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Published: June 14th 2006
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Lynny - Maté
Maté (pronnounced Martay) is a herbal tea that every Argentinian drinks. They drink it so much that it is not uncommon to see people walking around with their Maté pot and a flask of hot water! (we think it might be addictive)We had to get one and check it out. First of all, massive apologies about the title. Lynny insisted on that cheesy one liner.
When we left Bs As it was exciting and strange, after 3 weeks in one place we kind of made a home of it I guess. It was good to pack up again and get on the move. 17 hours on an overnight coach took us South along the West coast just inside Patagonia. Puerto Madryn was not somewhere that we had specifically planned to go to when we vaguely planned South America, but the news that the 'Right´whales had arrived a little early to their winter home made it the perfect place to stop on our way down Argentina. Not long after leaving Bs As the landscape becomes field after field of fairly baron flattish land. At least thats what it was before we went to sleep, and when we woke up about 9 hours later!
Eventually we arrived in Puerto Madryn and we liked it immediately, it was very quiet and the swimming pool calmness of the sea helped make it appear as a really peacefull and attractive seaside town. The temperature drop from Bs As was one of the first things we
noticed! We checked into a hostel that we had been recommended called el refugio. We had a great little room with an excellent gas heater! Private bathroom and the family running it were very nice indeed. We did have a slight problem with their dog though!! It was literally a dog on heat ...... and made a bee-line for Lynnys leg on the first day hahaha it wasnt a small dog either. I didnt have the last laugh unfortunately because after Lynny turned him down, he only had eyes for me in the days following! (until I showed him Lynnys backpack)
The nearby Peninsula Valdes is the top attraction there and also happens to be the only place you can get a boat out to the whales. As usual, we spent the first day investigating our options and realised by the end of the day that hiring a car was our best value option considering we didnt want to spend too long in Madryn. The Peninsula is 80km away from town and is quite big itself. Some beaches inbetween town and the Peninsula are great for Whale spotting (in high tide) and the best Sea Lion colony is south
of Town (in low tide) in the opposite direction. For a mere 25 pound we got a little red VW (called Sarah) and were able to wiz around all of the above in 24 hours! 60% of the driving was on bumpy gravel roads so it was a bit hair raising being in a rental car ....... especially as she had zero suspension!! I dont think it would have passed an MOT back home. I made sure it was thick with dirt before we took it back so any stone chips etc would go unnoticed ,-)
They kindly gave us the car on the evening we booked it, just before sunset and in high tide so we were able to drive up the coast a bit and look for our first Whale spot. We both said on the way that it was a long shot, its early, lets not get our hopes up etc. How wrong could we be! I dont think we had been in the car more than 5 mins before I spotted something in the water. We parked up and watched as a couple of whales bathed in the scarily calm sea fairly near the shore.
We were shocked, amazed and ecstatic.
The next day we saw the sea lion colony and then drove out onto the Peninsula to find a boat out to the Whales. It was a superb day ...... having a bit of freedom with the car was a really nice change to public transport and organised trips. I had been missing driving a bit too to be honest. The boat got us as close as 5 metres from the Whales at times ...... it was fantastic! I dont think we said much to each other at the time ..... both stunned into silence. It was so difficult to get good photos as it was really windy out there and I didnt want to spend the whole time fiddling with the camera instead of watching the Whales.
There were lamas running about too ..... none as weird as the one in the photo of our last blog though!
Gray x
Ps. Mini, although it may not look like it from Spicys choice of pics, it was your fave weather! You would have loved it!! Sunny and cold. Brrrrrrr......
" We parked up and watched as a couple of
whales bathed in the scarily calm sea fairly near the shore. " - I´m not sure it was just bathing that they were getting up to!!! ; )
Lynny x
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Carolyn
non-member comment
Lovin the mac Lynny!
That's all I've got to say really, will email you more details of everything! XXX