Cordoba, Argentina

 Is the second largest city in Argentina founded in 1573 and named after Cordoba in Spain. Above is the monument of San Martin, Argentina’s liberator from the Spanish Empire. It is home to the sixth oldest university in the New World founded by the Jesuit Order in 1613 who ran it until 1767 when it was kicked out of Spain and Portugal and its colonies.  At that time, it was taken over by the Franciscans; the same happened in the California missions. Below is the façade of the University’s original building and next is the statue of the founder of the University and next a door with the logo of the Jesuit Order over it.

 There is Natural History Museum since the Sciences Department is located here. And yes, there is a dinosaur; Argentina is rich in this extinct fauna. There is also a giant spider alleged the biggest so far discovered, with a legspan estimated 20 inches; I highlighted the body of the spider. The faculty has a sense of humor; one wall has a mosaic of Mendeleev and his Table of the Elements, as well as one of Einstein. But they could not leave out Darwin; during his voyage of the Beagle he spent considerable time exploring Patagonia.

 The Jesuit Bloc is the center of the original colonial city built by the Jesuits  and is where the University is located as well as the other religious institutions. Below is the Basilica de Santo Domingo, the main Jesuit Church.  At the end of the stairs is an offertory where those that received miracles would post notices of their cures or favors.  This is common in Catholic churches particularly in Spain and throughout Latin America. The silver and gold Reliquary is usually located in the main altar; this was placed in a secure place so it may have a great value.

 The priest in the poster is Jose Gabriel Brochero (1849-1914), also known as the “Gaucho Priest.”

While I was there in September it was expected that he would be recognized as a saint; it happened the next month when the current Argentine Pope Francis canonized him. 

 

In the Convent of San Jose de Carmelitas Descalzas founded in 1628 the locutorio (below) is a room where the nuns were visited by their families who occupied the section where the chairs are.  In the interior room seen across the double grilled window, the nun accompanied by a chaperone communicated with the family.  The grilled window represents the separation between the world and the life dedicated to prayer and strict discipline. When the Carmelite nuns attended mass in the church, there was a similar arrangement to keep them separate from the lay world. The painting below is that of the founder of the order, Saint Teresa de Jesus. It represents a story of her childhood when with her brother, she escaped from her home to fight the Moors in Spain in search of martyrdom.  But they were discovered by an uncle who returned them to their home.  

The Cathedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is the oldest church in continuous use in Argentina. Entering it to the right is the tomb of General Jose Maria Paz with a long military history starting during the war of Independence with Spain where he fought with San Martin in Peru, then participated in wars against Brazil, the Argentine Civil War where he attained several victories, and others. He was imprisoned, exiled and eventually restored during his life and died in Buenos Aires.  The statue in front of his Sarcophagus is that of his wife, Margarita Weild, who is buried there too.  The chess players are in a park behind the cathedral.

 The Jesuit Bloc is a busy place with lots of restaurants and shopping areas. As in other Argentine cities, it appears that there was an era between the end of the XIX^th and beginning of the XX^th Centuries from the architectural styles as seen in the image below. The building with the columns used to be a bank and now is an art center.

 And there are lots of people making a living acting as clowns and playing music and a multitude of peddlers selling whatever is imaginable. And as always, citizens warning me to be careful with my cameras and wallets.

 The building with the green door and giant fingerprints is a memorial to the victims of the military dictatorship during 1976-1983. The lines in the fingerprints are formed with the names of those who disappeared during that period.  And finally, the largest mural I have seen in my travels; it is a façade facing a parking lot depicting the history of the countryside in Argentina.  The bird to the left is that of a South American Cardinal and to the right is the giant mud nest of a hornero (ovenbird). The first panoramic image was taken with an iPhone since the 12 mm lens I had was not wide enough to capture the whole mural.  The other images are to give more details and idea of big of the mural is.

                                          Cardinal                                          Ovenbird nest

                                          Ovenbird nest

Iguazu Falls (10/08/2016)

I have visited all the major waterfalls in the world and considered Victoria, where I visited in 2004, the most impressive.  This is my second visit to Iguazu Falls on the Argentina/Brazil border - first in 2009 and just returned this past September. Now, Iguazu Falls is the greatest because this time when I visited, the volume of water due to the rains was overwhelming although the roar of the falling waters was not as loud as those in Victoria Falls. Below is an HDR image of the falls from the Brazilian side as are those below.  Some of the images in the blog were taken with an iPhone; you may be able to notice the difference.

