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Stu & Amy See The World!
Puerto Madryn
23rd June - 26th June 2006
The overnight bus service from Bariloche to Puerto Madryn is excellent. 13hrs go by and we get a small amount of sleep as well as loads of food and drink.
We arrive in a dark, damp and cold Puerto Mardyn at 7.00am and after wandering the streets for what seems like hours we book into the El Gualicho hostel. We go straight to bed until noon trying to catch up on lost sleep.
We head down to the sea front and immediately spot several mating pairs of Southern Right Whales frolicking in the sea, just a few hundred meters away. We go for a walk along the pier to get a better view and then head off to the Ecocentre to learn all out the whales and other local sea life (sea lions, elephant seals, penguins etc etc).
The eco centre is very good and we indulge in a coffee and a cake afterwards. Amy has a submarino which is a glass of hot milk with a bar of chocolate submerged in it, very tasty.
We head back to the hostel and on the way catch a beautiful sunset over the dry plains of northern Patagonia. We book ourselves a tour to Peninsula Valdez (PV) for tomorrow and head out for a great meal of steak and chips.
We head off early the next day for PV which is shaped a bit like a ships anchor with protected gulfs to the north and south encompassed within the peninsula itself. This is idea whale breeding territory as, like in Kaikoura (NZ), there is a huge underwater shelf where the sea depth increases dramatically. Thus there is easy access to food for a pregnant mother.
The highlight of the day was going out on a little boat no more than 500m offshore and watching the southern right whales competing for the attention of and the opportunity to mate with the females. We were witness to plenty of splashing around, whale noises and at one stage a group of them swam right underneath the boat. At 16m long and weighing in at around 50000 kgs (I think that's right) like the Sperm Whales we saw in NZ one couldn't ask for a more majestic sight, once more truly awe inspiring to be so close to these mammals.
The rest of the day was taken up really as just a sideshow, we saw the sea lions and elephant seals as well as alpaca, flamingos and native emu like creatures.
The following day was the big footy game, England against Ecuador.
Despite not really having a clue how we would be received as tourists and in particular English tourists in Argentina we have been pleasantly surprised to see just how friendly everyone is towards us. We have the impression that Argentina is generally a safe and easy country in which to travel around with more than adequate tourist facilties.
However, we are beginning to notice that as soon as we tell people where we are from, 9 times out of 10 it is a certain conversation killer. Also, where football comes into things then the Argies are a completely different bunch altogether.
Random aside 1 - We have also noticed wherever we have been in South America so far that everyone seems to be carrying large TVs for some reason???
As we watched the footy with one other person it became clear who we were supporting (England obviously) and who he was supporting, Ecuador. Was this guy from Ecuador? Of course not he was an Argentinian and just like we would normally be supporting anyone but the Argies he was doing the same and supporting anyone but the English (as well as all those bloody Scots).
England win but its like the game was never played as there was no urgency and no excitement whatsoever.
We celebrate by going out for a nice meal in the evening and play some pool. Stu has some great ham stuffed chicken.
The next day we are off to Bahia Blanca but not before we have a chance to sample one of the areas main delights, A Welsh tea house. Now I know what you are thinking cause I was equally baffled by this as well, what the f*** is a welsh tea house doing in Patagonia?
Well, apparently the Welsh had ideas way above their station that they could go around colonizing places as well as the traditional sea fairing nations. Alternatively maybe they just wanted to get away from the English and were granted permission to set up colonies by the Argies in 18 or 19 something. Thus, apparently there are still some remaining welsh speaking villages left in Argentina and we needed a bit of reminding what home was like so we visited one of these tea houses.
Well how great was that then? 7 types of cake and numerous cups of DECENT tea later we trudged out and took one last view of the whales before setting off north and hopefully into some decent weather for a change.
Lots of love and keep the messages coming
Stu & Amy.
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