Puerto Madryn - Fabulous Whale Watching - WOW
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
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92
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Trip End
Nov 01, 2005
Puerto Madryn,
Argentina
Monday, June 27, 2005
We arrived at 7am and headed straight to the HI hostel - they had a room free and as we both had a restless night we headed to bed for a couple of hours. We woke up a bit cold as the gas had been turned off for maintenance. Puerto Madryn is the whale watching centre of Argentina and at certain times of the year they have a unique Orca behavior - this is where the Orcas run themselves onto the beach to catch seals & penguins etc - the only place in the world that they do it. Sadly itīs not that time of year! Everything here is shut..... the two main museums that people come for are shut for the month of June. After a walk along the beach (itīs 10 degrees and very windy) we spent some time on the internet, we had a bite of lunch, Stewart got a haircut and we did some supermarket shopping - exciting life. We chilled in the hostel before heading out for a Chinese meal - to find the restaurant closed
01 Puerto Madryn Welsh Mothers Statue
! We headed to the waterfront and ate in Pacifico - a rather posh but very friendly place. Stewart had some lovely cod (unless we say different Gillian had the steak!) and we had a lovely Caprese Salad starter - the food was a little more expensive than normal but excellent - and the service was to a very high standard. The waiter showed us his Irish Jacket which matched Stewartīs Irish rugby jersey - both being fake!! Day 241 Tuesday 28/06/05 Puerto Madryn
Itīs our main whale watching day....yippeeee. Our transport turned out to be a poor condition Renault in which the guide fitted 4 of us. We headed out to Peninsula Valdes wondering why we didnīt hire a car. After paying our park entrance we visited the Interpretation centre and spent 1/2 hour there. Other groups were being guided but our nameless guide left us to it! We then headed down to the main port to get our boat - but the winds are too strong so they have closed the port. We headed off over the peninsula - lots of scrub, really bad gravel roads and no coastline - and after passing 3 salt lakes (the lowest point in Argentina at some 42 metres below sea level) we arrive at place where you can get really close to elephant seals......and guess what...itīs shut! The road here was atrocious - we felt sure that we were goimg to crash twice and we amost lost the exhaust by scraping along huge channels of gravel - this is why you hire a driver and not rent a car. After talking to some passing gauchos n horseback(who said hang around to see if it opens) we drive off again further north to another area where you get to see elephant seals. Earlier in the day the guide had tried to talk us out of this section because the roads are so bad.....but they werenīt! He obviously wanted to conserve fuel and save time
02 Whale Watching From Boat
. Anyway, we walked along the cliff and were treated to a long distance view of loads of elephant seals. We headed back to the port (another 1hr on bumpy roads) and found the port still closed. They think it will open about 3 so we head to a local cafe for lunch - after finding the good one shut we head to another one and have a really nice pizza. Back to the port and we get the ok to go!!! We put on life jackets and our boat is the first to head out. Itīs still very windy and the sea is choppy - we bounce around a lot. Almost immediately after leaving we spot our first whale - a lovely Southern Right Whale. Through the next hour we get to see 4/5 different whales and they stay up for ages. One massive whale got really close to the boat (5 metres away) and that is absolutely amazing. We head back to shore and a number of passengers are looking a little green - including Stewart! It was a lovely trip and the whales were excellent. We drive back to town (about 2 hours) and Stewart heads to bed...still feeling queasy. Gillian headed into town alone and had a lovely meal at a place called Mar y Meseta, treating herself to some delicious scallops.Day 242 Wednesday 29/06/05 Puerto Madryn to San Antonio De Areco
Stewart spent the morning sending pictures home on the net while Gillian found the Post Office to send some of you a postcard
03 It's cold, it's choppy, it's Stewart
! At one o clock we were collected by a lovely guy in a very modern 4x4 vehicle and we headed out to see some whales from the beach on one side of the peninsula. Our first stop was on a cliff where we watched half a dozen seals frolicking in the sea below. We also spotted some whales in the distance and we have to confess we were expecting no more for our 40 pesos each (yesterday had cost about 180 each). After going through a mud hole which coated the side of the van and came through the drivers open window we headed further along with the driver saying in Spanish that there was better to come. We pulled off the road and onto the gravel beach....where we saw a whale right in front of us and about oh...10 or 15ms away....wow! Wow! Wow! We spent 2 hours watching various whales (at one point 6 of them very close to us) swimming near the beach - mostly about 20m away from us. Neither of us had ever seen anything like this and we had our jaws dropped for ages! They swam around, made very loud noises, splashed their fins, swam in circles, had a meeting with other whales and amazed the tourists. We had a huge section of the beach to ourselves....a bus group had arrived and they stayed at the far end watching a whale of their own! We walked along the beach at the pace of the swimming whales and just had an awesome 2 hours. Itīs amazing. We headed back to town early and asked to be dropped off at the Falklands War Memorial. The driver was stunned that (a) we were back early and (b) we were wanting to walk for a while! The memorial was lovely and the best we have seen - almost every town has a memorial and they are very prominent. The "loss" of the Islas Malvinas still rankles here. We walked into the centre and had a late lunch in a nice cafe where we caught some of the football - Brazil thumping Argentina 4-1 in the Confederations Cup final....no wonder our driver was happy to be back early...football is a passion over here. We headed for the bus station and caught our bus at 6.45 - half an hour late....but we are on it for 18 hours so who cares! 
