Lakes, mountains and elephant seals

  Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Monday, November 24, 2003

Fri 14th Nov -continued
Out to look for internet place about 10 pm. Walk down Lavelle, which is a mall. Surprised to find how busy it is at this time of night. Crowds of people, lots of restaurants and internet places - a real buzz in the air. We're really liking the feel of Buenos Aires.
After going to about twenty places, finally find one that will let us use the USB port, and has the correct Windows program. Upload to travelpod, then open our emails, to find one from Lisa telling us to phone home ASAP. Do so, to find that Dianne's father died this morning! Not unexpected, as was given a couple of months to live, eighteen months ago, but a shock nevertheless. Spend next few hours phoning home, and discussing whether we'll return for funeral. Decide against returning. It's not easy to get from Argentina to Australia in a hurry. To bed about 2.30am. Walking 11 kms.
Sat 15th Nov Buenos Aires
Sleep in after our late night, then get bus through Recoleta, and get out at Palermo. Have a look at Paseo Alcorta, a big shoppiing mall a bit past its prime, then walk back towards Recoleta. Lots of grand old buildings, especially in the embassy area. Take photo of big metal flower sculpture


then cut across through a fancy hotel district with good street and balcony greenery, to get to Recoleta cemetery. Look inside Nuestra Senora del Pilar, a colonial church dating from 1732, and accompanying cloisters with historical collections in them. From here can see the Cemetery of the Recoleta which is next door. Out, and into the cemetery, which is like a miniature city, with interesting sculptures, and buildings with sculptures etc inside them.



Check out Eva Peron's resting place (along with lots of other tourists) - she is buried in the Duarte family mausoleum. Photo of one of the dog-walkers (he's got his work cut out controlling so many big dogs)



Walk back through a fairly ordinary nick-nack market, and have lunch at Ortiz St at one of a row of tourist restaurants. Meal is about the same price as yesterday, filling, but nowhere near the quality of yesterday's meal. Walk around Recoleta, and check out a giant cinema and games complex, which is very state of the art.
Once again, had some wine with lunch, and by the time we get back to our room, are ready for a sleep. Dinner tonight and last night consists of what we can find in our packs - chips, bananas etc. Too full from lunch for a proper meal. Out later to walk around and do some internetting, but it is raining heavily, and too wet to stay out long. Walking 5 kms
Sun 16th Nov Buenos Aires
Murray, who'd slept much longer yesterday afternoon, was up early, and had hotel breakfast at a new place on the corner, which was definitely better. Then walked a couple of kms west. Dianne up for breakfast, then both catch bus to La Boca, the old port district. El Caminito has been made into a pedestrian street, and is lined with the area's distinctive brightly painted horizontal galvanised iron and wooden houses.



Lots of tourists, and tango demonstrations and photo opportunities, and large mannequins on the balcony. Don't have to go very far to find the non-touristy section, and decide against going even further to the poorest and roughest section of Buenos Aires. Port is exceedingly polluted. Walk as far as the big bridge - the old one is actually a gantry to support a moving transporter at road level, which carried traffic across to the other side. This has been replaced by a newer bridge, which looks similar, but actually lifts the whole roadway to clear shipping. The newest bridge, Avellaneda, is a standard high-level reinforced concrete one.
Get bus back as far as San Telmo, which is a good place to be on a Sunday, as it has an antique market, and live music, and tango demonstrations in the streets. Walk around the very crowded streets, particularly the main one, Defensa. Investigate some of the old colonial buildings now turned into antique shops and restaurants, particularly one where all the shops were one side, and on the other a courtyard and an upstairs mezzanine (photos). All the recommended eating places had queues, so ended up in the main square at a very touristy place with a reasonably-priced menu of the day., which Dianne had, while Murray tried the beef, hoping for the Argentinian steak experience. Both meals were very mediocre, but ambience was good, with jazz band outside, and various people in tango-era fancy dress having a rest from their "work" for a quick meal. Get bus back to hotel for a rest before being picked up at 8pm for our "tango experience" - dinner and show at La Ventana, back in San Telmo, for an expensive 120 pesos each. It is an architect-designed new venue made to look old. Two stories, but only the bottom level is in use tonight. Long room with trestle tables with stage at the end and a narrow gallery upstairs on either side for couples only. This is where we are, and it affords a good view of the stage. Meal is reasonably good, and includes a bottle of wine (which we regret a bit the next day). Show consists of four tango couples who were very good,



some poor operatic-style singing by a male, some very good excerpts from "Evita" performed by a female singer, and two bands. One band was piano, double bass, violin and one concertina - later joined by a couple of apparently-famous concertina players who were very good. Other band was more of a Peruvian style with pan pipes, guitars and a banjo. There was also some gaucho dancing to the native-style band. Show finished about midnight - we now feel like proper tourists! OK for the odd occasion, but wouldn't like to do it too often. In typical tour fashion, we had spent the first hour picking up people all over the town.
