We got into a bit of a pickle on our way to the east Atlantic coast. We were planning on trying to stay at an estancia and go on a ten hour hike through canyons and to the cave of hands and back. As we were travelling across the barren wastelands of the Andean Steppe we started to ask some questions to each other that perhaps we should have asked earlier!! Like 'after the estancia, how will we get back to Perito Moreno?' (which was the nearest town). So after we'd asked each other this and didn't seem to know the answer, we asked the driver. Through our broken understanding of Spanish we discovered that we would only be able to get back by hitching. As I have mentioned before, we are literally travelling with nearly all but the kitchen sink. We would NOT be attractive pick ups as hitchers.
So, we scrapped our plan of the estancia, which upon reading about more closely is really only accessible by car and decided to stay on the bus to Perito Moreno. We then spent the rest of the journey there trying to figure out how we could get from Perito Moreno eastwards and up the coast to Puerto Madryn, which is next to Peninsula Valdez.
By the time we had figured out a route we had arrived at the town. One of our lovely bus drivers helped us to get a bed in his friends hotel for cheap and we started to cross our fingers that the buses wouldn't all be booked up! Our hotel was hilarious and definitely one for the memory banks! It was a like time warp, stuck in about 1975, from all the furniture, the scowling countenance of our host right down to the groups of middle age men playing cards for money whilst smoking and drinking at midday. Brilliant. We marched straight to the bus station to see if we could get on the next bus to Comodoro Rividavia in which we could swap to (still fingers crossed) a night bus to Puerto Madryn. As we walked through the small, literally one road town towards the bus station, I felt there was quite some charm about the place. The people were really friendly, I had to print, scan and email a document and the lovely man not only charged me about 40p to do so but also gave us a Route 40 keyring each, get in!! AND we found a cafe with the fastest wifi in all of Argentina so far in which we sat in all the next day as we waited for the bus, with Lyndsey and Sandro. So as you can guess from the previous sentence, we managed to get a ticket from a strange old lady at the bus station which left for the coast at 4pm the next day. Hoorah!
We arrived at Comodoro Rividavia at 9pm and scored two tickets to Puerto Madryn no problems from a lovely and incredibly well dressed man at the company Don Otto. He even let us keep our HUGE bags in their tiny office. Then we scarpered and found a very friendly cafe again with wifi, (result!) and sat there eating and drinking until our bus left at 1am that night. Up until they closed at middnight there were still young families coming in with spritely kids. It was very strange. It mist be the siesta they have from 1pm until 5pm every day in full effect!
We arrived in Puerto Madryn at 6am into a plush and very well equipped bus station. We had made it! With no preparation and by luck of the buses it seems. PHEW!!
Our hostel was lovely and really clean and even though we had to spend three nights in a six person dorm (I much prefer the tent to dorms) all with smelly boys who snored ALL night, we eventually got into our own room with our own bathroom, paradise! It cost us a pretty penny but it was so worth it. After all that camping we needed soft beds, lies in and our own space.
From our hostel we arranged for the second day of us being here a tour of Peninsula Valdez. We had been told that their tours here were good, especially the guide. They weren't wrong. Our guide was brilliant and he knew so much about the wildlife we saw, in fact he was so enthusiastic about it! We loved asking him questions! Especially as his voice was so funny. He had a few mannerisms that made us really enjoy listening to him throughout our ten hour round trip. He was humm after every sentence that he said and his pronunciations and jokes made him sound like he was singing!
So first stop on our little bus was at a cute museum which had a full sized Southern Right Whale skeleton on display. The very whale we had come to see! We were keeping our fingers firmly crossed that some were still around as it is the very last days of the season. The Whales come into the bay as the waters are warm and protected to calf and nurse their babies. If we had been here about a month ago we would have seen many many whales and their babies but at this time most had left as their calves were old enough to experience the open sea.
So after the museum we drove to the tiny village on the peninsula right on the shores of Golfo Nuevo. This was where we were going to get on our boat to seek out the whales! We were so excited but trying to hold it down as we didn't want to be disappointed. Everyone kept saying 'at this time of year there is no guarantee that you will see whales'. We were so excited but also so apprehensive. We put on our bright orange life jackets and all headed to the boat. As the boat was driven down to and we entered the sea we both focussed on the horizon, remembering our furrowed brows and focussing eyes from our Pacific Coast three day search for whales. After about ten minutes there was a big patch of sea up ahead that was being flown into by a large group of sea gulls. Ooo! What could this be. As we came closer and the boat's engine was cut we sat still and listened. Then a second later we saw a flurry of action right next to the boat. Small dorsal fins broke the surface and we realised we were right next to a small group of dolphins!
