Day 154: January 16, 2008 Puerto San Julián
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
157
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
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Puerto San Julián,
Argentina
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
I was supposed to get up at 6:30 so I could see if the 8:00 boat excursion in San Julián Bay was going; they need a minimum of four to go. I fell back asleep until 8:30, so it really didn't matter. After breakfast, I walked out to a brilliant, somewhat warm, crystal clear day. Upon the recommendation of the woman at the hotel, I walked to the end of Av. San Martín to the replica of the Nao Victoria, Magellan's flagship and the only one that made it around the world. Before buying my 12-peso ticket to go aboard, I walked over to the Pinocho boat excursion place. The guy told me the next tour was at 12:00. It was 10:30 so I had plenty of time to go on board the Nao Victoria. A Nao is the type of ship, noted for its high "castles" fore and aft. It was amazingly small. Unfortunately, none of the ship's statistics were offered so I don't really know how small it really is. I'm sure it did not give a smooth ride! Our yacht in the Galápagos was larger.
The replica is true to the original structural diagrams. With five ships this size and 265 men, that comes out to 53 men/ship! Throw in a few head of livestock, food, repair supplies, extra sails, etc. and that's a tight fit; no wonder there was a revolt. Numerous carved wooden figures are placed around the ship and Magellan is at his desk in his surprisingly spacious cabin. An audio show recreates some of the events that occurred at San Julián, such as the mass, the revolt, the trial, and the execution. Overall, it is very well done and worth visiting.
After finishing with the Nao, I walked back over to Pinocho and bought my ticket for 80 pesos. A total of ten passengers went on the excursion in an inflatable launch. I was the only foreigner. We boarded at the beach, which was at low tide. There is a 9 m tidal range here! The bay was smooth as we sailed out with a gentle breeze. Before long, we started seeing a few black and white dusky dolphins surfacing about 50 m off. We slowed down and they came in a little closer but I didn't try to take any pictures. A little while later, we landed on the penguin island, which is home to around 150,000 Magellanic penguins. I think it was the first time that any of the Argentine visitors had been to a penguin rookery. They were all very excited about walking through it.
Our guide was a woman named María Elena who was very knowledgeable about the wildlife of the bay. She gave excellent, detailed descriptions of all aspects of the penguin life cycle and rookery. We also saw a few black-necked cormorants on the island, which is named Cormorant Island (Isla Cormoranes). We reboarded and crossed the bay to Isla de los Pajeros (Bird Island), which, in season, is a large cormorant rookery with both black-necked and imperial cormorants. Plenty of both were still around. We also saw a couple of Antarctic pigeons by the water's edge and two giant petrels swimming just offshore. On the way back, two adult dolphins and their small dark gray baby came very close to the launch. We stopped for more than five minutes as they swam around and under us and surfaced just off the sides.
We returned to San Julián about two hours after we left. After saying good by to our guide, pilot, and fellow passengers, I went over to the bar next door and ordered a sandwich and a beer. While I was eating, María Elena came in and sat with me for about 15 minutes. We talked about her work, my work, the Galápagos, San Julián, etc. She left when the rest of the folks from the boat company came in for lunch.
I walked back to the hotel and took a siesta. When I awoke, I wrote a blog entry and then went to the internet place to post it. When that was done, I went to the ATM to get money to pay my hotel bill-they only take cash. To my chagrin, neither machine was operational. Another guy trying to get money told me that the only other two machines in town were down too. Deciding to not worry about that until tomorrow, I found an austere little restaurant on Mitre, El Capón Patagónico, where I had the tastiest lamb I have ever eaten. Not only was the food great but it was the cheapest dinner I've had since arriving in Patagonia! I walked back to the hotel and watched a little TV before going to bed.
