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Published: February 26th 2017
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Hello from Argentina (again). Last time we were at the southern tip and it was a little chilly, but today we have a nice warm sunny day in one of the resort towns. Many of the excursions today were full day because they involved going a fairly long distance to some of their nature areas, but we chose one which was just in the afternoon. That meant we did not have to set the alarm or get started early – that’s called being on vacation!
We went up to the Horizon Court and had breakfast without much of a crowd. Then David went ashore to explore in the morning while Janet tried to download another book and then worked on her knitting. The pier is about a quarter mile long and David caught the free shuttle bus going to town. There he found a lot of hotels, restaurants, and private tour sales. He walked around and took some pictures before walking back to the ship. We went down together to the Internet Café and were eventually able to download 3 books for Janet to read from her Kindle.
We finished a quiet morning around the
Wild Guanaco
in countryside ship and then got a sandwich from the International Cafe about 11:30. Our tour group gathered in the Wheelhouse Lounge at 12:15 and we boarded the bus and departed by 12:30. Today’s tour included a trip to a local ranch were we were shown a sheep shearing demonstration – more on that in a minute. Then we went to a lookout point on the coast and got to see some Sea Lions. Finally we had a drive through the city and returned to the ship at the designated sailing time of 4:30. There were several hundred people waiting to board, so we got on the ship a little late, but of course they waited for us.
Here are some interesting facts about Puerto Madryn.
It is about half way up the coast between Ushuaia and Buenos Aires. The temperature this morning was 81 degrees before we left the ship, so David was able to wear shorts today. This is a very arid region, receiving only about 18 centimeters of rain a year.
Back in the 19
thcentury there was some kind of relationship established between Argentina and Wales, so a large number of Welsh immigrants came
Janet with a Sheep
waiting to be sheered to settle in this area. There are still communities which post signs in both Spanish and Gaelic. There is a prominent statue of a woman who refused to sail back to Wales having finally arrived, despite finding it to be pretty harsh conditions (the statue has her arms crossed and her back to the sea).
In more recent times, they have established a large aluminum factory in this area, for which they built a dam in the Andees to divert enough water to the area to run the factory and keep the community with fresh water.
To get to the farm we rode in a nice comfortable bus with air conditioning, despite disclaimers to the contrary in the tour description. We did drive over a series of gravel roads and then finally on a dirt trail to get to the farm. It is only about 15 kilometers from town but it is way out in the country. Along the way we passed a herd of wild Guanaco. These are similar to llamas but not quite as large.
At the farm they started by giving us a little time to walk around and use
the facilities, before we moved into the shearing room. First they explained the process and how the wool is eventually divided into various quality levels. Then they brought in a few sheep and proceeded to shear the wool from 2 of them. The sheep tolerated the process pretty well and each was done in about 5 minutes. Then they gave the sheep some vitamin shots and antibiotics. They only shear the wool off the sheep once a year. After 7 times the wool quality is too low to make it worthwhile. Some ranches then use them for food but this ranch turns them loose to live out their life on the free range.
After watching the demonstration they gave us some cakes and coffee and we had a chance to buy some wool sweaters, scarves, or even yarn. However none of that work is done on the ranch but instead is manufactures from their wool somewhere else and they were just trying to sell some products.
The next stop was another 15 kilometers over the dusty gravel road, back at the coast. It was a beautiful sunny day but there was a nice cool
sea breeze. We had an overlook location at the top of a cliff looking down on a beach with a large number of Sea Lions. There were also a large number of Cormorants on the cliffs above the beach. Then we drove back to the ship via a quick tour of town. In addition to aluminum, this city of about 100,000 people is also heavily focused on tourist. They have a great long beach and have built a lot of hotels, restaurants, and shops just off the coastline.
When we got back to our cabin, David went up the Horizon Court and got a plate full of snacks, and then we had some wine in the cabin. We went down to dinner and it was Italian Night. Janet was glad that she had not worn here green striped shirt or they might have put her to work. Instead she wore the scarf that she had finished knitting while we waited before our tour. Anyway, we both had Prosciutto with Melon and then David had the Iced Peach Bellini Soup. There was a special chef’s pasta course and we both thought it was very good. For our main
course Janet had the Veal Scaloppini and David had a Scallop & Shrimp casserole. For dessert Janet had gelato and David had Cassata.
We went to the theater for a show called “a Russian Circus”. It is hard to describe but we really enjoyed it. It was a 2-person show with a lot of comedy, a little magic, some dancing, a jokes. We weren’t quite sure what to expect going in, but it was a fun show.
Something left over from yesterday:
During yesterday’s Captain’s Reception they provided some information about the passengers. There ae 740 Platinum passengers (like us) and 318 Elite passengers. The three passengers with the most days sailing on Princess had 773 days, 1084 days, and 1787 days (approaching 5 years). These three were each given a bottle of champagne. There are 3080 passengers on the ship and roughly 1000 will be continuing to Florida after Buenos Aires.
omehow David messed up the wireless internet settings and it took a long time to get it straightened out. The photos from today will be posted tomorrow while we have a little time to select and post the
Cormorants
on wall of cliff best ones. But at least you can read about what we did. Good night.
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Jerry and Joyce
non-member comment
Sheep!!
Sounded like an interesting ranch excursion. My Grandfather sheared sheep for people in the area when we were kids.I remember how oily the wool felt!