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Published: April 29th 2008
Puerto Piramides
Fighting the wind Wow, ok, so it has been 22 days since my last update. Eeeek! Where do I start....why do I do this to myself.....
I left off the last blog with some mixed feelings regarding heading to Buenos Aires before or after Iguazu Falls (from Salta). I decided to hop on the bus the very next night and head straight to Buenos Aires to visit my Irish buddy Martin. It was a good 20 hr bus ride but a comfortable one cuz I had my favorite seat....the first row on the top of the bus that has nothing but a large window infront. 😊 Many choose to not take this seat for the obvious reason of it being a rather unsafe place to be if the bus got into an accident. I am glad many think safety over view cuz that gives me the opportunity to stretch out and ride in comfort with a big ¨reality tv¨ in front of me. 😉
As soon as I arrived in Buenos Aires, I hopped on the subway (which was fun with my huge backpack...and rush hour ppl...) and jetted straight to the hostel where Martin was staying --> Hostel Pangea. I cannot
Puerto Piramides
The view from our viewpoint to see the whales recommend this hostel enough!!! The best one I have stayed at in all of my travels due to its cozy home like environment and great friendly owners...and a resident kitty named Mochila (¨backpack¨ in spanish...haha). As soon as I arrived I was welcomed with a huge hug from my good buddy Martin...it was great to see him again!! It is crazy how one can get so close to some people without hardly even knowing them. As if we had not skipped a day...we immediately had some beer and within a couple of hourw...were dancing around at La Bomba de Tiempo ( http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=125304368 ). If anyone is in the BA area on a Mondy night...you MUST check this out! It is an incredibly energized outdoor show of drums and a weekly ´guest´ instrument. Everyone was dancing around madly to the drumming as if we were all puppets....nobody was standing still. Great great fun!! After the show, we cruised over to a ´house´ bar and ripped it up there for the remainder of the night...staggering home around 3 or 4 am. This was my first introduction to the future haunting sleepless nights in Buenos Aires......
The next day I cruised around
Puerto Piramides
The town of Puerto Piramides Buenos Aires (markets...shopping...beer...) a bit and then we headed out for the night to meet up with our Machu Picchu friends (the 7 ppl from BA that we did the 4 day trek with up in Peru). It was a great night reuniting with some fantastic people that I will not forget any time soon. Again....we staggered home around....well....7:30am this time.....
The following day was a slow one.....a well deserved one.....that involved saying goodbye to my good ol´ Irish buddy. 😞 His flight left that night and so we said our goodbyes like lifelong friends.....and off he went... I will miss that crazy bugger.....
The next bunch of days are quite a bit of a blur...involving some good nights out....MANY sleepless nights.....and checking places out around Buenos Aires. I had no intentions of staying in BA very long but.....I got sort of stuck there. It is as if BA is like a vortex....it just tends to suck people in for a while by a force that I cannot describe. It is a really cool city to be honest....as far as cities go.....with a great culture and ambiance. I did a great deal of sight seeing checking out different
Puerto Piramides
Pascal off in the distance...I was standing at the point where we sat to watch for whales (and saw whales!) areas of the city....did some shopping as everyone does here....checked out some great markets.....watched tango dancing in the streets....live music at the markets.....met some really great people at the hostel....went to 2 soccer games (Racing Club vs. Arsenal, and Boca Juniors vs. Newell´s) which were spectacular to say the least!!....did some gambling at the huge Thoroughbred Racetrack.....went to a movie....two more Mondays at La Bomba de Tiempo.....etc. Just your typical city life type stuff. 😉 I also did some lounging since most nights I was not in bed until around 4 or 5 am. Hostel Pangea tends to never sleep....this can be a good and/or bad thing. 😉 The Hostel is great as far as cozy chillin´ environment but it is also one that has a bit more of a party type vibe. Many of us spent a lot of nights just lounging around the living room/bar in the hostel until the wee hours of the morning....and if we did go out, this rarely took place before 3am. This seems to be the norm in BA...people do not go out until 3 or 4 am. It is foreign to me since bars and pubs close at 2 or 3am back
Puerto Piramides
Me....at the viewpoint...whale watching. home. I am not certain I like it cuz it sure throws your day when you are just getting to bed around 8 or 9am. Hence....the vortex..... 😉
During this time...I had an important decision to make....go home or stay. My flight back to Canada was from Santiago, Chile on April 15. On April 14....5 hours before my flight....I was sitting on the phone in Buenos Aires....talking to the airline. 😉 I decided to live in the ´here and now´ and extended my flight home to early June. Yipee!!! I am just not ready to re-enter the real world....yet.... 😉 I also made another major decision about 10 days later......to extend that date from June....to late July to possibly even August. I found a cheaper flight from Buenos Aires back up to Quito for the beginning of June and so I booked it. Talk about living in the moment! haha My plan? Patagonia for a month....then fly back up to Quito where I started this journey....visit my good friend there for a week or two.....and then head on up to Columbia for a month or two. Quite the spur of the moment decision but one I am not regretting....