NB - Please excuse the quality of wildlife photography from this point on. We really were too busy looking with our eyes!
They were small and black and white and we were told that they were rounding up the fish into a bait ball and then eating them. The sea gulls were gaining from their work too and diving into the top of the bait ball to eat the fish. Then a huge un-dolphin like shape leaped out of the water!! It took a while for my eyes to take in what the shape was and as I was looking another sea lion jumped clean out of the water, arcing her brown body into a sleek curve and re-entering the water with barely a splash. AmAzing! I had not seen a sea lion jump before and before I knew it I saw two more jumps. The sea lions were so funny! They came really close next to our boat and really looked at us. Their heads looked so funny popping out of the water like that!
After a short while we moved off, back in search of whales again. About five minutes later we spotted a still boat on the horizon. As we became closer to it, a HUGE shape moved up vertically right in front of the boat, dwarfing it as it did so. Incredible! I was the head of a massive Southern Right Whale!! Hooray! It made us suck in our breath and when we exhaled it was a 'wow' that came out of our lips. We watched on as her huge barnacled head bobbed up a few more times and then she started to float towards our boat. We were told that she was a very old whale, a grandma, and her calf was about three months old. He was a playful thing, mostly swirling around on his mother's tail. Her 'soplos' or the water and air she ejects when she breathes was really resonant and an incredible sound. We spent some time with her as she sank and rose above the surface, lifted her fins, lifted up her gargantuan head and as her calf rolled and played about her side. It was astounding. Then we headed off in search of any others we could find.
We came across another whale and her calf who weren't that happy to see us. She turned around and immersed herself and slowly swam away. Then almost right next to her there was another mother and calf who were much more pleased to see us and curious enough to venture right up to the boat. We spent time 'oo-ing' and 'ahh-ing' as she sank and rose and rolled onto her side to show her fins. Her calf was really playful and after spending many minutes with them we started to move off. As we did the calf rolled onto his side and waved us goodbye with his fin, it was incredible!! Such a moment. As we moved further away, the calf then launched himself out of the water and splashed back down again! Brilliant! We were so happy - smiling from ear to ear as we motored back to Puerto Pirimides.
On we went with the tour and after a short drive we drove to a small penguin colony, the penguins of the Magallens variety (the only one in the world with a black stripe on its tummy). They had nested on the cliff top above the beach and we could get really close to them here. We had to be very quiet and look very carefully for chicks. It wasn't long until we saw a big fluffy one stood in front of it's mum/dad in their rock nest. Cool!
There were penguins, chilling and flapping around and all the way at the bottom of the cliff we saw then waddle into the sea and speed off. They are so cute!
Next we went to a place on top of the cliff where we could look down upon an Elephant Seal colony which had gathered on a sandy bar. They were SO fat! It was only the females and the pups left at this time of year. The massive blubber nosed males that give the seals their names are long gone filling up their blubber carcasses out in the open sea. They were a very still but loud bunch. The grating pulsating sound that they emanate is a very strange sound, a bit like when your ears are muffled with too much water and then they gurgle back to clear hearing. They hardly moved but when they did it was hilarious. A group of adults were around some sea water and a couple of them were lying there with their heads dipped in the water to keep them cool. Others would snort and move their flippers to flick sand and cool stones onto their backs.
We drove to another place where we could see elephant seals and sea lions. There was a lot more action here. We watched as a couple of seals frolicked in the water doing a sort of open mouthed slow fight dance (Check out our Flickr video of this interaction when I can finally upload it).
A lot of the seals were all different colours. When I asked our guide Daniel why this was he told me it was because they were moulting. I looked at one close up and it was gross! The new fresh black skin was visible but around it hung on gobbules of palid dead skin, yuck. We spent about half an hour watching these funny creatures through our binoculars and our camera lenses and then we were off driving back to Puerto Madryn which would take about two hours. Time for a snooze!
Since that fantastic day we haven't really done much really. We really have just chilled out and relaxed. We've been on picnics on the beach. Each day has been a sunny, warm and totally blue sky day. We've been revelling in the novelty of this throughout our walks on the beach and whilst drinking delicious red wine. I;ve read a book in two days, Sam's done lots of writing. I've been reading and starting to plan our Bolivia trip (very excited) and I've caught up on this blog and trying to upload photos (which take about two hours to do twenty!!). We've really needed this still time. I've been poorly as well, a head cold and a nasty cough but I'm getting better. I really like Puerto Madryn. It's a really chilled out, friendly place with a slow pace and a fantastic atmosphere. We're off to El Bolson on the other side of the country tomorrow night so we will be leaving Patagonia and entering The Lake District. Then on to Bariloche, the chocolate capital of Argentina, just in time for Christmas! Hooray!
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