A quick update to the travel diary as we prepare to eat our dinner in Puerto
Madryn. The last entry left us in Buenos Aires, preparing for another day of
walking and seeing the Tango dancing in San Telmo. We headed out at the crack
of dawn down to see if we could once again master the bus routes round the
city. We had picked from the Lonely Planet the key tourist areas to see, so
thought getting a bus there would be easy. How wrong we were ! None of the
buses had the destinations on the front of them, so we ended up trawling bus
shelters to find ones which went to Plazas close to where we wanted to go.
Trev the master navigator and map reader wins again. We hop onto a bus heading
for Palermo. This is an area of BA which has lots of parks, lakes etc and
where at the weekend the whole of the city seems to hang out. Our first stop
was the Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful if slightly over run by cats.
It was nice to meander through the shade and although we had no idea what any
of the plants were the fountains and statues were great to see.
From here we walked down to the park and lake area and had a nice wander,
watching the runners, roller bladers, speed walkers, cyclists and other local
nutcases doing their thing. Sports bras obviously haven`t caught on over here
yet !
Our next stop was the zoo, as I had read in my Hello magazine on the plane
that there were 6 white bengal tiger cubs born in the last month here, these
mags come in handy occasionally ! So as well as seeing the normal zoo gubbins
this was something we wanted to have a nose at. We were not disappointed as
while we were watching them the cubs woke up and started to play and scrap. It
was fascinating and the size of their paws looked a trifle scary.
On leaving the zoo we had the old bus game again trying to find one to
Recoleta, another major tourist area, but seemingly no buses go there. We
pestered a driver going in the general direction and he told us where to get
off and roughly what direction to walk in. A long amble later, and after I had
made a quick call to blighty to catch up with Sal. We found the area we were
after. It was busy with a sunday markey so we mooched around this before
heading off to find the cemetery full of famous dead Argentinians in huge
tomblike things. Evita is allegedly buried there along with other presidents
etc.
We headed up from Recoleta to catch another bus over to San Telmo to sit and
watch the tango dancing in the square. After another walk from the bus we
stumbled across the tango square and market. It was full of bustle, but we
managed to see a bit of tango before settling down for a couple of well earned
beers in the sunshine. Our feet thanked us for that.
On returning to our hostel it was a quick shower and then a sup of some local
brew called Metti and a snack of Tortes de la Frites. The drink was the tea
that the locals here drink, it tasted like a cross between green tea and soggy
tobacco - needless to say we both just had the one sip and passed it on
swiftly to the other people gathered there. The Tortes were like doughnuts
though and took the nasty taste away :o)
After chatting to the other travellers, we headed out to Cafe Tortoni, a very
old cafe in town. It is still decorated in its original 19th century style and
had a great buzz about it. We both had some steak which at two pound a head
was delicious. We headed home after that as we had to be up at 4am to catch
our flight to Trelew.
An uneventful flight, without any brekkie which we were relying on ! Into
Trelew and a taxi ride up to Puerto Madryn. It is very different country here.
Very flat in comparison to what we have seen and not much vegetation. Looks
very much like heathland with the odd sand hump and rock to break it up. We
found our hostel and then managed to hire a car, a Ford Ka, the cheapest we
could get - if only we had known what lay ahead.
We headed off up the coast to Puerto Norte, the furthest point we wanted to
get to to see Sea Lions. Over to Trev now to complete the rest of the diary
entry.
We had been told repreatedly by the rental company īthe roads are impassable
if it rains - you must ask at the entrance before going in and if they say no
then you must returnī. As we drove towards the peninsula we drove through some
torrential rain and were looking at the sky very dubiously - hoping that it
would clear up before we arrived.. As we pulled up to the barrier at the
entrance to the park the rain had reduced to a gentle drizzle and the guard
squinted at the sky and told us we should be okay.
Milly was driving as she canīt look at a map in a moving car (or thatīs what
she tells me anyway) and the roads were made of a very thin layer of loose
shingle on packed mud .- we merrily ploughed through the occasional small
puddle on the way to Punta Norte. The distance to the view point was about
100k and about half the way there the rain got worse. The road conditions
steadily declined... By the time we were getting close the car was starting to
slide sideways at the slightest opportunity - Milly was turning into the skids
like a pro - except for the grimace of mild panic on her face as we came very
close to the edge of the īroadī on occasion (given the huge deposit on the car
this was I suppose understandable) I was of course sitting in the co-pilots
seat shouting incredibly useful advice - suffice to say it was lucky that
certain fingers on Millys hands were otherwise occupied ;)
We saw some great wildlife at the three view points, sea liions, elephant
seals and penguins. Unfortunately we missed the Orcas by a couple of days.
By the end of the drive Iīm not sure Camilla could even have picked up a pint
(and you know how serious that must have been1!) as she had been holding on to
the steering wheel so hard for so long. The car looked like it had taken a
roll through a pig pen and we were seriously concerned about our deposit.
On returning to Puerto Madryn we had a large dinner (steak for Me and Half a
chicken for Camilla) and crashed for the night.
Iīll pass back to Camilla now as I canīt get used to this strange straight
keyboard. Milly here, I was getting frustrated with Trevīs typing not aided by
hunger, and we know a hungry Milly is an angry one !
Today we had another drive along much drier but still loose shingle roads to
see a Penguin Colony at Puerto Tombo. There were thousands of penguins there
as it is their breeding time. There are supposed to be over a million of
penguins along that stretch of coast. I had a quick chat to one penguin who
seemed to take a shine to me. I think he was eyeing up my fingers for a pre
dinner snack. We sat and watched them swim and dive in the sea which was
great. They didnīt seem bothered by humans at all so it was great to get so
close to them. The journey back today wasnīt nearly as eventful as yesterday
which was a relief, we sat and listened to tunes to pass the time.
Tonight we are off to taste some of the local seafood which I am really
looking forward to. Trev is grumbling about missing an opportunity to have yet
another Argentinian steak. No doubt that will be rectified when we get to
Ushuaia tomorrow evening.
We hope to get some piccies on the website soon but are having trouble getting
them developed onto CD at the moment.