Punta Tombo and the Valdes Peninsula
We started our journey to Patagonia at Dulles Airport bound
for Buenos Aires with a plane change in Bogota. After spending the night
in Buenos Aires, we flew to Trelew, a town that is located on the east coast of
Argentina south of Buenos Aires and represents a sort of gateway to Patagonia.
We rented a car from Hertz, expecting the usual superior cars and service
that we regularly get from them. However, there was only one worker at
the counter checking in clients and going to the parking lot with them to
locate the cars. Each check-in took at least 30 minutes. When our
turn came, we were presented with a "Rent-a-wreck". There were
dents, missing screws that held the fender on, and it was in an overall bad
condition. It did have four wheels and four doors. The rep paid careful
attention to show us where the spare tire was located and made a point that the
only condition related items that they cared about upon our returning the
vehicle were the windshield and tires. We were soon to find out why only
those things mattered. Only a few roads were paved. The rest were
gravel coated, the gravel ranging from boulder sized to fine powdery sand, so
most of the damage that showed up was either to the windshield or tires. The rest of the car suffered so many dings
and dents from so many renters on so many bad roads that no one could have
figured out who did what or when it happened.
We spent our first night in the small town of Gaiman. Gaiman
is a Welsh village where over three thousand Welsh emigrants arrived in the
late 1800's and set up homes, shops and farms. Today many of the homes
are B&Bs and Welsh tea houses. We stayed in a B&B called Betsy Plas y
Coed. The owner mentioned that the B&B was her grandfather's home. The inhabitants of the town today are a
mixture of Welsh ancestry and Argentine as well.
We departed Gaiman early the next morning for a three hour
drive to Punta Tombo, which contained one of the largest colonies of Magellanic
penguins in the world. The colony covered a vast area, and thousands of
penguins were scattered about. They were coming from the sea, going to
the sea, sleeping in shady nests under bushes, walking on the boardwalks and
trails with people and just going about their penguin business as if we weren't
even there. Several chicks were in evidence, but just barely. Their moms kept them cool and shaded from the
hot sun under the bushes.
The sight of the penguin colony itself was a bit otherworldly,
since once out of the ocean, the Penguins were living and thriving in an arid,
desert like environment, kind of like seeing penguins in the Sahara desert and
thinking it normal for them to be there.
One wouldn’t ordinarily think of this place as a home to sea-going birds,
but they’re quite happy and protected there.
After a good hike around the penguin colony, we departed for
Puerto Piramides, a small village on the Valdes Peninsula and a UNESCO World
Heritage site. We decided to wait until we got there to book or not book
a whale watching cruise, since we thought it would be wise to know if this was whale
season (or not.)
At this point, I should digress with a humorous story about
a BMW. We checked into our accommodation in Puerto Piramides, called "The
Paradise" (probably good for another digression). As we were signing the registration book, there was a place to put the
details of the car you were driving. The last person who checked in just
before us noted he was driving a BMW. We thought, "Wow, who would bring a
BMW to a rough place like this with the unpaved roads and dust everywhere?"
We then looked in the car park and saw no BMW, so we concluded that this
person was probably referring to the car he drove back home. Next day, on
a whale watching cruise, we met the owner of the BMW. He had his BMW
motorcycle shipped down from the states and was traveling through South America
with it! Then, to top it off, he mentioned that he was born and lived for
a while in Montgomery, AL, Dave’s birthplace and childhood home town.
So, The Paradise didn't exactly live up to its name.
We actually booked a B&B called Hidden House, but we received an
email the night before our arrival saying that "due to technical
difficulties" the owner was moving us to the other property he owned and
was upgrading us to a suite. It was ok, except for the bathroom sink,
which was smaller than most RV sinks. We got the housekeeper to clean the
mold off the bathtub grout, too. And if you went to breakfast soon after
they opened, you got yesterday's leftover coffee. Cereal was plentiful
but cereal bowls were not. After staying 3 nights, Hidden House is still in
hiding, and “The Paradise” did not really live up to its name.
We are still trying to adapt to the timing of meals. Lunch
is served from about 12-3 PM, and dinner usually starts around 8-11 PM. Not
much is open in between. Breakfast is usually included in the room rate,
but if you want to get an early start or you have an early flight, don't expect
to even get a cup of coffee, since no one is usually around until 8:00 AM.
There was no flexibility with these rules, and no substitutions were
allowed on menus that we encountered. We so take for granted all of the
conveniences we live with in the U.S! And did I mention, all of those
dollars we brought to change into local currency have been useless, because no
one changes money here, and in most places, credit cards aren’t accepted,
either. We concluded that it’s a gimmick executed by the banks to charge
tourists about $8.00 USD for each limited ATM withdrawal they make. But wait, if merchants accept US dollars for
payment, they often give you 30% more
than the official rate.
Well, back to our travels. Our exploration of the
Valdes peninsula started with a whale watching cruise. We've been on
others, but none like this one. Within minutes, we spotted our first behemoths--Southern
Right Whales, a mother and baby. This whale species comes here to give
birth and spend a few months nursing its calf before returning to the nutrient
rich waters of Antarctica to resume feeding. The first whale family was
fun to watch and photograph until we spotted another family that was breaching
and fin slapping.
We quickly moved to watch them and were excited to see
them put on such a great show for us and our cameras.