Stop off to ring home. Advised by local to get a phone card rather than use a call centre as much cheaper. Take his advice, and ring Shirley and Mum to see how they're coping, but can't get Lisa at home, and don't have her work number as lost it when the palm pilot crashed. To bed pretty late once again. Walking 4km + extra 2 Murray
Mon 17th Nov Buenes Aires - Santiago (Chile)
We've brought our flight to Santiago forward, as after three days we have the general feel of the city, and have seen the major sites. Dianne out early to try and catch Lisa on the phone, but no luck. It's pretty hard to catch people when there is a 14 hour time difference - when one side is sleeping, the other is up, and vice-versa. There are only a few hours when you can ring, so if you're tied up on a long flight or bus trip, you often miss the only available time in the day. Go for our very mediocre breakfast at 7am which takes forever, and is definitely not worth the wait - one small coffee for Murray, a sickly cordial "fruit juice" for Dianne, and two heavy croissants, which we don't bother finishing. Taxi turns up at 8am, and have a quick trip to the airport. Book a flight from Trelew to Ushuaia for the 25th November, as there were only a couple of seats left on a couple of flights during the whole week. Had to decide on the date of the flight on the spot, and afterwards realise we should have allowed a couple of more days, as we now have a very tight schedule for the next week or so.
We're both feeling a bit seedy from the red wine, and lack of sleep. Dianne tries a number of times to catch Lisa, as phone card is only valid for Buenos Aires, but eventually have to admit defeat, and catch our 10.40 am flight. Our "window seat" somehow turns out to be in the middle of the middle row, with no aisle and no window, but luckily it's only a two-hour flight, and it's pretty cloudy anyway - bit of turbulence during the flight. Get into Santiago about 1pm, and get the Turbus to its Alameda depot, where we organise bus tickets for 11-hour trip to Pucon tomorrow. Then out to find accommodation near the bus depot. Eventually find recommended place. Turns out to be someone's home, with no indication outside. Take a room with own bathroom for 10,000 pesos. Have a rest, then decide that may as well investigate downtown area, though not sure how far away it actually is. Lots of local buses in the main street, all with their route clearly shown on the front. Eventually decide on one, and hop on, for 290 pesos each. Takes a long time to find something that corresponds to our map, so not sure if we've passed the centre, or not there yet. Eventually work out where we are, and hop off near the University of Chile on Alameda. Walk up Estado which is a very busy mall. Stop at a food hall for a quite good pre-packed Caesar Salad and a WONDERFUL fruit shake of lemon, mango and fruitilla (which tastes like strawberries, but whether it is or not we still don't know). Check out Plaza de Armas, and the enormous cathedral. Helpful passerby directs us to the front of the old congress buildings, which is very grand with attractive garden. Look at an outdoor exhibition of excellent aerial photos from all around the world (all by one photographer) at Plaza de la Constitution, then pass the heavily-guarded Palacio de la Moneda. See an enormous riot-control water cannon vehicle go past (not game to photograph), then back to main street to get bus back to Central Station, not far from our room. Found city had a real bustle about it, and quite a few attractive old buildings, but it didn't have the grandeur of Buenos Aires, and the shops didn't appear to be as upmarket either. Back to room. Murray to sleep while Dianne reads till nearly 1am, which was just as well, as people coming home at 1am made a lot of noise. Slept till 4am, when there was a loud altercation from the late-comers. Loud screams of "f...... get off me". Suspect someone had woken up from a drunken stupor in an amorous mood. Walking 3 kms
Tues 18th Nov Santiago - Pucon (Chile)
Up reluctantly before 8am to get to bus station for 8.45am bus, which takes 11 hours to get to Pucon. Most of journey was on autopista down the central valley between the Andes and the coastal range. Fertile farmland, rivers with water in them, grapes and lots of fruit trees. Scenery doesn't change, and not a lot of visibility anyway, as people on left-hand side of bus have curtains closed, and the seats have high backs. Further along, start to see snow-clad peaks on the left-hand side, and pine-clad mountains on the right. Murray's backside is sore, and doesn't iimprove his mood. Temuco looks pretty prosperous in an Austrian sort of way. Murray nearly gets left behind at the bus station, while he is investigating bus timetables for Pucon.
