The wonderful hostel La Bolsa in Bariloche have very kindly sent me a photo of Morocha, the poodle I got obsessed by a couple of posts ago, with her litter of puppies/kittens.  I think she looks a little fraught.

The gorgeous grey Morocha, a poodle at the hostel La Bolsa in Bariloche.  She was once a street dog and had puppies after the owners took her in.  They had some kittens at the time whose mother wasn’t interested (I forget why) so they gave them to Morocha and she nursed them too.  She had the loveliest temperament.. all I want now is a poodle.

After Bariloche, we went to Neuquen, a lively and prosperous town which isn’t focused on tourism – v refreshing.  We were there to see some of the dinosaurs found nearby, including a reconstruction of the largest dinosaur ever found, the Argentinosaurus.  To the right you can see a T-Rex, to give you some idea..

Absolutely extraordinary.  And it was a veggie.  In Neuquen itself we went to the Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes (lovely turn of phrase, like fruits de mer) – below is a copy of a Pueyrredón, a celebrated 19C Argentinian artist.  To the right is the crazy lady who staffed the cloak room.  She was tiny, sported an enormous red curly wig, huge white 70s specs with accessories all over the place and sort of weirdest of all, was really unfriendly.  When we went back to the MNBA two days later, Rich remarked that the woman running the cloak room was ‘very David Lynch’.  I checked and indeed it was the same one, this time with long black hair, skulking in the corner frantically making a friendship bracelet.

This is from a dream I had a while ago about an Anubis-like blue dog with orange eyes.  I always meant to get him down on paper.

And finally, a grasshopper that somehow found its way to the centre of Buenos Aires and our windowsill today.