Puerto Piramides
The view from the view point. We saw the whales in the middle area of this picture. So, that leads me closer to the present....I finally got out of the Buenos Aires vortex after 18 days!! Wow, I cannot even believe I spent almost 3 weeks in one spot. Funny how time flies sometimes. 😉 The last week or so I kept saying....tomorrow...I am leaving tomorrow....and of course that got extended over and over. When I finally got really serious about it, I got an email from my good Irish friends Lorna and Fergal (I had left them in Salta when coming to Buenos Aires) saying that they were south of BA and on their way up there...asking me to wait for them. So...sigh....I extended my stay in BA once again. 😉 It was worth it though....great to see them again and had many more fun days in BA...
Finally....on April 25, I got my butt on the road and started my journey around Patagonia. I stocked up on cold weather and camping gear, borded a bus accompanied by a swiss friend I had met in BA, and headed towards Puerto Madryn (18 hour bus journey). We arrived early on the 26th and immediately headed to a hostel where my good ol´ dutch friend Sjirk (I traveled with him up in southern Ecuador to norther Peru...and again in the Pampas of Bolivia) was waiting. He had gathered 2 more people making us a group of 5 (1 dutch, 1 Canadian, 1 brit, 1 frenchman, and 1 swiss) and we headed out and booked a car rental for the next morning. We spent the night in Puerto Madryn and then headed out early Sunday morning with our chevy rental car. :P
Our first destination was Punta Norte which is along the north side of the peninsula. Tours around the peninsula cost about 150 pesos per person....for the day....and the 5 of us rented a car for 220 pesos (24 hours with unlimited kms)...divided by 5 of us!! Definitely a steal of a deal!! Much much cheaper and gives you soooo much more freedom to view the wildlife however long and wherever you want! I was the driver for the day which was a ton of fun...never thought I would be ripping around in a car on a peninsula in Argentina! 😉 Before hitting Punta Norte, we had a quick stop at a little Interpreter Center (quite informative!!) and of course....MANY wildlife stops. I was the driver afterall so this was to be expected of course. 😉 haha We saw a ton of Guanacos (a wild protected animal that is from the llama family) as well as a ton of sheep, cows, and some large weird rabbit looking critters (the name has escaped me).
Punta Norte is a popular stop for wildlife enthusiasts....this is one of the only (if not the only) place in the world where orcas hunt out of water. They come up to the shores during high tide and grab the unsuspecting frolicking sea lions. I was really looking forward to some Orca action but....after 3 hours....we decided to give up and move on. No Orcas were seen in the area that morning nor the previous day. A bummer but hey....you cannot win them all. 😉 However, we were thoroughly entertained during these 3 hours by many birds (Oyster Catchers, Herons, Cormorants, Albytross, sparrows, mockingbirds.....) sea lions, armadillos, foxes, and whatever other animals I cannot think of. The armadillos were quite a nuissance really....routin´ around for food (obviously tourist fed). However, I loved every second of it cuz this is my first time seeing one. Funny little critters!