Villarrica, on Lake Villarrica, looks OK in an outpost sort of way. Don't feel the need to hop off. Can see up the lake, and the base of Villarra volcano (2,840 metres), with streaks of snow and rocky ravines, beneath the clouds. From here to Pucon, travel along the lake. Quite a lot of development, including some quite flash hotels and timeshares.
Get into Pucon about 8pm. Coming on dark, and starting to rain, so take the first place on our list. We have a cabana down the back yard behind the main house. There are two dogs in the yard, which ring a warning bell, but we ignore because of the rain. Out to try and book a bus out for tomorrow (haven't seen anything to keep us here, although this is the major tourist centre on the lake). We find two possible booking offices, but it's now 9pm, and everything is closed, so set our alarm to come back at 8am, as the first bus is 9.45am. Down to main street, which is a bit of a backpacker haven with lots of tour companies, restaurants and internet cafes. Another section is more for upmarket tourists with fancy hotels, a casino and expensive designer gear. Most of this is pretty empty, as the upmarket tourists haven't arrived yet. Have a very good dinner - Dianne salmon, chips and salad for 3,300 pesos and Murray has cazuela de ave, a local stew, for 2,300 pesos. Walk as far as the lake in the drizzle, then back to room. Walking 5 kms
Wed 19th Nov Pucon
Have a good night's sleep till 4am, when we're woken by very loud barking, very close. Can hear answering barks from all over the neighbourhood. Yell at dog to shut up, but doesn't work, so Dianne eventually gets up in the freezing cold to investigate, and finds the dog is under our cabana. Owner puts his head out of window, and asks what is wrong with dog (acts as if it is something unusual). We think he takes the dog inside, but doesn't take us long to realise it's still under our cabana, barking. Get intermittent sleep until our alarm goes off at 8am. Drag ourselves out of bed and up to bus depots, but both are still closed, and told they'll open at 9am. Back to room. Decide that even if we don't get a bus ticket today, we'll find another room for the night - one without a dog, so pack our bags and back to bus depot. First one has no tickets today, but some for the following day. Go to second place, but it has no tickets for either day. Back to original place, who say they now have no tickets for tomorrow. Sit down while we discuss what we're going to do. In the meantime, the group that have taken the last tickets change their mind, as the whole group couldn't get on the bus, so we're offered the last two places, which we quickly accept. Pucon is full of young Israelis, travelling in big groups. Apparently the boys do three years in the army, and the girls two. They then work for a while and save money, then take off, for up to a year. It seems like most of them end up here! The menus in the restaurants are in Hebrew, as well as the signs in the shops Even the keyboard at the internet was in Hebrew! In all of the countries we've travelled, we've never seen them in the same concentration. We'd say about 90% of the backpackers around here are Israelis.
We find a room, with double glazing, in a nice house, dump our gear, and out to explore. Buy a kilo of cherries, and down to lake to eat them. It's still very misty, with quite a strong breeze, but no rain. Lake looks better, but still not idyllic. Walk a backroad behind waterfront properties, then through a closed camping area to the lake, which has a black sand beach, and willow-like scrub along the beach. Get to a stream, and decide that's far enough. Back along a paved pathway in front of reasonably flash holiday homes. Pucon has a population of 13,000, but there are LOTS of big, new time-share apartments going up. As we missed breakfast, decided it was time for a big lunch at the same place as last night. Owner convinced Dianne to try the corvina (bass) instead of the salmon, which was also very good. Pucon is now looking more like the guidebooks say. The sun is out, the snow-capped mountain is partly visible through the cloud, and the breeze has dropped. Back to room for a rest, then out later to email a speech for Dianne's father's funeral, which is today (Thursday Australian time). Down to lake to sit and contemplate, watching all the local fisherman (no-one seems to get anything). Out on the wharf, which has suffered some sort of calamity during the off-season, where we watch local boatmen repairing their oil-drum pontoon boats by using the wharf to lift the pontoons out of the water. Walk further around the lake until it is quite dark, then spend some time phoning home, before everyone leaves for the funeral. Back to room for our best night's sleep in a long time. Walking 15kms
Thursday 20th Nov Pucon(Chile)- San Martin de los Andes (Argentina)
Dianne up to ring Lisa at 9.30am local time (it's 11.30pm Australian time, and she's just got back from the funeral in Newcastle), and confirm that everything went OK.
