Blogs from Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 6

Before returning to Buenos Aires, I had time for one more stop after Bariloche and the Lake District. Puerto Madryn, 13 hours east of Bariloche, sits on the Atlantic coast close to the Peninsula Valdes, which is one of the most important marine wildlife reserves in South America. Puerto Madryn, as well as the nearby cities of Trelew (pronounced Trelee-oo) and Rawson were all founded by Welsh settlers in 1865, though these days they have all lost most of their Welsh characteristics and more or less feel like standard Argentinean cities. Puerto Madryn was a nice enough place to stay, with a lovely coastline, but besides that, not much else to see. In any case, the wildlife around the area was the main attraction. The Peninsula Valdes, just north of Puerto Madryn, is a reserve ... read more

The alarm went of at 6:20am as it has for the past few days and we began our 3 day bus journey (1900km) to the end of the world (Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world). The group bonded a bit more over airing our concerns about our driver - don’t get me wrong he is lovely and very knowledgeable but the reason we’ve been arriving at campsites so late is through some poor decisions and unprofessionalism, including taking a detour to pick up an old friend so she could hitch a ride with us and spend some time with him. This became a problem when we all sat on the truck waiting to leave at the arranged time and spent an hour waiting for him to say his goodbyes to her, all glaring at him ... read more

Finally a chance to see some wildlife - our reason for visiting Patagonia (second to the stunning scenery further south). And I did not anticipate the vast numbers we would see. A whole beach full of hundreds and hundreds of penguinos, chilling out with their faces in the sand or stood to attention posing for photos. Then the sea elephants - we didn’t get to see them up close but we learnt some interesting facts! They are able to dive to 1000 metres and hold their breath for up to 2 hours! This differs from sea lions, who can only hold their breath for 8-9minutes an dive 100 metres. Another difference is the male’s sexual organ - a sea lion’s "pride" is external to the body however the sea elephant keeps its safely inside of him ... read more

The weather in Trelew was lovely. It was a warm and sunny day. We drove out of town a little way to see the old welsh settlement of Gaiman, set in a pretty little fertile green valley along the river and with beautiful brick-built houses. The welsh settled this whole valley, and the sight of green trees and grass, is so refreshing after the dry arid landscape for the last few hundred kilometres. From Trelew we headed 115km back south to visit South America's largest penguin colony, at Punta Tombo. As we left the car, we remembered the binoculars, imagining we would have to view the penguins from a reasonable distance. We paid our entry fee and were told not to get closer to the penguins than 1 metre. Hardly likely, we thought….as we nearly trippped ... read more

Puerto Madryn The regular route that travelers in South A. take has a place called El Bolson next on the itinerary after Bariloche. El Bolson is known as a bohemian's town, often brimming with backpackers looking to explore the surrounding wilderness or getting wrecked alongside people from all ends of the Earth. It sounds like an intriguing place but I didn't come to this continent to see tourists. So I decided to head east to Puerto Madryn and observe a different kind of "wild"life. A port town, Puerto Madryn is located on a scenic piece of Atlantic Argentinean coast and serves as base camp for tourists wanting to see the Reserva Faunistica Peninsula Valdes (Valdes Peninsula Wildlife Reserve). The main attraction arrives in April: southern right whales on a migratory path north, following the schools of ... read more