Patagonia and Penguins !!
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2006
1
4
32
Trip End
Mar 21, 2006
Trelew,
Argentina
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Left Mar del Plata for Puerto Madryne and the Valdez Peninsula around 21:30 on Saturday Feb. 11 and arrived there the next day around 16:00 aboard a Marco Polo Bus from the Don Otto --Patagonia Bus line. Yes, it is a long trip but the buses are comfortable and not crowded and I had two semi-cama seats to myself. Surprisingly I was able to sleep for about four hours.
As I travel south from Mar del Playa, which is still in Provincia Buenos Aires along Ruta 3 which more or less follows the Atlantic Coast the bus continues through Bahia Blanca on to Viedma, in Provincia Rio Negro, which is my entry point to Patagonia.
------Patagonia-------
The very name conjures up adventure and immense vast spaces
aPenguin
.It is the vast, tapered southern region of Argentina generally south of the Colorado River and it includes from north to south the following provinces;
La Pampa, Rio Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.
From Viedma is was on to San Antonio Oeste, Sierra Grande, Puerto Madryn and finally Trelew. I must say I have no concept of the places along the Ruta 3 since they were only stops in the night or stops in a bus station in a vast and empty region.
The Valdes Peninsula was my destination because it is known for whales, sea lions and other flora and fauna. In the back of my mind were playing several factors. The tour of the peninsula was about a 12 hour bus ride; this was not the time of year to see the whales and the comments of a French couple in Buenos Aires who said that the excursion was long and ultimately with no whales, not worth it. Based on that I decided to bypass Puerto Madryne and therefore stayed on the bus for another two hours to Trelew an old Welsch settlement. Here was a sure thing, insofar as one and half hours south of there is located Reserva Provincial Punta Tomba--home South America´s largest Magellanic Penguin nesting ground
Penguin 10
. This I did not want to miss.I arrived around 20:00 at my hotel the Residential Argentino and was immediately asked by two ladies from England and Australia whether I wanted to join them the next day in taking a taxi to Punta Tomba. Upon further investigation that proved to be the cheapest alternative at 180 Pesos for the three of us.
Monday, Feb.13
We met in the lobby of the hotel at 07:30 and after breakfast we took a taxi to Punta Tombo about an hour away. Seeing thousands of Magallanes penguins in their breeding grounds up close, within inches was a highlight of the trip. There is however an apparent contradiction is seeing these penguins in a hot climate, burrow holes in the ground to build their nests up to 800 meters from the Atlantic Ocean. This is not your average Empire penguin that one finds in Antarctica.
In the afternoon I had enough time to take a half hour bus ride to Gaiman which is an old Welsh community that tries very hard to keep its Welsh roots. I could not resist an afternoon tea at the famous ivy covered "Ty Nain Tea House" full of antiques and with fireplaces in every room.
Then it was off to the bus station for another long overnighter across the Patagonian Steppes.
