Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America

Blog 4 – Travelling solo So Chris had gone off on his cruise and I was in Buenos Aires and the heat continued. I packed up my stuff and left it at reception as it was time to move to a different part of the city. I spent the morning walking around, first up to the magnificent Plaza de Mayo with the square where the Peron's made their speeches. Then into a fabulous art nouveau style cafe before a walk down Defensa soaking up the atmosphere of the San Telmo Sunday market. I went into the food market and it was too hot to cope with, I did see a bit of street tango but it was so busy. On any other occasion I would have done more but the heat and humidity are killers. I ... read more

We had gotten our Argentinian pesos, our local sim cards and were finally getting used to their strange ways of pronouncing the double 'l' like a "ja" as in "Jamaica". It was time to go get our van. We decided to rent the smallest model available, the Renault Kangoo. In the back the passenger seats were removed. In their place was a couple of handmade wooden benches that could transform into a flat platform in the night. As a mattress were two foldable cushions. We also had a nice cozy comforter, bedding and pillows. To cook we had a small gas camping stove, basic cookware and eating implements. We had a couple of towels but our bathroom would be found in nature and gas stations. Our rental company, Andean Roads, was kind enough to come pick ... read more

Aujourd'hui on vit cool... On ne fait pas des kilomètres pour le plaisir d'en faire... On visite la région de Puerto Madryn, pas trop loin de l'appartement que nous avons loué... Petite promenade sympa... jusqu'à ce qu'arrive à nouveau le "ripio" donc la poussière et le gravier... alors on se contente de refaire marche arrière... C'est pas que ça nous gêne tellement, mais on a vraiment pas envie de s'offrir une bosse dans la voiture sans assurance.... Puerto Madryn se trouve au fond d'un golfe profond, le Golfo Nuevo, formé par la péninsule Valdés et le cap de Punta Ninfas. Le paysage alentour est celui de la meseta (plateau patagon), formant tout au long de la côte une succession d'escarpements et de plages de sable. La princip... read more

Today, I got to cross off another experience from my bucket list. We joined a small group of Germans on a 2 hour drive south of our hotel to visit a penguin colony. It was a great breeding season so there were about 1 million birds there. We must have seen about half of them. They were on, in and under everything. We drove along a straight road across a low shrub plain. Not much rain falls here, only about 200ml/year. Along the way, our eagle-eyed driver stopped to point out local wildlife. Among the menagerie were half rabbit/half dog creatures, amarillos, long-legged half camel/half llama beasts with split lips and various birds of prey. The first penguin we encountered were the losers. They did not reproduce this year. They were about 3 km the sea. ... read more

Après un long trajet en plusieurs parties, et l'agréable rencontre d'Isabelle et Laurent (qui ont eu la gentillesse de partager leur véhicule pour plusieurs centaines de km), nous arrivons enfin à Puerto Madryn, aux portes de la Péninsule de Valdes, un endroit très sauvage où les mammifères marins sont nombreux! La Peninsule est connue pour être le lieu de rassemblement de nombreuses espèces comme les manchots de Magellan, baleines, orques, éléphants de mer et autre lions de mer. Nous décidons alors de louer une voiture pour explorer la péninsule depuis Puerto Pyramides, où nous passerons la nuit face à l'océan. Le lendemain réveil à 6h pour le levé du soleil et pour peut être voir des orques en marée montante! En effet, c'est la période où les gros mammifères viennent se rassasier sur les côtes de ... read more