Whales and pengiuns and seals, oh my!
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
22
33
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Puerto Madryn,
Patagonia,
Argentina
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Puerto Madryn is the eastern gateway to Patagonia, founded by Welsh settlers in 1886. It doesnīt feel particularly Welsh although a few shops sell Love Spoons, Welsh cake and rugby shirts. It has a sandy beach and a pier (although there isnīt much on it), it is empty during the day as most visitors are on trips.
On Saturday I booked a tour to Peninsula Valdes. We drove to Puerto Piramides, a one-street town of 300 people within the reserve, and took a boat into Golfo Nuevo to watch the whales. It was amazing, we saw a mother and calf, lots of tails, whales "bridging" (jumping) - at one point we were surrounded by them! There were also quite a few seagulls bothering the whales, apparently a new phenomenon: When the whales bridge they knock off some skin which the gulls eat. They developed a taste for whale skin and started to attack the whales on the surface for more of it. The gulls then found that once the skin is pecked off, the fatty blubber underneath is also good grub. So now they dig holes in the whales skin to pull out the blubber. Whales have sensitive skin, the damage is painful and, for the calves, potentially dangerous if the wounds get infected. Over the last 15 years the seagull population here has increased six-fold due to the growth in tourism, the increased rubbish and discarded food in open bins. So the whalesī plight is ultimately another man-made problem. We were very lucky with the weather, it was clear blue skies, hardly any wind. The previous days tours had been cancelled as the weather was so bad they had closed the port. It was a bad day for all the tours on Friday - the trip to Punta Tombo to see the penguins was scuppered by a jack-knifed lorry on the road, blocking the entrance to the reserve. Our luck with weather and wildlife continued; we drove on to Caleta Valdes, a gravely beach covered with elephant seals. A bit further on from there is a colony of Magellanic penguins. We also saw more guanacos (not llamas as previously thought) and armadillos - well, I saw one running very fast from afar, and a dead one on the roadside. I also saw Dorien, one of the Dutch girls from Spanish School back in Peru! Dorien and her sister were taking the same whale boat - what a small world. Maybe weīll meet again in Buenos Aires?
I am exhausted, I donīt know how people travel like this for 12 months, sometimes more. Living out of a bag, constantly thinking about the next place, next bus, next bed, where to get food, budgets, what tours to book - life is very irregular! The morning of the whale tour, despite my alarm clock beeping, I literally had to be shaken awake by someone in my dorm. Iīm taking it as a sign to have some slow time.
I tried to take Sunday as a slow day, but it feels a waste just to lounge around in the hostel. I met Melissa from Toronto and spent the day with her. We sat around drinking coffee at a cafe on the beach. Then after lunch walked up to the Eco Centre www.ecocentro.org.ar/ at the end of the town. Itīs a lovely building but not an awful lot in it. There is a "touch pool" of star fish and crabs, but youīre not actually to touch anything. We walked back along to beach talking non-stop about food, the food in Argentina, the food we miss, and the crazy social hours here have maybe contributed to the amazing amount of people with eating disorders or obesity - eating at 10pm every night is not good for you, especially when lunch is still at lunchtime. Iīm eating 4 meals a day: breakfast (free, great!), lunch, pre-dinner, dinner. Will I fit into the only dress I have for my brotherīs wedding in January? Hmmmm, better get that corset dusted off... In the evening Melissa and I went out for steak with Shona from Dundee and Jessica from Brooklyn, two girls in our dorm.
Monday was a trip to the penguins. It was great to see them close up (photos now up to date on www.flickr.com/photos/bongo76) but it wasnīt an amazing day. Started with some dolphin watching; they are so fast and I am not a NatGeo photographer so no photos. I was also a bit sea sick. Then a long drive to the penguin sanctuary. Then an even longer drive back to PM. I was told we would stop off at one of the Welsh villages but we did not, I was disappointed.
Every third day Gaston hosts a barbeque in the den out the back. 40 pesos for all the meat (steak, fish, chicken, blood sausage etc) you can eat with salad and wine thrown in. It was a great night to hang out with people from the hostel. Iīve really enjoyed staying at Gastonīs place and love Puerto Madryn. Patagonia was one of the big draws for me to return to South America and itīs been great, especially when the sun shines. Iīve had a taste for the warmer weather, this afternoon I take another long haul bus up the coast to the beach - canīt wait!
