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Did I make the mistake of saying how good Argentinian buses were in that last blog? Well, big comfy seats don't make up for a bus that turns up over 4 hours late, picks you up and then breaks down half an hour later only to return along the highway to the place you just came from in the dark of night with no headlights on…
But - that's part of travelling which, as a side note, I'm still not sure about. I like the 'being' thing but the bits in between are not much fun. In any case we made it to Puerto Madryn (in the end).
Puerto Madryn is a seaside town on the West coast of Argentina, a little reminiscent of downtown Eastbourne (if you had to make comparisons) with its own pier and everything. However, a short walk along this pier finds no amusement arcades but little penguins swimming through the water like darts as they dive after fish then come back to the surface for a deep breath. In the winter (July-ish) you can see huge Southern Right whales thrashing around just a few hundred metres off shore. However, it was the middle of the summer so we had to make do with the hundreds of stickers in the tour agency windows showing the whale's tails sticking out of the water.
We had spent a day checking out the town, albeit with not much to check, so sat down for dinner that night to figure out what to do next. Here, something terrible happened. There's something wrong if you begin to crave broccoli and fruit juice over steak, chips and red wine. Something very wrong indeed but that was what was happening! Wondering if, like some species of fish, I may have begun life male but was now beginning a painful transition to becoming female I uttered the words 'I don't fancy steak tonight' and put down the menu with shaking hands. Thankfully, as we're back on the coast the menu has started to include seafood again and I was thus saved having to ask Eleanor to request a special dish of steamed carrots, no sauce, and could go for the seafood soup instead. Phew.
So, what did we decide to do with no whales around? We signed up for a boat ride to look for one of the world's smallest dolphins - the Commerson's, little (1.5m max) things that are black and white and so look like baby killer whales. Sadly, the sea was really quite rough and the boat had to give up after half an hour as the worried captain tried his best to get us to shore without having to explain to his boss how he lost his 20 tourists at sea.
Following the failed boat ride we travelled, disappointed, out to a piece of land famous for being a penguin nesting ground. We got there to find hundreds, maybe thousands of the things nesting under bushes or waddling around on their long walk somewhere. As things were looking good we got caught in a sudden and massive thunder storm. This meant we did our own waddling, dripping wet, back to the bus as the penguins sat there wondering how they could be so wet and yet still so slow…we finished up the day with a coffee in a small (allegedly) Welsh village called Gaiman. One of the first places Europeans settled in Argentina - led by the Welsh who seem to have got rather excited by the farming opportunities. Typical. The village now seems to be a little more Argentinian.
With the day finished we decided to get involved with some more natural encounters and signed up for a SCUBA dive the next day.
The water we normally dive in is abouth 27 Celsius.The water in Argentina was 12 degrees. We normally dive in 3mm thick, short wetsuits and can see anywhere between 10 and 35 metres. In Puerto Madryn this day we were in 10mm double wetsuits with hoods, could see about 1 metre forwards and that was it. So why would we consider diving here? Well, it's one of the only places in the world where you can dive with Fur Seals. Normally, they can be a little aggressive but these ones just want to play - just like dogs. As soon as you go down a few inquisitive seals start circling you, their heads popping out of the gloom as they eyeball you then spin away from you back into the cover of the murky water. Finally, they get enough courage and start coming over for a stroke, then they start nibbling your wetsuit or swimming up behind you, biting your wetsuit hood and trying to yank it from your head. Some even bite your bare hands with a soft, playful nip that could easily be harder if they wanted to hurt you. A totally great experience, we came back to the surface laughing as the seals decided to dive down and disappear as we hopped back onto the boat for a welcome cup of hot coffee to warm our hands back up. Quick tip, never lick the 'coffee' off your hands after a dive. It may just be seal s**t and you might well end up retching all the way home...
With that, we booked ourselves on a bus to Buenos Aires and travelled there the next day.
Buenos Aires is meant to be one of the most fun cities in the world to visit. It's the 3rd biggest city in the world (after Sao Paolo and Tokyo) and we didn't see that much of it, just San Telmo where we stayed and a few areas nearby. Yep, it's fun if cities are your thing but after 6 years of living in London it's not really a way of life we feel we don't know and so we decided to stay only a few days before leaving…in that time WE GOT OUR PASSPORTS AND BANK CARDS BACK!!!!!! At last, no thanks to the Foreign Office muppets in Buenos Aires who carried on the trend of incompetence we saw in Chile (this time involving the suggestion that we get our bank cards and replacement camera charger sent to the embassy there only for Argentinan customs to retain the package as it was addressed to an Argentine citizen who worked there and hence would have to pay duty on these items). Another wasted day spent convincing customs at the airport that it was in fact my stuff and that I was not from Argentina and a further 100 quid down the pan to reclaim the package. Finally, we had all our stuff replaced. 2 months after it was stolen. The Embassy's view? And I quote:
'Ha Ha, well, that's a record even for us'.
Thanks for the help guys.
And with that, we celebrated with a late night (funnily enough with a guy we met in our hostel and the Embassy who had just had his passport stolen and was facing similar uslessness - 2 days just to give him the right forms).
Then, we left behind Argentina to a country with no British Embassy thinking that at least if something goes wrong they would not be there to mess it up. Next stop…Uruguay!
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