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No I haven't made a spelling mistake in my blog title all will become apparent......
So after our chilled morning in Calafate we hit the bus and went back south to Rio Gallegos and after a few hours we were back on the road heading north to Puerto Madryn with a bus conductor, I call them bus conductor but effectively they check you and your luggage on the bus and then dish up the food and drinks along the way, anyway ours on this bus took a shine to the two English chicas who speak very little Spanish and for the whole journey he would come up and check we were ok and happy. Even when his shift ended in Trelew and a new conductor came on he must have been told about us as he made a beeline for us and told us we were English and we were getting off in Puerto Madryn!! Anyway we have now said goodbye to the south of Argentina and all travels on this continent hereafter takes us northwards...
On arrival in Puerto Madryn we checked into our hostel however it was a complete building site. On checking in the guy on
reception did give us the option to leave however carrying our bags and after an overnight journey it was not an appealing prospect to go hunting out a new hostel. We put our bags in the room and after a 2 minute discussion decided we would try and find the hostel that had originally been our first choice however had come back to us really late. We found Chepatagonia and they had room so we went and fetched our bags, apologising we were leaving and Sharon blaming her weak chest!
Chepatagonia turned into a brilliant place to rest our head for a few days. In the end we were the only people in the hostel as they had closed for a few weeks and had only just re-opened for the season. It was like Sharon and I had our own self-catering apartment but with breakfast and a cleaning service and this was all for a discounted price of £6.27 each per night! Plus we had a sea view from the balcony off the kitchen/dining room!
Monday morning rolled around and we hired two mountain bikes from the hostel and headed to El Doradillo where we were reliably told
we would see Southern Right Whales close to the shore as it is mating season and they use the bay to shelter in till the young have enough fat to brave the ocean. We had been warned that it was an 18km ride and whilst it was relatively flat a lot of the journey would be on a gravel road. Gabi, the hostel owner, had also had concerns over the wind however Monday morning the tyres were pumped up and pump and bikes handed over with no mention of wind. Sharon and I set off and soon found our way. The bike ride to El Doradillo went without any mishap and we were soon watching the whales in the distance playing by sticking their tails in the air or breaching however after awhile we decided to head along to the Whale watching point that Gabi had told us about and highlighted on our map. A cycle up a hill and we were soon watching a family of whales playing on the shore below us. After watching them for 15 or so minutes we decided they weren't going anywhere so we would join them. An enjoyable downhill ride and we were
soon watching the whales as they played less than 100m from the breakwater.
As far as I am aware this is the first time I have ever seen a Whale let alone a wild one. It was amazing to watch the family of 5 play in the water and at times it seemed like they were parading up and down just for the watching spectators!!
By 2.30pm we decided it was time to start heading back as we knew that parts of it were uphill and the wind seemed to have picked up. This is where the nightmare began! The wind was really strong and head on to us returning to Puerto Madryn. It was that bad that anytime you reached a downhill section there was no point in celebrating as you couldn't freewheel as the wind was that strong it was virtually pushing ou backwards (I kid not and Sharon will more than vouch for this!). The journey seemed to take forever to get back and the gravel track was even worse as it had dried out further with the sun so any time a car did pass it kicked up dirt and gravel and so you
were blinded for awhile and I was wheezing like an asthmatic, in fact worse than Dad on a bad day!! This also isn't helped by the fact that for a few days I had had a mini cold however the cycling seemed to have made my nose run so every few hundred meters I had to stop to blow my nose.
Anyway we eventually arrived back at the hostel at 5pm. The moral of this story is next ime we decide to cycle 25 miles we ask more questions about how flat the road is and ensure that there is no wind around and about!!
Tuesday we decided we would head to the next biggest town, Trelew, and from there we knew we could get a bus to Gaiman which is a Welsh village! We knew that the only thing that onely Planet and Gabi could recommend about Trelew was its palaeontological museum however on arrival in Trelew and asking at the tourist information office we found out that it cost 25pesos (£4.16) at which point we both decided that we weren't going! So we wandered around the town centre and were underwhelmed by it so headed back to
the bus station and got the connecting bus to Gaiman.
The brief history to Gaiman is that in the early 1900's there were a lot of Welsh settlers and they all arrived in the area and so formed a couple of villages and these still exist and the locals all speak Wlesh or Spanish. We had been told to test out the Welsh afternoon tea. On arrival we nearly missed the village however realised the bus wasn't going to stop unless we stood up. We found our way to the tourist information and got details of a mini tour of the town. Once again I will confess to being underwhelmed however I don't think it helped that we are in the low season at the minute so there were no other tourists around and we also hit the town in the middle of their siesta period. In Patagonia we have found they love their siestas between 12.30pm till 4pm!
Anyway we jumped on the bus back to Trelew however we ended up on the bus with a load of locals and school kids. A kid gave his seat up for Sharon but I ended up standing. I ended
up having two locals laughing at me and the only reason I could come up with is my hight. I know that in relative terms I am quite tall, yes Heather, Julie and Marie-Eve I know I am smaller than you all but at 5ft 8” I am still taller than the average woman in the UK!, however over here I seem to be a giant against all women and I also tower over a lot of the men. Anyway I was stood next to this local woman and she didn't even come up to my shoulder and I was towering over her and everyone else.
That night we confirmed with the hostel that we wanted to book the trip to Penninsular Valdes and the whale watching boat trip. After a 7am start and making sure our bags were packed for our move to Bariloche that night we waited for our pick up. This time Sharon and I lucked out. As it is quiet season we ended up on a private tour of just the two of us and instead of being travelling in a minibus we went in the relative comfort of a truck. Leo was our driver
and guide for the day. We drove around the penninsular and stopped at various sites to see the views and wildlife. On this trip I wasn't disappointed and we got to see a couple of colonies of Southern Elephant Seals, a couple of grey foxes, a turkey vulture, eagles and three different types of cormorants. We also got to see what I now classify as standard wildlife this being llamas, sheep, cows and what they call ostriches but we think are emus!
We then arrived at Punta Piramedes for the boat tour. We got dolled up in a sou'wester and attractive life jacket and then escorted to the boat with 3 Spanish families and another Spanish couple. We were given brief details as to what we were going to do and that the weather was good so we had a very good chance of seeing some Whales. We headed off into the bay and we were soon heading towards the Whales that could be seen blowing through their airholes in the distance. The experience ended up being something else as we approached the Whales moved away slightly from the boat however they then became curious themselves and ended up
coming closer to the boat and in fact one swam underneath whilst another swam alongside. They were amazing to watch and the grace with which they swam was something to be seen. The only disappointment for me is that I was unable to get a close up shot of a Whale showing his tail in the air.... we can't have everything I suppose!
I do have 101 pictures of the whales however have just restricted the blog to the best ones.
The next bus journey takes me away from the East coast for the last time and we now head to San Carlos de Bariloche (or simply Bariloche as it is known by Argentinians) and the foot of the Andes.....
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Nice photos of the whales. Sharon looks like she is wearing a liferaft, not a lifejacket! :-)