 So you can have an idea as to how big the area is, below is a guide of the falls. The actual falls are mostly on the Argentine side but there is a better view from the Brazilian side.  It is easy to cross the border without problems. You will need to spend a day on each side. Since this is an Argentine map, the trail for the Brazilian side was not marked so I added a black line for it.  The Brazilian trail is easier to follow.  There are small trains on the Argentine side since the distances are long, so be prepared to walk steep, slippery and narrow elevated trails.  The photos below are from the Brazilian side.

 The following images are from the Argentine side of the border, where most of the falls are located. The second image is that of the Throat of the Devil and next are of the White-collared swifts that usually nest behind the waterfalls; it is one of the largest swifts.  Their photo is not the best because the curtain of water interfering with autofocus.

 The raccoon is to the USA what the coatimundi is to the southern neighboring countries.  Also known as a coati, it is mischievous, cute, and at times, aggressive. In Iguazu Falls they are not afraid of humans and will come to steal your food without hesitation and usually get their way.  If confronted they will attack and cause injuries as the warning sign below documents. There are also signs warning against poisonous snakes that I found funny.  And next, the flower of the passion fruit that grows wild in the forest. All these are iPhone images.

I will leave this blog with a couple of videos of the falls so you get an idea of the volume of water going through these falls.  

Ibera, Argentina

I missed my goal to publish a monthly blog, but travels have taken me away.  I will skip some locations visited in the meantime and leave incomplete my France blog and go on to my most recent adventure.  Ibera is the second largest wetland of the world in the Province of Corrientes, Argentina. I have known about this place for several years but I was not able to find a contact to get there since it is not easily accessible; it took me long hours of driving for about two days to get there Buenos Aires.  After two days of great weather the rains came, so I moved on north to the Iguazu Falls. 

 Ibera in some ways resembles the Everglades because of the vegetation and canals where wildlife is abundant. It is the home of the capibaras or carpinchos (above) as they are known in Argentina.  These are widespread in South American and I have seen them before in Venezuela and Brazil.  They are the largest rodents in the world but those in Ibera seemed larger in size and darker in color. They are aquatic but also forage on land for grasses.  In my opinion, they occupy a niche similar to those of the hippopotamus in Africa because of their behavior. The other mammal I saw was the marsh deer (below) but there also otters.

 There more than 300 species of birds in the area but I did not see all of them.  All those I saw, except for the common gallinule, were new to me, so I will bore you with birds. The Southern Lapwings (Teros) are a common species and common throughout Argentina.  It is a beautiful and noisy bird and has vestigial claws (notice the pink spines sticking out in the dark chest of the male bird below) in the wing shoulder that is a remnant from ancient birds that were used to climb.  But these claws are also present in the Southern Screamer (Chala) clearly visible in the extended wing as well as in the Wattled Jacana (Jacana) where they are seen as yellow spines in the wing elbows. Vestigial claws are present in a few other birds but I never noticed them in so many birds as are here in South America.  There is also an image of ascreamer with chicks; this is the beginning of spring south of the Equator so it is the beginning of the nesting season.

 Another bird that was surprising was the Scarlet-headed Blackbird (Federal), it is a marsh bird and we have a close cousin here in the USA but with a yellow head (photographed in Camas, Utah).

Other closely related birds that when I first saw them, promptly confused them with those in the USA, such as the White-necked heron (Garza mora) with our Great Blue Heron, the Chalked-browed  mockingbird (Calandria grande) with our Northern Mockingbird, both share the same Genus.

There is no way that I can include all the birds I photographed in this blog so as to avoid boring you, I will make a few entries. The blue period:  First a pair of Magpie Tanagers (Frutero uvero) exhibiting pairing behavior where the male is courting by feeding the female (I did not witness the final outcome.) Then, the Plush –crested Jay (Urraca comun), a very aggressive bird and similar in behavior to our Blue Jays followed by a  Screaming Cowbird (Tordo pico corto) followed by a Sacaya Tanager (Celestino comun).  And then my favorite, the Swallow-Tailed Hummingbird 
( Picador tijera); not only colorful but big.

A rainbow of colors period.: The Blue and Yellow Tanager (Naranjero), Green-headed Tanager (Saira arcoiris), female Blue Dacnis (Sai Azul) and a lucky shot; 3 species in one frame.

But wait, I almost left out the rainbow of colors, a pair of Yellow-fronted woodpeckers (Carpintero Arcoiris); the male is the one with the full red head and the yellow spot in the forehead.