March & April, 2005
PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA
March 23-27, 2005
Ah, Patagonia - it might be one of our new favorite spots! It actually means big foot in the native language of the area, and we would not have been surprised had we encountered Big Foot in our travels throughout this region. It is that vast and that wild, and everything about it is extreme. If you are at all unsure about where or what is Patagonia, check out this map at www.enjoy-patagonia.org/images/mapacompleto-grande-ing.gif. Patagonia is essentially Southern Argentina and Chili, stretching south from the Colorado River, which runs west to east, southwest of Buenos Aires, to the Pacific Ocean on the West, the Atlantic Ocean on the East, and Tierra del Fuego to the South. Chile and Argentina are divided by the Andes Mountains which run North to South through Patagonia.
As for the climate and geography, briefly, the Chilean side of Patagonia is actually much wetter than its Argentinian side. Winds from the Pacific Ocean move accross the Andes, leaving moisture carried from the ocean in Chile, on the western side of the Andes, before moving across the mountains to Argentina. As such, most of Patagonia in Argentina, including the areas around Trelew, Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes is comprised of vast, open, windswept, arid plains and bright blue skies. Like the rest of Patagonia, these areas experience extreme temperatures in both the summer and the winter.
Harsh conditions prevented many people from settling the area, although the Welsh settled in Puerto Madryn in 1865 and the development of the Patagonia railway, now closed, brought Italian and Spanish immigrants (and great food!) to the region as well. The fact that Patagonia has remained largely untouched means that its natural resources are unspoilt (you can actually drink the water) and animal life flourishes. If you are lucky, you can see an occasional puma or puda, herds of wild guanacos (think deer meets llama), sheep, foxes, condors, the albatross, sea lions, elephant seals, penguins, whales, saltwater and freshwater fish galore, including wild rainbow, brook and brown trout, just to name a few. And, at night, you can see the constellation Orion upside down, as well as the famed Southern Cross.
Although you can drive or take a bus to Patagonia, we flew from Buenos Aires to Trelew in less than 2 hours for less than $100 each on Argentinia Airlines. From there, we took a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast, where we spent the next four days exploring the region, including the famous Peninsula Valdes, about an hour North of Puerto Madryn. We spent one day sea kayaking in Puerto Piramides, in the Golfo Nuevo and the next day, saw sea lions and huge elephant seals at Punta Norte, as well as tons of Magellan Penguins near Punto Cantor and Caleta Valdes on Peninsula Valdes (you can actually walk among the penguins at Punto Tombo, just south of Puerto Madryn, although we did not visit this colony since we saw so many penguins on Peninsula Valdes).
We were also supposed to see killer whales or orcas at Punto Norte or Punta Cantor. Apparently, they come to the area in March to hunt the baby seals who are just learning how to swim, but are not smart enough to outwit or outswim the orcas. Unfortunately - and in someways fortunately - we did not seee any orcas. We have been told that they employ a very rare hunting tactic (performed only two places in the world, here at Peninsula Valdes and near some remote islands in another part of the world). As we understand it, the orcas swim at full speed to shore and beach themselves temporarily to catch some baby seals, before heading back out to sea. Since only a few of the orcas can actually perform this hunting trick - they say it takes years of training and skill before an orca can successfully pull off this maneuver - the park rangers have tracked only 10 orcas that actually do the hunting on Peninsula Valdes. Apparently, they catch enough to feed the rest of the family. But, alas, as luck would or would not have it, depending on how you look at it, we did not get to witness this spectacular site on the day we visited the peninsula.
We organized our tours and kayaking through the hostel we stayed at in Puerto Madryn - El Gualicho Hostel (www.elgualichohostel.com.ar), which is maybe the nicest hostel we have stayed in thus far on our trip. For about $18 a night (which is cheap in Patagonia), we had our own big room and private bathroom, and breakfast was included. As we quickly learned, breakfast included in South America generally, but not always, means rolls, bread or toast, butter, jam, and tea or coffee. In Argentina, it also inclued dulce de leche (essentially soft milk caramel), which they eat on and in just about everything in Argentina (see the picture of the ice cream cones filled with it in Salta). It is delicious, albeit really sweet and probably not so good for you or your teeth.
Either way, back to tours and activities, you can also book these through the various travel agents or dive companies in town, and believe us, there are lots of them. On our last day, Mike, and this German couple we met who were awesome, Charlotte and Felix, signed up for a ship wreck dive (which they loved) off the coast of Puerto Madryn through one of the dive companies with a shop right on the beach. While they went diving, Ruthie walked to the Ecology Center just outside of town and had a wonderful afternoon checking out the exhibits, listening to recorded whale sounds, and eating a yummy lunch at the cafe. We also went on a few runs at sunset along the beach and saw the movie Closer one night at the local movie theater.
We spent our last night in this area of Patagonia in the town of Trelew since we had a really early flight to El Calafate the following morning. Since Charlotte and Felix were on this flight, we all took the bus to Trelew together, found a cheap hotel, watched a soccer game in the hotel's old school bar/restaurant - which, as an aside, had excellent service - went to a really delicious dinner at a former-flour-mill-now-turned- restaurant, and then called it an early night.
