes to meet up with her companion Ramona. She's just a little taller than her :-)

We stayed with a lovely young couple who live there, Jorge and Sol

Out for a visit

The drive between Bariloche and San Martin is very picturesque. It's called The Seven Lakes Highway.

The rock formations were quite spectacular

We had a delicious lunch on our way through. Lew and June had Trout and I had a local sweetcorn baked pie.

We went up a gondola for a look at the sights of the lakes. It's a really beautiful area.

We could see this beautiful hotel Llao Llao. We went there for a visit:-)

We had the most delightful lunch there:-)

Then back at our hotel we enjoyed another beautiful meal:-)

Shopping at Barioloche just before Easter:-) I couldn't resist getting some Argentinian souvenirs. These 2 little dolls to have at our place for our Grandies:-)

Bariloche has got a feel of Switzerland with all the wooden chalet like places and heaps of chocolate shops:-)

Lew relaxing after a swim at the hotel:-) Not a bad spot

We had a night back in Buenos Aires with Herman, Rosi and Flossi. They took us out for a visit to Herman's parents place for the evening. It's in a gated community on a man made waterway. It's a very tranquil spot. Lew did a spot of fishing and Herman's mum took me for a ride on their paddle boat:-)

Herman's parents.

On to La Paz to see Rachel, Betty, Melinda and |Karen

I got a little bit of Altitude sickness. Nothing that a strong black sweet coffee from Rachel couldn't fix:-) We went out for a wander around the city. We had a walk past the famous Prison that we'd read about. (that's in the background behind Rachel) I was a little amused watching Rachel get a freshly squeezed orange juice from one of the local stands:-) No rubber gloves or sterilizing:-)

The amazing city of La Paz. They've just put in a gondola which was very impressive way to see the city

Some of the locals in traditional dress.

At the Bach in La Paz. You need to have your wits about you stepping out the door! Hi Melinda from the window above:-)

Our aeroplane ride north. It was raining at our expected destination so we went to a neighbouring town Guayaramerin. A large airport on the dirt as you can see:-)

Our 1st experience with motorbikes as transport:-) The bottom right photo is the stretch of road where Sarah was Killed

Rachel took us on an adventure:-)

To a hotel up the river without any booking:-) Not to worry, we were the only ones there for the night:-)

A pretty amazing spot:-) It had been closed in the last floods as a lot of it was under water! Hence it was pretty rustic:-) Up the river there were places still underwater!

We had a few nights at Riberalta with some of the friends there.

We went to visit Sarah Baseman's grave.

The little piece of paper on the babies forehead was to stop the hiccups:-)

I tried to capture how many people you can get on a motor bike while we had a drink at Rachel's favourite coffee shop in Riberalta. It was beside the town plaza. It's where they do their socializing. It was fascinating to see how many times they drove around and around just chilling and chatting to their mates:-)

Getting to the airport by motor bike was interesting! Thankfully we only had carry-on bags for luggage! A little 6 seater plane to take us to Cobija. Rachel and I sat in the back doing a few squeals as we flew through and around the clouds knowing that we didn't have instruments to see!

Rachel and Betty's batch. Rachel cooked us a couple of the most delicious meals. We bought a lovely big beef fillet from the market which she cooked to perfection.

I was fascinated with these interesting looking statues.

Sunday

The river is the border between the 2 countries Bolivia and Brazil. This is one of the bridges that we crossed over to go between. The next one is out visiting and then another lovely meal at the batch:-) The building is the renovations to the Cobija airport.

We went for a walk over to Brazil.

There had been a bad flood go through not long before we were there. The blue house you can see the water mark on! The shop fronts were left standing and the rest of the shop was swept away with the river!

Rachel having fun saying Goodbye:-)

We had a pleasant day in Santiago, Fran, Lisa and Marion showed us some of the sights of the city:-)

A wonderful time away:-)

Our new family photo above our bed.

The Mandevilla has been stunning for months this year.

I made a cot quilt for Willow.

Darby and Joan went boating to Waiheke on a beautiful Saturday.

We hired scooters with Kaylene and Graham on Waiheke for the day.

We enjoyed walking around the sculpture trail with it's beautiful position overlooking the Auckland Harbour.

Dean came out for the night with us on the boat. We did a spot of fishing, thankfully Lew caught a couple of winners as Dean and I only seemed to catch the tiddlers! :-)