Buy bananas, cherries, apples and bread, ready for our five-hour bus trip, and down to the depot at 10am. It's a beautiful sunny morning, and for the first time we can see all of the snow-clad mountain, including smoke coming out of the top, and it looks quite spectacular. Starting to see why Pucon is considered one of the most beautiful places in the Lakes District.



The 11am bus eventually arrives about 11.30am. From Pucon the road runs along the river that feeds Lake Villarrica. Pleasant bottom land with farms. Through Curarrehue, where road turns south towards Puesco. Stop about 1.30pm along the upper reaches of the river for a free breadroll and coffee at a riverside cafe. Stop at Puesco for Chilean immigration. Road then climbs via Lago Quellelhue, at 1196 metres, to reach the border at the Mamuil Malal or Tromen Pass. Scenery around here is pretty spectacular. Argentinian customs was about 20 kms past the Chilean customs, and took forever to process the whole busload, using a typewriter with carbon copies, to list all the passengers. Almost through, when they find an Englishman who has not had his passport stamped by the Chilean customs (they stamped both his forms, but missed the passport). After a bit of discussion, the bus turns around and takes him the 20kms back, while the rest of us use the time to explore a bit. Finally returns about an hour later, with the English bloke looking pretty sheepish. The Argentinian side of the mountains is drier, and the slopes are gentler. Quite a few cattle. Pass through Junin de los Andes. Fairly frontier looking town known as the trout capital of Argentina. Don't see anything to make us stop. Continue on to San Martin de los Andes. Well before the town there was lots of tourist development. Road into town runs down a very narrow valley, which terminates at the lake. This is actually just an arm of the lake, most of which is around the corner. We don't find it particularly attractive. Reminds Murray of typical West Virginian valley towns. Get to the bus station, which is by the lake at the far end of town, at 6pm, two hours late. As a result, the last bus to Bariloche has gone, so have to stay the night. Want to book bus for tomorrow, but first Murray has to go back to the town to get some Argentinian money. Quite windy, and looks like about to rain, so when find the first recommended accommodation, go in, even though it's three star, and a bit upmarket. Obviously not the season yet, as only charges 50 pesos for a very nice room with heating. Out straight away to check out town. Decide to splurge on a good meat restaurant, but it's only 7pm, and it doesn't open till 8pm. Walk the town to forget our hunger, and back right on 8 for an excellent meal, for a quite expensive 77 pesos, but that included a glass of wine, and expensive desserts. To bed for a reasonable night's sleep (room was a bit too warm, and mattress was a bit soft) Walking 4 1/2 kms
Friday 21st Nov San Martin-Bariloche-Esquel
Woken by alarm at 6.45. Downstairs, to find that breakfast is included in price, and owner has got up to make it for us. Feel obliged to eat it, though it comes in dribs and drabs, and not worth it anyway - a piece of sponge cake with lemon icing, croissant with sugar on it, hard bread, and eventually jam to go on the bread, but no butter. Coffee and juice were OK. First onto 8am bus, but have to settle for seats behind driver, as conductor has all his junk on the right-hand seat with the good view. Bus goes all the way back to Junin, then into the next valley, where it follows a large river all the way into a large dam. Fairly new and raw at first, but improved as we got closer to Confluencia, with higher mountains and jagged rocks. Followed the river upstream from here to Bariloche. Our first views of Bariloche were a disappointment. We'd expected a cute village in the mountains, and instead it was a pretty ordinary town of 78,000. It was raining lightly, and very windy and misty. Obviously wasn't going to improve in the next day, and we are short of time before our flight from Trelew on the 25th, so decide to book a bus to Puerto Madryn while we're still at the bus station. Bus leaves at 5pm, and takes 14 hours - something we're not looking forward to.
