Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 3

DAY 5 Much better sleep last night, hopefully our bodies have adjusted to the local timezone. Despite the amazing land based Eco systems we experienced yesterday, it's the unique marine environment and it's World Heritage listing that attracts visitors to the Valdes Peninsula. While Patagonia is remote in itself the Peninsula is further protected with all land access via a narrow Isthmus (7 Km's wide) which splits the waters of two gulfs. Being so close one would think that the Eco systems of these waters would be very similar however this is far from the case. The peninsula is the meeting place of warm waters moving south from Brazil with cold water moving north from Antarctica and they crash together dropping vast amounts of nutrients which attracts and sustains migrating whales (Southern Right), orcas, dolphins, elephant ... read more

Salimos desde el hostal de Esquel tarde porque estuvimos reparando mi portaequipajes de nuevo. El objetivo de la etapa era intentar llegar a Chile a través del paso de Futaleufú, un paso a través de los Andes relativamente bajo pero que significaba varias cosas. La primera que a través de este paso nos incorporábamos a la famosa carretera austral. Por otro que se acababa el asfalto para nosotros para el resto de viaje al sur. Las carreteras sin asfaltar tienen un nombre en Sudamérica; ripio, pero muchos adjetivos; ripio bueno, ripio malo, ripio limpio, ripio con mucho bache, ripio blando y un largo etcétera. No sé muy bien en qué varía exactamente cada uno de ellos, pero para mí, la verdad, todos eran igual de bueno, malo, limpio, blando y con mucho bache. Oihan y yo ... read more

Monday, December 9th --Tierra del Fuego, Cape of Good Horn 46 degrees out and fairly clear. Valerie and I were up by 6ish to see us sail completely around the “Cabo de Hornos,” which if you look at a map, is the last little island in the Chilean Archipelago—yes, we were back in Chilean waters. The weather started out looking rainy but cleared up quite nicely and the water was very smooth with no wind. The crew was amazed at the good weather, since this is usually one of the most hazardous sailing areas in the world as the strong currents from the Atlantic and the Pacific meet and clash causing large waves. Strong winds usually prevail as there is no land to stop them plus there is a draft off the Andes Mountains. To add ... read more

1st April 2013, we are now in Puerto Madryn, coastal Patagonia. It took 9 hours by bus from Bahia Blanca passing nothing but endless flat grazing land, this country truly is vast. We checked into a wonderful hostel here where the owner greeted us by name and immediately made us a cup of coffee, just the welcome we needed. We spent the first couple of days orientating ourselves walking all along the sea front promenade and pier and deciding what to do with our time here, there are a lot of options. We also came across a free open air concert on 2nd April which was in memory of the fallen from the Argentine loss of the Falklands war 30 years ago, it was great to sit out and enjoy the music. Lots of people have ... read more

Thursday 21/3/13 – We woke up, made breakfast and then packed up with full confidence that the town of Rio Gallegos would provide us with a new rear tyre and a mechanic to change Kenz’s chain and sprocket – perhaps we were expecting too much. We rode around to the Honda dealer we passed on the way into town yesterday, but they had no tyres or mechanic. The other large shop in town (a Yamaha dealer) also couldn’t help us so we then rode around trying to find someone to help us. We found an address on an internet forum for a moto mechanic that lived out in a dodgy suburb. When we arrived at the shop it was closed and there were two Argentinean riders who also required his help. They phoned the number in ... read more