Blogs from Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 20

It was a very long journey down to Puerto Madryn on the northern edge of the Patagonian region. We arrived in the afternoon, leaving us the morning to stare out of the window of the coach and marvel at the sheer nothingness of the barren landscape before us. Puerto Madryn is definitely an upmarket beach resort which would be lovely in the Summer but it does manage to lure visitors in the winter, principally because the Golfo Nuevo bay is the home of the Southern Right Whale during its breeding season! The whales escape from the cold Antartic waters at the beginning of June to bathe in this secluded bay which receives warm tidal fronts from the North, just off the coast of Brazil. Whales continue to arrive up until July as the ecoystem is sufficiently ... read more

Well we got up yesterday morning, left our bags in our ´hotel´& decided to see if there was anything at all to do in Trelew, turns out there wasn´t really. Ended up back in restaurant which we´d been in the previous day, went on the net to try to find a way out of there, which wasn´t looking all that possible, we figured they were trying to keep us there. Went back to the tourist office to our friend from the previous day & asked him about getting further down south to Rio Gallegos, with the plan being to get to Ushuaia as fast as possible. Buses would take well over 24 hours & all flights to Ushuaia from Rio Gallegos were booked out. As most businesses close here for the afternoon, we had a few ... read more

Well, where to begin! Yesterday we got up a little later than usual cause we were a bit wrecked. Went and did our washing, had some breakfast, came back to our hostel with the intention of collecting my camera to go to the local museum for a nice leisurely afternoon. We lay down and contemplated a short snooze, then I read about a place called Punta Loma 17km from Puerto Madryn, they said that the road wasn´t too bad and that we could probably cycle it. So we hired bikes and decided to head that way. It all began very pleasantly, nice leisurely cycle, nothing too strenuos, we even pulled in on the side of the road by a beach and saw a whale swimming there. We thought about giving up on more than one occassion ... read more

Well things went pretty much according to plan for us last night, we left Bahia Blanca at around 11.40pm and reached Puerto Madryn at about 9.30am, the drop in temperature was apparent almost immediately. The bus trip was fine once again, except at one point our total lack of Spanish became apparent, at about 7.20am, a man walked down the bus shouting something which we didn´t really understand, Gwen thought there was something wrong with the bus, me, ever the drama queen thought it was a bomb scare (although I was quick to fall back to sleep!). Turns out it was a coffee break. When we reached Puerto Madryn, we could see my bag below in the luggage compartment and it was filthy, but we couldn´t see Gwens, at this point she was banking on the ... read more

It´s time for some workout! After a month of hamburgers, ice-cream and chocolates, we thought it´s time for some workout. So we rented a bike to cycle to Punta Loma to see more sea lions. We cycled the first 3km on paved road and turned into a dirt road for the next 17km. Quite glad that the sun is out, if not the wind would have numbed us before we reach Punta Loma. The beginning of the trail was pretty straight and flat. Occasionally, vehicles pass by and covered us in sand and dust. After cycling for abt 4km, we saw a steep, long slope in front of us. And there we started the arduous journey. The slope wasn´t that bad but the road ahead was filled with thick layers of sand and gravel. It demanded ... read more