Get local bus the 3 kms into Bariloche centre. Town improves as we get further in, but still nothing special. Walk around, and have lunch at a good "all you can eat" buffet. Walk back towards bus station, stopping for supplies for the night bus on the way. When a local bus finally comes we hop on, only to find we were only one stop away from station anyway. Find a track down to the lake, and test the water - pretty chilly, but very clear. For the first time the clouds are lifting from the mountains behind the town, and we can see a whole range of snowy peaks, which improves the look of the town enormously.
Our bus, which is very ordinary (no special sleeper seats, but does have a downstairs centre toilet) leaves at 5pm. Go up through the town, and over the top of the mountain, and down to another branch of the lake. We are a lot closer to the mountains now, and we see of the best scenery to date - trees right down to the water, little grassy points sticking out into the lake, and steep, jagged mountains on the far side with lots of snow on the top. We are travelling South south west, definitely in the lake country. This scenery continued for a couple of hours. We then dropped into river valley scenery - fertile valleys, lots of trees, and hobby farms with camping facilities, and horse riding. Pass a town we think could be El Bolson (the town where thousands of hippies went to in the 70's), judging by the run-down houses full of junk in their yards, but isn't. When we do get to El Bolson, find it is quite a big prosperous town in a wide valley with lots of tourist traps. The hippies have definitely gentrified.
Detour into another town, and have to come back the same way. Dark by the time we get to Esquel. Soon after Esquel we start heading East. We're given a packed dinner, and they put on a second movie, which has the desired effect of making everyone sleepy. Dianne takes a sleeping pill, and we both manage to get four or five hours sleep.
Saturday 22nd Nov Patagonia pampas - Puerto Madryn
Woke when it got light, to find ourselves in the pampas, with nothing to see but saltbush for miles and miles. Get into Trelew about 6am. Town looks pretty depressing - real frontier town. We stay on till Puerto Madryn, where we arrive about 7 am. It's a seaside town with a population of 50,000, and has a fish processing plant and a huge aluminium plant. But its main claim to fame is the wildlife at Peninsula Valdes, 70 kms away.
After a fair bit of walking, including to a hostel which was full, we find a seaside hotel, and settle for the more expensive room (65 pesos) with a balcony and water views of the wide, flat beach and bay. Lots of hot water. Both have a shower, and then Dianne can't resist taking the opportunity to do a big wash in the bathtub, although she would have much rather slept. Hang it all out on the balcony, and then collapse about 10am for a couple of hours. Force ourselves to get up and go for a walk. Very hot outside (the washing has dried already). Within an hour the weather suddenly changes, and it becomes very cold and windy, especially down at the beach. Walk out onto the long concrete wharf, but don't see anything of interest. Back to room to get some warm gear on. Out later to walk around town some more, and book a tour to Peninsula Valdes for tomorrow. Find the centre of town is much bigger than we first thought, with lots of touristy shops and restaurants, bars etc. Keep walking till the parilla restaurant opens for business about 8pm,. Murray finally gets to have one of the monstrous steaks or which Argentina is famous. Meal comes with bread and nibbles, and we also order a salad and chips, with the result that we have far too much food. Vow to order less next time. We actually only want one steak between two, but the etiquette of this is a bit questionable. Back to room to attempt to get diary up to date, but fail.
Sunday 23rd Nov Peninsula Valdes
Set alarm for 6.45am, but Murray is awake well before (and consequently Dianne), as he's gone to bed much earlier. Down for the normal terrible breakast that's included in the price of the room. Picked up at 8.10 (though told to be ready at 7.30). Supposed to go whale watching first, but it's still VERY windy, and the boats are not running this morning, so will probably have to do it in the afternoon. Have paid 75 pesos each for the tour, and then pay another 25 pesos each at the National Park, where there is a small visitors' centre with a whale skeleton.
