Thursday, December 14, 2006

Los Lobos y Los Autos

I am currently in Mar Del Plata, Argentina attending a physics conference (if you are just joining our story in progress, see previous blog posts). Among the various attractions here are the sea lions which live in an area near the docks. There is a special sea lion wildlife preserve there. Or something. Here are some pictures of the sea lions:

This one was roaring.


After seeing them in the wild I understand why they're called "lions."
The thing is, that when I said "near the docks" I actually meant "in the middle of the docks." Although the previous pictures made the lobos look all natural, they were on a teeny bit of rocks surrounded by concrete, rusting metal, and other natural niceties. Here is the second half of the colony of sea lions, sitting on a rusting half-sunk ship:

And here are some sea lions inside a large industrial area in the docks. This was a few meters away from the other sea lion area. (Yes, the ones in the picture are alive.)

Here are a few assorted pictures of functioning cars that people drive around here.

Check out the high-tech parking brake:


  1. Wow! Broken image graphics in their native habitat. I shouldd go to Argentina to observe them some time.

  2. I could have sworn that X was a dead seal. Can't believe its alive. And those cars! I don't believe they could get a square with a red x to actually take you places, argentena is really amazing.
    PS: please fix the photos

  3. I can't believe functioning car #3

  4. I actually saw a car in worse shape than car #3 driving around, but wasn't quick enough with the camera. It looked like car #3, except the front right of the car's exterior was missing. So you saw the suspension, steering thingy, part of the engine etc.
    After seeing the cars that people drive around there, we figured that they have no emissions requirements in Argentina.