Hipatagonia Puerto Madryn

Der Zoologische Garten am Mittelmeer. Waehrend ca. 30h Busfahrt vom Ende der Welt (Ushuaia) richtung Norden herschte die immer gleiche Landschaftsform: Patagonische Steppe, so gleichmaessig, dass man beginnt im Bus das Blinken der Digitaluhr genauer zu studieren oder versucht das naechste Aufblinken des Bildschrimschoners des DVD-Players vorauszusagen. Kurz vor Madryn dann, aendert die Landschaft schlagartig, sie wird noch karger, sandiger und man hat das gefuehl sich einer Wueste zu naehern....

Flight down south to Patagonia, to Trelew, and onto the nearby town of Puerto Madryn. Did you realise that Patagonia on the Argentinian side is semi-dessert? We didnīt. It was really sparse, kinda scub land with 300,000 Marino sheep, and Llama too. The hostel was pretty rubbish, the guys left in charge didnīt really have a clue, and the room was freezing cold and noisy. Dave is also going mad packing and repacking (Dave: itīs propa rubbish, I didnīt predict that it would annoy me the most. Lo...

When I left for Bariloche it was again to travel alone. After booking the trip and announcing it via facebook I found that a few BsAs travelers were going to be there at the same time. We all ended up staying at the same hostel. The one from the dog story. While I was there Bryce and Mallory (Canadian couple RTW trip) invited me to travel with them to Puerto Maydryn to see the penguin colony. Along with them was another traveler I met in BA, Alexis. We all hopped a bus to Maydryn. It was very...

Our second day in Puerto Madryn we arranged for a rental car. As there are four of us traveling it is cost effective. We arranged the rental the night before. At 9am our rental a VW Gol (Golf) arrived at the hostel. I drove first through town to the supermarket to pick up food for lunch. Next it was RA 3 south. In Argentina they love roundabouts. We got a little off track as I drove and went about 7 km out of the way. The total trek to Punto Tombo was just shy of 200 km. We paid our park entr...

I was told by Gaston at the HI Hostel in Puerto Madryn that it would be flip-flops weather; itīs certainly a lot warmer than El Calafate but I havenīt yet worn my flip flops outside the house. Staying at HI Patagonia is like staying with Gastonīs family, itīs very friendly, easy-going and warm. There is a building in the back garden with a kitchen, Internet, TV and sofas for the guests - it feels a bit like a den to keep the teenagers out of the house! Puerto Madryn is the eastern gateway to ...

Wandering the extremely quiet streets of Puerto Madryn in the hope of seeing life, any life, we find Rob and Trish whom we had met on the Navimag adventure. With the hope of seeing orcas, penguins or at least southern right whales in Peninsula Valdes, we hire another environment disaster machine and journey into the rocky road, flat monotony of the national park. Endless flatness with very little to ease the eye except the occasional guanaco (similar to a llama) and a splash of rock on the wi...

On a whim, having decided we were pretty flush with cash compared to where we feared we might have been by this point in our trip (and on the recommendation of a couple of Irish people we met and could barely understand), we decided to splurge money on a flight back down to Patagonia from Buenos Aires. We headed to Puerto Madryn, one time state-sponsored Welsh colony and home of hundreds of Southern Right whales at this time of year. It was surprising, not to mention, mildly terrifying, to fi...

From our quick exit out of the uninspiring Rio Gallegos, we headed on an overnight bus, north up the coast of Argentina to the port city of Puerto Madryn. An extremely popular place, in season, as a hub for searching out whales and penguins. We of course arrived out of season and out of luck. We did however run into Robert and Patricia fellow Navimag guests and decide it much cheaper to rent a car together and head out to Peninsula Valdes in search of wildlife. We figured our 3% chance of spo...

Alex - So after another 18 hour bus journey we arrived in Puerto Madryn, a Welsh settlement on the east coast in Patagonia. The town itself isn't anything special really, but people in general don't really come for the town. It is the penguin colony and the Valdez Peninsula which are the main attractions. We arrived really early in the morning (6:30) and managed to get a taxi to our hostel which was just opening up for breakfast which was convenient. We had a quick breakfast and headed out t...

Patagonia is home to the rare black and white Commerson's dolphin - and Puerto Madryn is one of the few places you can go out to see these gregarious creatures that must be on Red Bull. As soon as our Zodiac got out into the bay, you could see about a dozen dolphins racing toward us to play. They love to surf in the wake of the zodiacs. In fact, we stopped for about ten minutes and the dolphins eventually grew bored and left, so the driver started the engine again and immediately about a doz...