Patagonia (Puerto Madryn, Argentina)
Trip Start
Feb 03, 2006
1
22
59
Trip End
May 09, 2006
Puerto Madryn,
Argentina
Saturday, March 4, 2006
MILES: flying 8517, bus 287, taxi 43, walking 56, ship 6679, Zodiac boat 14 total: 15,596 miles
Arrived in Puerto Madryn at about midday. Skies are blue, and a nice ocean breeze, about 80 degrees, a perfect day. Puerto Madryn is a small port city about midway down the coast of Argentina, with about 58,000 people living here. This area is known as Patagonia, which means "big foot". Apparently when the Europeans who settled here saw the native peoples, they thought they had big feet. Turns out the leather moccasins they were wearing were flat and wide, and their feet were actually quite normal. But the name remains today. This area is south of the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay known for estancions (cattle ranches), and lush green grasslands, and of course gauchos. I thought that Patagonia would be lush, just with more hills and trees, and wildlife
Coastline
. Well, I'm in northern Patagonia and it looks like Texas. Very dry, windswept, no trees, few hills, just small shrubby vegetation and occasional grasses. It is known as a "steppe", a dry grassland. But Patagonia stretches all the way to the southern tip of the continent, and includes those lush green spaces, and lots of forests, and mountains, and glaciers. A hundred million years or so ago, this was a rainforest jungle. But over time the Andes popped up, and formed a rainshadow, causing the arid environment I now see.A few hundred kilometers, over gravel bumpy roads, to the northeast of Puerto Madryn lies the Peninsula Valdez, my destination for the day. This is an area known for its variety of wildlife, and dramatic scenery. It did not disappoint. I saw in the span of a few hours many ostriches, guanas (wild llamas, I'm not sure of the spelling), penguins, sea lions, elephant seals and a variety of birds (see my photos!). Some people I was with saw armadillos, which are also common here. In other seasons of the year, whales come in by the hundreds, making this a popular destination for whale watchers. Also, not quite so exciting, I saw a few thousand sheep, which is the domesticated grazing animal of choice. They are sheered for merino wool, and rarely raised for meat, which makes the ranchers less money. There is a bit of conflict here, between the wild llamas, and the grazing sheep
Elephant seals
. Of course, they both eat the same grasses and vegetation, which bothers the sheep ranchers. Some amount of poaching is known to go on here. The wild llamas (I wish I knew for sure their real name), have been somewhat successfully domesticated in a few ranches for their wool, which is even more valuable. Also, the wild llamas are much easier on this dry grassland environment than are sheep. Sheep trample the grasses to form paths, which they then continue to use their road system, effectively stopping any vegetation from growing on the hard-packed dirt. And when they eat the grasses, they tear the whole plant out, roots and all. The llamas on the other hand, don't form well trodden paths, they are much more random in their travels, and they eat just the blades of the grass, leaving the plant capable of re-growing easily.Some things I learned about the wildlife. A male ostrich has 5 or 6 females in his 'harem', which each lay their eggs in the same nest. The male ostrich actually incubates all the eggs, and cares for the chicks. So though he may play the field, he is a responsible father...
Male elephant seals have up to one hundred female seals in their harems, and don't care for the young. Elephant seals do not get their big noses until they are mature, about 6-7 years old
In Patagonia
. It is for these wobbly snouts, their gray color, and their immensity, that they get their name. To move these creates pretty much crawl, which takes a lot of energy, so they pretty much lay around all day like logs, which my 'action' photos show. They are, of course, much more adept in the ocean. Sea lions are brown, or black when pups, and use their flippers as legs to walk around. Most of the performing 'seals' at Sea world and the like, the ones that balance balls on their noses, and move about, area actually sea lions. They are a lot more active, though there is still a tendency for them to take the log-like posture.
It is odd to see penguins here, at such a warm climate. But penguins are actually found all the way to the equator. The variety I saw here are Magellanic penguins, named for the first European explorer to 'discover' the southern end of this continent.
This wildlife, as well as the stunning sea coast scenery, made this quite a memorable day. There is, of course, much more to see in these areas than I was able to cover in my half day adventure. Maybe another journey...