Later the same day we braved the gravel roads to tour a bit
of the peninsula. We arrived at a lookout called Caleta Valdes on a bluff
overlooking the sea where there was a protected area for sea lions and elephant
seals to relax in the sun. We could see
a tour bus, vans and several cars at the lookout, so we figured there was
something happening. Now, if I can
back-up just a minute, I should mention that I saw a nature documentary that
was filmed in this area showing orcas patrolling the protected shore areas in
search of seals. When they caught one
entering the water, or when they practically beached themselves in order to
snatch one, they threw it around in the air several times almost playing catch
with it and each other before they killed and ate it. I asked our whale cruise guide about this
event, and she mentioned that it normally occurs in February and March when the
baby seals are just venturing into the water and not on guard against this
primary predator. Therefore, we had no expectation of witnessing such a gory
thing. But getting back to the story—we
found a place to park, and as we approached the viewing area, we heard oohs and
aahs. People were standing 3 and 4 deep
to witness the aforementioned event. The
orcas can only access these sheltered coves around high tide, which was how we
planned our timing. Unfortunately, we
didn’t get a good view until the orcas finished playing with the seal and were just
pushing its head around. We were all
hoping for the seal’s sake, that it was already dead. We couldn’t see if it still had an intact
body attached to the head. In addition
to the whales and orcas, this area is rich in other fauna—guanacos, rheas,
elephant seals, sea lions, and various sea bird species thrive here.
Argentine Patagonia
For our next destination, we flew to El Calafate in southern Argentina near the
border with Chile. Once again, we faced
off at the Hertz counter where we had booked another rental car. This car was the same make and model as the
last one, a Chevrolet Classico, but looked marginally better except it was
missing a hubcap. The dents and dings
were smaller and not as numerous (more paved roads), and it was a little
cleaner. The only instructions from the
rep this time had to do with not opening both car doors at the same time,
because the wind is so strong here that one or both doors can blow off. OK! So
we packed our gear in the trunk, started the car, and oops! the engine light
came on. We quickly pulled up in front
of the terminal; I ran back to the counter, and guess what? They had already closed and locked up for the
day. The airport is so small that they only
need to be there for the few flights that come and go. But, in 5 minutes, everyone was gone? So, we went back into the parking lot and
Dave called the Hertz rep for assistance.
“Oh, we forgot to tell you, we had to change the battery, but we don’t
have a computer to reset the engine light.
But, all is good!” Ok, so we
started off again.
We drove about 2 ½ hours to reach our new destination, El
Chalten. The road was a lonely one. There were no towns at all; only remote
estancias (ranches) that had so little vegetation that hardly any animals were
in evidence grazing. There were a few sheep
here, and a few horses there. Since we never passed even 1 gas station during
the whole journey, we decided to locate the 1 gas station in the town and fill
up for the trip back in 3 days.
We
unknowingly passed the station on the way into town, but because it was so
small, we didn’t even see it. As we
pulled in to get gas, there was a car in front of us whose driver was having
a discussion with the attendant. As it
turned out, there was no gas. When will
they have some? “Mañana”. So, we know that mañana can mean tomorrow,
but it can also mean “whenever”. So, to
be on the safe side, we went back to the station the next morning after
breakfast and before our first hike. As
luck would have it, there was a fuel truck there filling up the tanks and about
10 other cars waiting in line. It was a
little reminiscent of the gas crisis during the 70’s in the states when gas
lines reached for blocks because of the Arab oil embargo. Aah, but we were patient. We waited until the
truck filled the tanks. We waited until
the cars in front of us got their gas.
After we filled up, we figured it took us about an hour to complete this simple transaction. Oh yes, the conveniences of home!
The primary reason tourists come here is to trek and
hike. As you watch folks traveling the
streets with packs on their backs, you are struck by the fact that they are
mostly all young (we’re the exception).
They’re also very fit and originate from a diversity of countries. They’re the ones that Darwin would have
referred to as adapted for survival.
Even when you see them après-hike in a restaurant eating french fries,
you know they earned the calories by hiking 10 miles or so.
Our hike today was to Laguna Capri, which is a vantage point
for a good view of the famous mountain range here called “FitzRoy”. And, of course there has to be a story about the name
FitzRoy, but I don’t know what it is.
It was a 7 km. walk (round trip) or maybe climb is a better word, since
the elevation gain is 350 mtrs. or about 1,000 ft. The whole trek to the lake was uphill, which
was only comforting when you took solace in the fact that the return to town
was downhill. Add to the elevation gain
a strong head wind with gusts about 30 + mph, occasional rain mixed with sun,
and very cool temperatures. We knew that
this situation was normal weather here, so we were prepared with proper
clothing, etc. There were beautiful
views along the way, but Fitzroy was shrouded in clouds.
Our new accommodation is called “Lo de Tomy”. We’re not sure what it means, but it’s
paradise compared with “The Paradise”.
We have a 2 story townhouse apartment with a kitchen, sitting room,
bedroom and 1 ½ bathrooms. The
proprietor is very meticulous; breakfast was quite good, and she even delivered
homemade pastries and coffee to the room for our return from hiking. This town seems more tourist friendly than
the last one. Some shopkeepers will
accept dollars at a good exchange rate, although there is still no place to
change money.
During the evening after our hike and dinner, the wind went
from normally strong to hurricane force.
Very strong gusts of wind rocked the car outside, and we could feel the
building moving. It blew out the
internet and phones, and the loud whining and roaring was audible all night
long. My thoughts turned to those
lonely, isolated ranches out in the empty hinterlands. Before the age of television and computers
and even phones, how did those pioneers keep from losing their minds with only
the sound of the wind to keep them company?
(Blog comments and Photos to continue. More Photos to be
loaded on to website on return.)