On the north side is Gulf of San Jose, and on the South side is Gulf Nuevo, and they are separated by the narrow Carlos Ameghino isthmus, which leads to Peninsula Valdes, a bleak, treeless, saltbush-covered splay of land. In depressions in the heart of the peninsula are large salt flats. Punta Norte is 176 kms away, through very uninteresting countryside. We stop there for half an hour to see the elephant seals (there are supposed to be 43,000 here in season) and the possibility of an orca killer whale (think this is where THE film taken by David Attenborough of the orcas coming up on to the beach was taken). Down with bated breath to see........ well, maybe a hundred elephant seals, mainly babies, and a few younger males. Before you pay your money, information about numbers is hard to come by, but afterwards you can begin to piece the information together. Our guide has been doing this every day for two years, and in all that time she has seen orcas twice! There are about 28 around here, and it is one of only two places in the world where they have learnt to hunt by coming up on the beach (only 10 of the 28 know how to). Orca males are up to 9 metres in length, and weigh up to 9,000 kg, while femals are up to 8 metres long and weigh up to 7,000 kg. They live in groups, which vary in size from two to eleven. However, there are no orcas around today.
The Southern Sea elephant - male is 4-6 metres long and weighs up to 4,000 kg, while the female is up to 2 metres log and weighs up to 1,000 kg. Newborns are up to one metre long and weigh about 35 kgs. The male proboscis (ie. nose) can be up to 40cm long, and they can dive to a depth of 1,500 metres! The reason why there are hardly any now - in July, August the males arrive, then the females mid August. They have one male to about forty females, and they give birth after ten and a half months. They suckle the pups for 27 days, then the pups start to shed their skin, and eat their first fish etc. At this time the male mates with the females, and goes back to sea, bringing an end to the reproductive season, which lasts from September to December. I'm here to tell you that the cycle has finished by the 23rd November!!! (Yet another example of "you should have been here last week, month, year.....").
The few sea elephants that are here look like enormous slugs, or someone trying to roll around in a sleeping bag. Move very slowly trying to get up the sandhill, but pick up a bit of pace going down it. Much more agile in the water. They were joined by three sea lions, who looked like they came for a play, and were much more agile on land.
Drove another 45 kms south to Caleta Valdes, where we stopped an hour and a half, including a lunch stop. We had a change in diet for lunch today - bread and salami, instead of our usual banana! Took a photo of the local version of animals on a spit - lunch for those who weren't having home-made sandwiches!



There were walking tracks just above the beach here, though the beach itself, like all the other beaches, was stillout of bounds. There was a fossil reef with gutters running out to sea about half a kilometre from the beach, and the remains of a wrecked boat in the middle of it. In the time we were there, the rapid drop in tide exposed the reef, leaving the baby sea elephants stranded a long way from the water. Could get much closer to them here, though they didn't differ from Punta Norte. There was also a 30 km sandspit, with a very strong current running out as the tide fell. This spit has almost joined with a short spit projecting to the north from where the tourist area is. There were also quite a few sea elephants in the lagoon inside the spit.
Our next stop was a small colony of Magellanic penguins, which were quite cute. Could see at least 50, and more hiding in their burrows. Tomorrow we're going to hopefully see a lot more - our book says 1 million, our guide says there are 250,000 nests......... and we'll report on the reality!!!
Get to Puerto Piramide, where the whale watching boats leave from, at 3pm, but the harbour is still closed because of the wind. First they say it will open at 4pm, then say 3.30pm. We can't see any whales from shore, and the sea is quite choppy so Murray decides not to go, but Dianne pays her 50 pesos, and gets into the boat, along with another 48 people. Boat is on a big boat trailer with a long towbar with its own set of wheels, and the whole thing is towed into the water by a 4WD tractor. Bit choppy at the start, but wind dies down fairly quickly ( they say with the tide). Within ten minutes had found a mother and baby Southern right whale.



Follow them for ages, very close. Only problem is there are four rows of people on boat - one on either side, and two along the middle. Unfortunately I'm in the middle, so that although I can stand up, and see over the heads, I'm never right beside the whale, and every photo I take has someone's head in it. For about 30 seconds get someone to let me in on one of the sides, where the experience is definitely better. After half an hour, start following another mother and baby. Eventually go back after about an hour and a half. Surprised how calm it is now.
Get dropped off at bus station about 6.30pm, where book tour to penguins for tomorrow, then back to room via the supermarket. Dianne then succeeds in getting diary up-to-date while Murray reads.