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27th November 2003
The overnight bus trip was not bad; I slept well in the semi cama seat.
But in the morning, the passing scenario was shocking, bleak shrub filled
deserts on both sides, stretching up to horizon we are already deep
inside Argentine Patagonia- the vast desolate, windswept desert like area of
Argentina; stretching from Rio Negro on the north to all the way down south
above Tera del Fuego Island.
Darwin referred to it as A Cursed Land.
It is cursed by Andes. Andes takes away all the moisture from the wind
blowing eastward from the vast expanses of Pacific letting only dry air
pass over this vast land; as a result, where as on average it rains over
7,500 mm a year in the Chilean Patagonia, on the Argentine Patagonia annually
receives only about 220mm of rainfall.
When glaciers from the last ice age descended to Atlantic, they had to cover
immense distances over the Argentine Patagonian land; on the way they
flattened the land and crushed the stones to pebbles or sand now only die
hard shrubs cling to them no trees or other vegetation, except for along
some river banks.
Through out the History there were many attempts to colonise these vast
areas, without much success.
It is the most bleak and depressing landscape I have ever seen, it was so
tiring and boring that soon I dozed off, and woke up only as we were
approaching beautiful Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast. It was literally
an oasis at the end of that desolate landscape.
At Puerto Madryn bus terminal first I checked out hostel information and
booked a single room at Hotel Vasconia ($12/day). Next checked out
the bus timing and prices for Mendoza only available option was a 24-hour
bus journey in a semi cama bus I decided to find more information on
sights and activities around Puerto Madryn before deciding which day and
what time to leave for Mendoza.
Took the short walk to the hotel on the main street of this small town. My room
is in the ground floor of this two storied small but neat hotel. The
room was also small but neat , with an attached bath. I took a hot shower and
went out for a quick walkabout around and lunch.
Puerto Madryn has a unique history and culture, it was established by
disaffected Welsh settlers from United Kingdom around 1886 who wanted to
escape the English tyranny of that time and intended to establish a Welsh
settlement in order to preserve their unique language and culture. In this
desolate land, it was an uphill battle for those brave Welsh settlers. Some
gave up and moved elsewhere; diehards remained maintaining small pockets
of welsh language and culture till today.
It is a small picturesque town of 60,000 with a half moon shaped beachfront.
On the northern end of the beach there is a long jetty reaching into the
deep waters, where visiting passenger ships berth this morning there was
one. I took a slow stroll along the beach, it was windy and a bit chilly
and there were very few people on the beach.
I took my lunch at a small beachfront restaurant changed some dollars and
went back to the bus station to book a whole day bus tour of Peninsula
Valdes for the next day, including whale watching in a boat . I also booked a
24-hour bus trip to Mendoza, departing day after tomorrow, around midday. On
my way back checked emails, wrote up some diary and made a phone call.
In the late afternoon as I was shopping for a pair of boxer shorts, there I
had an interesting conversation with the a shop sales assistant.
The topic was, who is the most famous Argentine, inside Argentina and
overseas. According to him, within Argentina it is either General San Martin
(the liberator of Argentina) or Diego Maradona but with respect to
overseas fame, I pointed out that till visiting Argentina I never heard of
General San Martin he agreed, in terms of overseas fame the competition is
between Che Guevara and Maradona, probably Maradona winning by a large
margin because of his much wider mass appeal. It was an interesting
discussion of perspectives.
In the evening I stumbled upon a Tenidor Libre (all you can eat) Chinese
Restaurant I was delighted to find something different and decided to have
dinner there. It was great, lot of Chinese food at the buffet bar and then there
was traditional Argentine grilled meat in another corner. I ate voraciously.
On return to the hotel, met a Belgian guy, a fellow boarder; had a good
hours chat and laugh with him exchanging our travel stories one of the
best part of backpacking is meeting other interesting backpackers.
28th November 2003
Next morning the tour bus picked me up from the hotel around 7:30 AM. I
almost missed the bus; the bus came and picked the other tourists but forgot
to call me! Fortunately, it returned soon to pick up a forgotten ladys
handbag, and the guide realised his mistake from a head count and picked me
up this time. So I was able to join the trip by accident.
As soon as we were out of town, the bleak landscape was back and it remained
so till we returned to Puerto Madryn in the evening. It was a 400km round
trip through this bleak landscape.
Peninsula Valdes is a mushroom shaped peninsula protruding into Atlantic
from the belly of Argentina it is connected with the mainland with a
narrow stem or neck, which at its narrowest is about 3 km wide. There are
two gulfs on each side of the neck Golfo San Jose to the north and Golfo
Nuevo to the south. There is a strange phenomenon associated with the two
gulfs although separated by a narrow neck of the peninsula, when one is
having a low tide other is having a high tide, this occurs because
the openings of the two gulfs are narrow and far apart and tidal flows has
to go around the mushroom shaped main mass of the peninsula The unique
location and formation of this peninsula made it a natural marine and other
wild life sanctuary. Whole Peninsula is a protected natural area and
declared Cultural Mankind Patrimony by UNESCO.
After an hours ride we arrived at the small museum located near the
narrowest point of the neck of the peninsula. We had a brief stopover here;
I visited the small museum and took few photographs from the viewing tower
next to it.
