Puerto Madryn Hotels
Shanewilson's travel blogs:
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Long Bus Ride
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To say the least, I am really tired from my 24 hour bus journey from El Calafate to Puerto Madryn on the other side of Argentina. But I survived it (albeit a few sore muscles etc.)... glad I´ve got this afternoon to relax, sleep and do practically nothing else. Madryn appears to be a pretty good town to hang out for the next 36 hours. Madryn is on the middle-eastern coast of Argentina and is the launching pad for Peninsula Valdes and whale watching... the main reason for me being here.
Luckily, people got off the bus 4 hours into the journey so I quickly swapped places to an empty enclave of two seats. Initially, I was sitting next to a very obese Argentinian woman and thought that this would be the trip from hell given that she was taking over 1 and a half seats. Come 10pm, I had my space and SLEPT for some of the trip. It went quite quickly actually but the service was all in Espanol so had no idea that I was going to be getting a meal at 10pm! I had brought sandwiches about 15 minutes beforehand so passed on the free meal! I should of known. These people love to eat late.
The bus company was called Anderson and the buses are pretty comfortable... if coming here, aim to go for the Cama Cache class which costs a bit more but ever so comfortable (business class equivalent) but still in the reach of budget backpackers. I missed out this time but have one on my 15 hour bus journey to Bariloche tomorrow evening.
The bi-lingual movies shown all night and morning were great... talk about being an inclusive company. The languages were naturally Espanol and English so at least I was able to watch those. Thank goodness because I watched 4 movies, wasting about 8 hours of bus travel.
One observation whilst passing through the scenery is how flat this region of the world is... and sparsely populated. I was reading somewhere that this is the most sparsely populated region in the world. It was good to stop off at some very traditional Argentinian roadhouses with the music, food and atmosphere to soak in.
I m staying in a very cheap hostel for about 27 peso ($AUD15). But the hostel is very uncomfortable... the rooms are very hot and cramped (Cheapagonia Hostel near the beach). Argentina hasn t lived up to its reputation as being a very cheap country... I am finding it to be very expensive. The bus trip from El Calafate to Puerto Madryn cost $US60, the tour tomorrow to Peninsula Valdes and whale watching is costing $US80 and the bus trip from Madryn to Bariloche (15 hours) is $US40. A far cry more expensive than the best valued region on the planet... South East Asia. I was expecting South America to be a lot cheaper but it has definitely not lived up that reputation! So be warned if coming here. Lonely planet estimations of amounts per diem are ridiculously out of proportion... what do they expect us to do on $US20 a day in Argentina given that rock bottom accommodation costs $US10????? The accommodation is cheap (and the food to some extent) but getting around and doing tours is beyond the budget backpacker. You need a bit of padding in that budget!
Tomorrow I m spending the day whale watching before catching the overnight, 9pm bus to Bariloche... my final stop before flying to Buenos Aires.
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