Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 32

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South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Madryn January 18th 2007

PART IX: Puerto Madryn: January 18 We drove to Puerto Madryn from Parque Nacional Monte Leon hoping to find a room or camping spot for the night. The entire city was booked...and we had to sleep in the truck! After a short night, we headed to Peninsula Valdes early morning hoping to watch killer whales at high tides! Peninsula Valdes is the only place in the world where the killer whales come at high tides to eat the young sealions on the beach. Even if it was not the season for these attacks, we decided to take a chance and observe the ocean. On the beach of this reserve, a loud and smelly colony of sealions were already enjoying the day. These sealions were more active than the ones at Mar del Plata since this was ... read more
El pinche
Lomos marinos
Lomos marinos

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Madryn January 18th 2007

Well after saying goodbye to my mom and Scott, Laurence and I embarked on a new chapter of this adventure, heading cross country to the Atlantic and then onwards to Mendoza to return our rental truck before heading north into Bolivia. It was a great 4 weeks with my parents in Argentina and one that will provide dinner table stories for years to come. All in all, the road trip went well with little problems and only an occasional visit by a grumpy ogre... once or twice at most. Heading East we crossed Argentina on a provincial dirt road that afforded amazing views of the surrounding Patagonian landscape. Rainclouds filtered the sun and dusted the rolling hills with prisms of light all along the way, something truly spectacular. After three hours we finally encountered tarmac and ... read more
Pengiuns
Birds of the pampas
Birds of the pampas

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Gaiman January 18th 2007

Without a doubt, my main reason for wanting to travel in South America was to visit Patagonia, in search of the Welsh. My head was full of romantic notions of the heroic Welsh settlers of 1865 , crossing the Atlantic in search of a land where they could preserve their language, way of life and religion, free from persecution. We took the bus North from Rio Gallegos to Trelew, and could not help but wonder, during that 24 hours of nothingness, what possessed them to choose such a dry and barren land, so disimilar to Wales? Diolch i Dduw for the Tehuelche Indians, without whose help, those first immigrants would have starved to death. We headed straight for Gaiman, the most Welsh of the villages. On the bus we met a girl called Eirian, sporting a ... read more
Hiroes i'r Iaith Gymraeg!
Tea for two
Could be Wales ...

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Madryn January 15th 2007

Again another long bus journey from b.a to puerto madryn, 20 hours in total but ona bus i can describe a a moving hotel....oh yes thank god a real bus at last rather than a moving shed on wheels. I was sad to leave katie in the millhouse as we all had such a good time together but she was going home and had already traveled the south. So theres me, hannah, niome and maya the 4 girls on a road trip to meet up with the lads that had left before in buenos aires, now this bus was good infact when it finally reached our destination we we fast asleep and had to be woken up, i would have stayed on there another day you got hot food and wine and a movie in english ... read more
the boys having stone thowing competitions
oh how romantic
the sealions yay

South America » Argentina » Chubut January 15th 2007

Hola Todos, Bueno..algunas noticias ...muy buenas , todo va bien. Pasamos 6 dias en la provincia de Chubut, Patagonia, en Trelew, Punta Tumbo, Puerto Madryn y Puerto Piramides. Vimos miles de pinguinos de Magallanes en la reserva de Punta Tumbo, que sólo se puede visitar caminando. Hay pinguinos por todas partes. Cada pareja con su pichón. Siempre uno de los padres vigila al bebe mientras el otro va a pescar hasta 600km fuera de la costa. Dimos la vuelta a la península de Valdes unos 250km de camino ripio. Francis no quiso que conduciera...creo que tenía miedo!! Espacios amplios, arbustosos con una fauna rica, muchos guanacos, zorros, armadillos..y a lo largo de las magnificas playas, una gran colonia de lobos y elefantes marinos..una belleza. El tiempo fue muy bueno la mayoría del tiempo, sol y mucho ... read more
pichón
pinguinos de Magallanes
Armadillo

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Piramides January 14th 2007

Apart from a real and deep friendliness the most obvious character trait we´ve noticed abut the Argentines is their abiding love of bureaucracy; a 5 day stay at a campsite with swimming pool use and fridge rental took 4 visits to ADMINISTRATION to fill in the required forms and then separate trips to the payment desk to give money to the very important lady. At the post office we were told it was only possiblre to send a parcel to England between 9.30 and 11.00 on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays. To use the public swimming pool in Buenos Aires it was compulsory to visit the doctor to be checked for nits and fungal infections between the toes - just like schooldays!! Little surprise that unemployment has plummeted from 25% to 10%. Since our last blog entry, ... read more
Sunny Times
Cheeky Armadillo
Basking Sea Lion

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Esquel January 14th 2007

More Animals: In the peninsula valdez, which is famous for the whale watching in semptember, we were still able to take in som wildlife- elephant seals, penguins, and an armadillo which i was able to pet when it came over for food. there are also killer whales here that hunt the seals at high tide but we weren´t so lucky to see that. One night we were camping, the wind was so strong that it was blowing the tent in half! i woke up because the top part of the tent was on my face. when the wind stopped, the tent would go back to the original position. The wind has continued and pushed us, metaphorically speaking, from the coast all the way to the border town of esquel. to get here the landscape became even ... read more

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Madryn January 13th 2007

OK, here we go again... Flew into Trelew (old welsh colony - they moved there because they were fed up of the English and it appears most have moved away from here because they were fed up with the Argentinians.....) Stayed in Puerto Madryn, which is on the Valdes Peninsular - a large sea-life reserve on the Atlantic coast. Its where they filmed the famous orca footage of them taking sealion pups from the shore. Its also one of the best places to sea Southern Right Whales. Unfortunately we didn t see any Orcas and its the wrong time of the year for Right Whales. We did see the sea lion colonies, Elephant seals and hundreds of Magallen penguins though as well as loads of birds and Alpacas. Trelew is famous for its dinosaur fossils and ... read more
Penguins
elephant seals
elephant seals too

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Esquel January 12th 2007

Ik heb als plaats voor dit verhaal maar voor Esquel gekozen want daar ben ik op dit moment nog of zeg maar weer. Voor de 3e keer welteverstaan maar deze week een paar mooie omtrekkende bewegingen gemaakt. Ik zal bij het begin beginnen. Ik was in El Bolson gebleven, nadat de rook en andere dampen van het nieuwjaarsfeest een beetje waren opgetrokken zijn German, Julieta, Daniël en ik op 2 januari vertrokken voor een 3 daagse trekking. German en Julieta liepen alleen de 1e dag mee en gingen daarna weer terug want ze moesten op tijd zijn voor een bruiloft van een neef. De omgeving was wederom grandioos, het lijkt misschien meer van hetzelfde maar ik moet zeggen, dit verveeld nooit. Deze keer met z´n allen gekampeerd en dus ook mijn tent(je) voor het eerst uit ... read more
4 Boludos
German preparing the meat
Daniël eating a piece of lamb

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Madryn January 10th 2007

"Sealions don´t have hands, so they use their mouths and teeth to check you out". This was both the warning and the reality of our fantastic dive we did yesterday next to a colony of sealions. Fully suited up for the dive in 16 degree water we spent an hour down with these fantastic creatures. Although not the best visibility it didn´t really matter as they come right up to you. We weren´t expecting them to be so friendly but they´re so inquisitive - nibbling you and swimming around you to play; you can hold their fins and tails and put your fists in their mouths (they don´t bite that hard). Just like a pet dog in water really, and yes i want one. A highlight of our trip for sure. Anyway Happy New Year to ... read more
Sealions
Sucre Cathedral
Frisky Tortoises at Santa Cruz Zoo




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