SONY DIED

Well, the Sony camera is not totally dead, but it is off to the repair shop to see why its screen went blank. Without our camera, we were not able to get any pictures of Mar del Plata, the oceanside city where Rhonda and I spent a very relaxing three day weekend. If you link to http://www.hotellasrocas.com.ar/ you will see where we were and a bit of local scenery. There is a long walkway along the ocean, going past very rocky shores that transition to large beaches. The surf was about 4-5 feet, and there were a fair amount of surfers - no bathers however since the water is still pretty chilly. Mar del Plata is a beach town more like Atlantic City than Malibu, and thus the next time we head to the Atlantic, we will probably search out a small community. Also on the long weekend, the students headed out of town and most of them traveled to Cordoba for Fiesta de las Cervezas, better known to us German-types as Oktoberfest. Their bus rolled back to the Casa at about 5:30 am, and my biology students hastily prepared for their quiz at 9:00!

Since our camera is on the blink, I have added a few more whale pictures from our trip to the Valdes Peninsula. You can see how close to the whales we were at times, and also you can get a glimpse of one whale's tongue and baleen - a sight we were told that is fairly uncommon. And to give proper credit, these four photos were taken by our good friend and colleague Lee Kats who was able to join us for a portion of the educational field trip.