Blogs from Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 2

31 hours is a long time, especially when it is comprised of 4 different buses (including one that caught fire), 3 passport checkpoints, and some very boring scenery. But that is what we endured to get from El Chalten to Puerto Madryn. The night before we left, we splurged and went to La Vineria, a wine bar / artesinal beer house in El Chalten. Dinner comprised of a cured meat plate, cheese plate and vegetable plate. The cheeses were nothing new for us, but on the meat plate we had things like boar procsiutto and wild venison pate, amongst many other delectable salamis etc... Instead of wine, we worked our way through 5 bottles of patagonian microbrewery dark ales. All were very good, a couple outstanding. They played great tunes, and the owner looked after us, ... read more

PUERTO MADRYN, ARGENTINA - JANUARY 26 - The weather was great, sunshine, upper 60’s low 70’s, winds calm in the morning, increasing through the day up to 3:00 pm when we left port. I went ashore about 9:00 am. There were several tours available to see nature in the raw, sea lions, Magellan Penguins, elephant seals and even sheep shearing. I decided to walk the downtown area. Beautiful beachfront location with parks and recreation areas. It was a Saturday morning and lots of families were enjoying the nice weather. As I got off the ship a lady handed me a map of the city which was useful. The walk to town was god exercise, I needed. I walked along the beachfront for several blocks before I ventured into town. Puerto Madryn is not a large town ... read more

AT SEA JANUARY 25 Another sea day with no real change in routine, lectures for those so inclined, eating, drinking, gambling, reading, movies, shopping, exercising, doing laundry, etc., etc., etc. There was a Mariner’s Society brunch which was very well attended. The captain gave a toast to the lady on board with the most sailing days, 680 in this case. I then went to the beer tasting event (not good today, two light beers were on the list) and then to the explorer’s wine tasting event. I’m really learning a lot and the cellar master is outstanding. The planned hour session extended to two and the planned five wines expanded to six. If you like wine but don’t know much about it, consider attending a session at the beginning of your next cruise; see if you ... read more

Hola and Happy New Year from the Southern Hemisphere! We are still in the UTC-3 time zone, so we even beat the East coast of the U.S. to 2013 by two hours. Docked in Puerto Madryn at 0700 this morning, but slept in and left the dock about 1000. Wow! What a beautiful little resort city, and better yet, most everything was closed for New Year’s today so it was nice and quiet. We just lazed along the beachfront all day, took some photos, had coffee and lay in the sun reading books, and snagged some cold stuff at the Farmacia. When we do the “ultimate bank robbery” this is where we will re-locate to spend our loot! Two interesting stories of note: Look at the photo of the sea lions sleeping on the baluster along ... read more

After the big city and the sierra the adventure arrives in Patagonia. Our heroes watch whales do things that would make your granny blush, confuse a helpful museum curator with poor Welsh pronunciation and eat their own weight in cake. Yum... We awoke on the bus to the scene of, well to be frank, stark, bare, wild, off-green nothingness. As far as the eye could see. In all directions. Without any respite seemingly forthcoming. Hour followed hour, mile ran in to mile along Route 3 towards Puerto Madryn, and you could be forgiven for thinking that life had turned in to a Scooby Doo chase scene, the same background flashing by at regular intervals. The earth is a slightly off mustard colour, dry and dusty and covered in grey-green shrubs which barely rise above 50cms in ... read more