So I've finally left Buenos Aires, on a high of steak and car fumes, fairly sure that I'll return one day although probably not for this trip. And so I took a bus across to Puerto Madryn, tha anticipation I felt on the bus, simply being on the move again reminded me why I love travelling so much. For those of you who aren't aware I've wanted to go to Patagonia for many years and it hasn't let me down so far. Even the arrid plains which many people find dreary are wonderful to me, possibly because of the huge expanse of sky visible above or the excitement of anything that breaks up the landscape (such as flamingos, roadrunners or estancias). I was heading directlt to Puerto Madryn for one thing: whales. When I arrived I immediately booked 2 excursions via the hostel (possibly a mistake with hindsight), one to see a penguin colony and welsh colony, teh other to go whale watching and see sea lions the next day.
The first tour was great, the penguins live in an unexpectedly surreal landscape (for penguins anyway), in an arrid area where the only vegetation is small scrub like bushes. the penguins nest in holes under these bushes (if they can afford it, the poorer penguins have to settle for holes without any protection, and close to the road). Add to this the small llamas the exact name of teh species I forget and the general lunar feel of the area due to the thousands of holes and you have a fairly odd setting. We also went on a boat in attractive giant ponchos to see dolphins that looked like mini killer whales (all photos on facebook as we speak), great although obviously the main attraction is of course the whales themselves I was due to see the next day. We moved on to Gaiman for a 'traditional welsh tea', which I'd bever experienced in Wales before in my life. The experience for a welsh person was very odd, although the sheer number of cakes made up for this. It ws just a tad unfortunate that the only cake we weren't served was an actual welsh cake, which are very lovely and very common throughout wales. Ah well.
The next day arrived and I was very excited, as excited as I get about cake or fireworks for example (a huge amount in other words). Our first bad luck occurred when our tour guide called in sick and the only replacement couldn't speak any english, despite having booked an english tour, Nevermind we thought, the whales will be worth it. The weather looked a little windy but we headed out on our bus and drove for hours...and hours. Then we saw some sea lions, they were great but possibly the laziest creatures I've seen for a long time. They made so little movement we got excited if one even lifted a flipper for a secondor opened its mouth, which happened twice. Then we drove again for many hours and got to the departure point for whale watching. Of course the place was deserted the sea was further than inland than usual and the companies had been closed all day. Yes, we were experiencing not only bad weather but freak weather. Marvellous. Feeling dejected and like we'd been sitting in a mini bus all day we headed back to Puerto Madryn. A few of us thought we'd hire a car only none of us could drive, then a car with a driver but there were none left. Defeated and miserable we headed to the hostel. After a small moan I got chatting to an Australian couple, an Irish guy and a Dutch guy who. The couple had a car they'd rented and were happy to give us a lift to the whale watching area but they weren't heading back so we decided to try hitching back.
The next morning, we set out and after practicing our whale talk for a while (the journey flew by of course) we arrived at the port. the sea was back in its usual place and there was hardly any wind at all. 5 of us got tickets for what seemed to us to be the best boat and set off. Within 15 minutes a mother and baby whale were next to the boat. They were so close and so tranquil it was an incredible exerience and strangely calming, despite their size they seem so relaxed themselves. their intelligence and bond seemed clear even to us idiot humans in the boat with our cameras, which the whales seemed curious by, if probably above all the fuss. We saw another pair (mother and baby again) even bigger than the last and also what I can only describe as a proud sea lion sitting on a rock. The only problem now is that I want to see more. Oh and I want tricks and jumping. The final challenge of the day was to hitch back before our buses were due to leave later that evening. Within 40 minutes we hit the jackpot. Teh dutch guy found a lift with some Belgian girls and me and the Irish guy found a man who met a man happy to give us a lift back ot the town. He flagged down a bus, we assumed he'd misunderstood and had found a local bus (against the odds as there was only 1 a day) but no, this was his bus. He owned a tour company and as we boarded the bus to meet many ageing Argentinian tourists were introduced as an 'Irish man and a Welsh girl', to the apparent joy of the bus who clapped us until we sat down. Now officially a tourist attraction, I settled down for the journey back. We were once again applauded as we left the bus and I have to say I enjoyed the experience. What a friendly group.
So those were the adventures in Puerto Madryn. I've now moved onto the lakes district but more of that in another blog.
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8 comments:
Anthropomorphic?
Surely not... :) Perhaps Esther can confirm... x
See how I have cunningly changed my name. Am now in Pearson's league.
Am feeling very touched by the fact that you wrote this message on my birthday, while also remembering to send me a birthday greeting, despite facebook inaccurately stating when I was born (the key to avoiding this is by keeping your password secret -I have only just rectified my 'looking for' status, political views and gender preference. My date of birth must have escaped me).
Sounds like you are having an amazing time. I want to see lazy sea lions. It sounds like they are less active when not being filmed for TV. I excpect if you had worn a BBC T - shirt and pretended to speak like David Attenborough they would have performed some natural hunting mating grooming type acts for you. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
hello sara
good to see you're having a good time. i never thought of you as much of a hiker, to be honest. (no offence). a small welsh person presumably has small welsh legs which don't particularly like big argentine mountains. i am a relatively large welsh person, but am possibly worse at hiking.
how's the steak - you haven't dwelled on it in the minute detail i would like. sorry, i'm at work, bored and starving.
anyhoo, hope you continue to enjoy everything the world has to offer.
sam
hello
glad you're having fun.
as a relatively large welsh person with a hill intolerance, i can't imagive how a small welsh person could cope with the climbing. whatever you do, never consider scaling three peaks, and covering 25km, in wellies. they might look cool, but they leave you incapacitated for weeks.
sam
Hi Bath, your new pseudonym had my head in a real spin - how do you come up with them??
See after many years of us only seeming to get together on your birthday has finally paid off and the date is soldered into my head. I think the sealions just wanted us to have a bad day. They look the type. xx
Hi Sam, good to hear from you and on so apt a page fellow Welsh type. To be honest I am not much of a hiker but I do like a challenge, fool that I am and reaching the snow line is always good fun. Although I have surprisingly long legs for my height, but a small torso...
Steak is wonderful and juicy and tender and is making my mouth water right now so I'm off to find some...will make amends in a future Argentine blog xxx
Sam what have you been up to - 3 peaks in wellies. Are you insane or have you been to a Glastonbury type festoval I don't know about in Scotland...? x
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