Next we headed for the Punta Notre at the north-eastern tip of the peninsula
to watch some sea elephants and penguins; it was another two and a half hour
journey through this shrub covered semi desert landscape. Although the
season is almost over, there are few of sea elephants still hanging around for us to
see.
It was not worth this boring journey. Sea Elephants are most uninteresting,
they just lie down on the sand, they are so still one has to wonder
whether they are dead or alive but anyway our young guide was very excited
about sea elephants, he would like to be reborn as a Sea Elephant only because,
in a Sea elephant colony there are dozens of mating females for each male
Sea Elephant - that was the sole reason behind his wish.
I quipped, what happens if he is reborn as a female Sea Elephant? - Whole
bus broke into laughter and his jaws dropped, he has not thought about
that possibility.
Next we headed for Punta Cantor, to watch some penguins, some more boring
sea elephants and Guanacos (somewhat deer like animals). It was an hours
journey. Punta Cantor has a unique geography; a finger like narrow and long
bay runs along the cost with a narrow opening to the south, creating a
natural sheltered sanctuary for the marine lives.
The few Penguins that were there, were the most interesting their human
like pasture and monk like attitude never failed to fascinate me took few
photographs of them. After some walking around the bay we went to have
lunch in the tourist restaurant nearby.
After lunch we headed back towards the narrow neck of the peninsula, to
Puerto Piramides on the coast of Golfo Nuevo to watch SOUTHERN RIGHT
WHALES the main attraction of the trip.
Puerto Piramides is a lovely little paradise, with a motel and quite a few
cafes and restaurants on the beach front buzzing with tourists. Whale
watching boats were coming and going from the beach not from any wharf,
here they have a unique arrangement to launch the whale watching boats from
the beach. Boats are placed on high metal-framed trailers on wheels with
opening at the astern. Passengers board the boat through a mobile gangway
placed near the boat. Then a tractor gently pushes the trailer with the boat
down the gentle slope of the beach into the water. Once the trailer is
at sufficient draft and the boat is afloat the boat moves away from the
trailer with slow astern movement of its outboard engine. On return reverse
is done to disembark the passengers.
When our turn came, we went out the same way for an hours cruise and whale
watching the boats crew assured us, as it is quite a calm day we are sure
to see many whales.
Southern Right whales are known for their tameness, slow movement and
curiosity. It is a safe animal to approach, even when it comes close enough
to touch the boat. They come to gulfs and waters around Peninsula Valdes for
mating. Adult Southern Right Whales weigh around 35-55 ton with lengths
between 39-52 feet; a newborn calf weighs 3 ton with a length of 13-14 feet.
The mating season is generally between June 15 to December 15. We are almost
at the end of the season, males has already left for the south pole, mothers
with newborn calves are waiting for the calves to grow strong enough for the
long journey to the south soon they will be departing too. We are expected
to see many mother whales with newborn calves.
Initially we did not see any whale for a while, as we cruised towards the
depth of the bay then we saw whales near another boat a bit far away. We
headed for that direction a pair of mother and a baby, we could not see
them from close as they drove under before we could get close to them
anyway I got my first glimpse of whale and took quite a few photographs.
Soon there were mother and babies everywhere, our boat was cruising between
whales it was a feast of whale sightings some very very close I was
clicking away my camera with multiple exposure mode to capture their
actions. A particular mother and baby pair came very close and stayed with
us for a while I was taking photographs like there is no tomorrow soon, to my
despair, I realised I have ran out of films; - that particular mother and
baby pair was still next to our boat I despaired in frustration.
Then the mother and the baby dove under our boat, I jumped to the other side
of the boat to see them come out to my surprise, the baby surfaced next to
me, literally next to where I was holding the side of the boat on impulse
I gave two quick pats (although we are not supposed to touch them) on its
back WHAT A MOMENT I do not know whether the baby felt my pat, it did
not give any indication.
Later, a very kind fellow tourist, seeing my despair, offered me a spare
roll of film I shot some more photos before returning to the beach after
an exhilarating whale watching I wished I had time to go for another
cruise. But sun was fading and we returned to Puerto Madryn.
I had dinner at the same Chinese Restaurant there I met few of the tourists
I have been travelling with that day and on their request had dinner
together with them chatting about nothing but whales particularly
watching video and still from their digital cameras.
After dinner returned to hotel, and retired soon after next day I will be
taking a very long 24-hour bus journey to Mendoza.
29th November 2003
After checking emails and writing my lagging diary, took the 12:00 PM bus to
Mendoza. Twenty-four hour Journey in a Semi Cama bus, not so comfortable
but I was getting used to long bus journeys.
First hour of the journey was quite pleasant, in spite of the bleak
landscape that we were passing through I had a pleasant company in the
next seat a local student named Beleny she is a tourism student, taking
the short trip to nearby mining town where her parents work as engineers.
She spoke reasonable good English, though haltingly. We chatted about
Patagonia and Argentine folk music, she is a big fan of folk music and
suggested few CDs for my collection. Soon we arrived at her destination and
a massive lady took her seat. I dozed off.
I occasionally woke up, when the bus stopped at numerous small towns along
the road these were oasis type towns near some river in these Patagonian
landscape one could see some green trees.
Around 10:00 PM we stopped at Neuquen for a very late dinner included with
my ticket. Neuquen is a large city - recently there were some political
unrest going around here. Dinner was in a typical Argentine barbeque
restaurant good meat, thats all.
Soon after we started again and I went to sleep straightway.
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