Patagonia: Puerto Madryn
Having settled into my hotel and had a much-needed shower, I headed out to explore the town. My first afternoon in Puerto Madryn was free so I walked along the beach up towards the nearest peninsula, where I had been promised beautiful views and a much anticipated nature museum: the Ecocenter. The views were as promised, and the weather was lovely, so I really enjoyed my stroll up to the top of the peninsula. However, upon arriving at the Ecocenter I found that it was only open Thursday to Sunday, and then only from 3pm to 7pm. With opening times like that, it seems hardly worth bothering! Sadly for me, it was Monday, and I was leaving early on Thursday morning. So, I sat and enjoyed the views for a while. Wandering around the perimeter of the museum I found I was still able to catch a glimpse of the skeleton of the famous Orca – Mel who used to rescue lost sea lion pups (usually a tasty snack for an Orca).
On my way back towards town I stopped in at a museum that was actually open, detailing the colonisation of Puerto Madryn by the welsh in the 19th century. The museum was quite good, and just down the shore I was able to visit some man-made caves where the first settlers made their homes. One of the main problems that early settlers of the Chubut region had was a lack of fresh water. There is only one rather small river that serves the entire region, and even today water is a limited resource. Although this doesn’t seem to stop the current residents from almost drowning their lush green grass and elaborate flowerbeds!
Just after sunset I headed out into town to try and find some dinner. After getting a quick drink at a highly recommended bar called Margarita, where I enjoyed a cold beer and watched the owner change a lightbulb, I moved to a restaurant recommended in my guide book as serving the best pizza in town. This restaurant did not disappoint, and for the extremely reasonable price of 50 pesos, I had an especially wonderful meal.
After an hour-long drive, and a chance to wake up properly, we arrived at our first stop the following morning: the visitor centre for Peninsula Valdes. Here they have a skeleton of a baby (but still absolutely enormous) Southern Right Whale, the whales which the area is known for. Unfortunately for me, it was out of whale season, so this was the only specimen I was likely to see. But, beggars can’t be choosers, and it turned out this was exactly the right time of year to see baby sea lions. So we continued on, past Caleta Valdes, a bizarre mound of sediment deposited just off shore when the seas retreated some 90,000 years ago. Another 40 minutes later and we arrived at Punta Norte, where the sea lion colony was to be found. If we were very lucky, we might get to see an Orca (or killer whale, although actually a dolphin, not a whale), as at this time of year they sometimes beach themselves rather dramatically in an attempt to catch the sea lion pups.
Seeing the sea lions was wonderful. At this time of year the mothers have young babies who have just begun to enter the water alone, and watching them play in the waves was magical. They are quite a noisy bunch though! Waiting in tense anticipation, we watched to see if an Orca would appear. I wasn’t quite sure if I should be willing one to appear or not; the idea of seeing a sea lion pup being eaten was not something I relished. Either way, the orcas never turned up, and after about an hour, we headed home.
My last day in Puerto Madryn was the trip I had been looking forward to most – a visit to Punto Tumbo nature reserve and the largest penguin colony in Patagonia. Here we were given an hour and a half to wander through the reserve on specially laid out wooden paths. Immediately upon entering the park, we saw our first penguin. Right there next to the path, just minding its own business! It was amazingly close, and seemed totally calm about our presence. As I continued along the path up a small hill, there was another penguin. And then another, and another, and before I knew it, they were everywhere! Under almost every bush we passed, sitting or laying in the shade. At this time of year, the chicks have grown up and only juveniles and females remain, spending most of their time on land whilst they moult their feathers ready to go back to sea. Some of the penguins were looking a bit dishevelled, with half of their feathers missing, and the ground was absolutely covered in lost feathers.
Apparently in total this colony contains about half a million birds, and it is hard to describe just what 500,000 penguins looks like, but it was absolutely incredible. Dotted about the landscape like pieces of black and white litter. Best of all was how calm they were about humans. When you got too close, some penguins would look a little upset, tilting their heads from side to side in an attempt to judge how close you actually were, but we were still able to get within less than a meter of most of them.
Patagonia: El Calafate
The following afternoon, after an exhausting day of travel, I arrived in El Calafate; the most southerly point on my Argentina adventure. I had dinner at a small pizzeria in town with a couple of Dutch girls I had met at my hotel, and the food was wonderful, although the staff seemed a little perturbed by our limited Spanish.
The following morning we boarded a boat to take a tour of the glaciers this area of Patagonia is known for. The tour began with an extremely rough 20-minutes crossing the widest part of the lake, but once we reached the smaller channels it calmed down considerably, and we were able to go out onto the deck and take photos of the scenery, which was absolutely stunning. Large, snow-capped mountains surrounded the lake on almost every side, and as we progressed, icebergs began to appear in the water. It was stunningly beautiful, but it was still extremely windy and cold and being out on deck was a fairly intense experience. After about an hour, we arrived at the first view of a glacier. This was the Upsala glacier, the second largest in the area. The huge wall of ice was incredible. It ranged from pure white in colour to a deep turquoise blue – this difference in colour reflects the age of the ice – older parts of the glacier are a darker colour. Continuing on we passed more mountains, with a strange contrast between ice, mountain and thick forest. The colours were amazing. One part of the glacier we visited was particularly special. Here only a small edge of the ice was visible, surrounded on both sides by mountains, with forest at the lower altitudes and snow at the peak. As it was autumn, many of the trees are beginning to turn a deep auburn red. A light rain was falling, and this formed a rainbow over the glacier. We stopped here for about half an hour, before continuing on to the main attraction – the Perito Moreno glacier.
At the glaciers edge, a 60m wall of ice emerges between the mountains. The top of the glacier is jagged, the walls were much smoother. Occasionally, large chunks of ice fall from the edge of the glacier and come crashing into the water below. Perito Moreno is the 3rd largest of the glaciers in the area, and one of the only glaciers that is actually growing, at a rate of about 7cm a day during the winter months. It is also the only glacier here that is accessible by land.
My second day in Calafate began with a 2 hour drive back into the national park and to Perito Moreno, this time to view the glacier from land. I explored the trails, which offered various views of the glacier, some very close. This time, the ice falling from the glaciers edge was even more dramatic. That evening, my last in Calafate, I decided to go out for a meal and some drinks with my new friends. We had a nice, if very expensive, dinner at a crowded restaurant on the edge of town, and then made our way back into the town centre to see if we could find anywhere good to go out for a few drinks. We stopped at one bar and had a beer, but it wasn’t very busy and so we decided to move on elsewhere. By this point, I had reached the conclusion that Calafate was an extremely safe town, and after a couple of drinks and in good company, I started to let my guard down. Out of the blue, a man, who I hadn’t even given a second glance to as he walked past us, tried to grab my bag. I’m not entirely sure how, but in the moment, I clung onto my bag, and he pulled me over onto the floor as he tried to run off. Luckily, he gave up and ran away, leaving me bruised and shaken, but with all my personal belongings. Apparently, this was only the second time anyone had been robbed in over 2 years – I must have been very unlucky! Nevertheless I left Patagonia with fond memories, and thankfully all my belongings.