After giving up on the Orcas, we headed south down the coast to Punta Cantor. I drove like a mad woman because we were trying to get back to Puerto Piramides before the sun dropped in hopes of seeing some Right Whales that were spotted in the area. The crazy frenchman kept yelling for me to ¨use the hand brake!¨...clearly he was more loco than myself. 😉 But, due to his relentless requests.....we had some fun with the ol´ hand brake. haha Always fun when it is not your own car. 😉
Punta Cantor is a common place for Elephant Seals and other wildlife. We were fortuate to see a large number of them and MAYBE saw some penguins. It was too difficult to be sure they were penguins off in the distance and nobody had binoculars....but I am pretty sure they were. 😊
After our quick jaunt around this area, we sped back to Puerto Piramides to settle in for the night. I was planning on camping but that plan changed rather quickly as we watched a massive storm system surround us while driving home. There was lightening, very dark clouds and the wind was howling so strongly that it was blowing the car all over the place and would have surely wrecked my tent poles. We quickly checked into a hostel....the only one in town (luckily it turned out to be very cozy!!) and then sped up to a viewpoint high up above the beach in order to catch the sunset and hopefully some Right Whales. Unfortunately, the sunset was not too impressive due to the clouds, and we did not see any whales (tough to spot them when the water was all choppy from the wind).
The next morning we were up early in order to catch the sunrise from the same viewpoint. Turned out to not be such a great sunrise due to the clouds...and...well....no whales yet again. 😞 The rental car had to be back by 9am in Pte Madryn so Sjirk (along with the Brit girl and the frenchman) started to head back by 7:45am. Myself and the swiss guy (Pascal) decided to stick around another day and night in hopes of spotting some whales.
After having breakfast at the hostel, the 2 of us headed out to the beach and climbed up a big hill and sat there...waiting....accompanied by a random dog who cozied up in between us for warmth (the wind had gusts of a good 80km/hr!!). The view was spectacular!! It helped make it worthwhile to sit there as the wind whipped us so hard that it was tough to breathe...and our eyes were being blasted with sand.
About 45 mins later...after having our faces and eyeballs sand blasted.....we were treated to a big splash in the distance. This was not your normal splash from the wind.....it was whales!! Three Right Whales!! Sooo incredibly fantastic!! Our efforts were finally rewarded!! It appeared to be 2 larger ones and one small one that may have been a baby. I tried to catch some videos but....due to my camera now having no viewfinder whatsoever (after being crunched in a gondola door in Salta)....the video is not so great. I cannot zoom in to anything because I do not know what I am zooming at. It is a real shame but I guess a damaged camera is better than NO camera. 😉 I do have a video with big splashes in the distance....the camera bouncing around due to the hurricane like winds. I posted it on my facebook account so have a gander. For those that do not have facebook....I will try to upload it on to here or my photobucket page and supply a link...stay tuned!
So, that now leads me to the present tense. We were going to camp tonight but got all cozied in again at the hostel as a MASSIVE storm blew in. Scary storm!! You can barely walk outside without getting blown down the street and your eyes whipped with sand. We had a great dinner with the hostel owner and staff (including the captain and crew)...homemade pasta! Yummy! This is a really nice cozy place...I would not mind staying a bit longer. 😉 However, Sjirk and the brit girl (Rosie) have already headed to Bariloche tonight and will be waiting for us (the 4 of us are renting another car there) so we ought to not stay too long. Tomorrow, we plan to catch the sunrise......then do some more whale watching...and then catch the 6pm bus back to Puerto Madryn. And since there is not much in Pte Madryn....we will likely be on a bus to Bariloche by tomorrow night. The journey around Patagonia has only begun!! 😊
So now I am sure some of you are wondering where the pictures are at....I am going to get on this...hopefully in Bariloche. I have uploaded the pics from my 3 day tour around Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia to my Facebook account. If you have not seen them yet, check them out! There are 2 albums and they are probably some of the best pictures from this entire journey so far. For those that do not have facebook accounts but want to see them....fire me an email and I will allow you access (I have to enter your email address). I am not sure I will get around to putting them on here so that may be your best bet.
Take care everyone! I will try to update sooner rather than later this next time.... 😉
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Martin
non-member comment
Patagonian Guy
Seems you are getting fun! Those rabbit looking creatures you mentioned are call Mara. che, dont forget to try bariloche's chocolates, they are great!. Good Luck! Pd: im from Rawson-Chubut (about 60 km from Puerto Madryn)