From Puerto Natales (where I rounded a breezy corner of the bay to find some.....university student accommodation - aarghhh!but those pesky students have such a great view) we were picked up kindly at our hotel by JB bus to take us into Chile´s highlight of all national parks - Los Torres del Paine. How little did we know what pain really was until we climbed those mothers!
A truly beautiful mountainscape for 360 degrees, with the longest snowfield in the Americas (300kms), radioactive coloured salt lakes, glaciers to die for and volcanic peaks to swoon over in the big, big sky. Almost heaven, apart form the cost and the pain,oh the pain!We also met up with Nicky and Mark from Ealing and proud to say Mark is a true Nottingham Forest fan to the last (keep all those fingers crossed UK, they have to go up, for Cloughie up in the sky) who had a similar budget issues in the hotel lined with gold (ours)! The photgraphs will show the grand scale of the landscape we had to scale in our quest to reach the base of Los Torres, the towers, all over 2700mts high.
Like stupid English fools we misread the map when it said four hours walk/climb we thought it meant round trip! Alas no, and your intrepid explorers spent 10 hours all told on foot returning down the mountain in the dark with Phils fab lithium battery torch saving our souls and preventing us falling off the precarious edge of the boulder strewn path with scary noises in the dark! The scene at the peak of our quest was worth the pain in hips, knees and achilles, with an azure blue lago footing the sheer granite vertical towers, catherdral like in their immensity standing another 800metres above us. Los Torres del Paine - and they most certainly were!
The following couple of days were spent recovering or at least trying to walk between the room and the breakfast restaurant and back without swearing , groaning or a grimace! When we had arrived at the hotel we had arranged a 2hrs guided tour to Lago Nordenskjold and the rear view of those Torres. So it was a good test for old sporty muscles and joints to see if they could function 36 hours after they had been so abused! More fantastic views and thanks to our knowledgable-about-all-things guide the yummy Rodrigo (he´s coming to England in May girls)we learned a lot more about the park, natural history, Chile and its social cultures than we would talking rubbish to each other for another afternoon! Plus the added bonus of another forceful waterfall Salto Grande and only 2 hrs walking on the virtual flat this time with a full body massage booked on our return (no extras for me though!)from the diminutive Rebekka. A beautiful bottle of Maipu Valley Merlot joined by four cheeses and followed by a puma spotted just outside the window by the waiter which they tried to highlight using the jeep headlights and steer him away from the horse corall - we felt we had found paradise - then we got the bill......
Friday 30 March 2007
Thursday 29 March 2007
Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales
We leave Ushuaia under a cloud, or many...so to speak. It is very early in the morning and we hop on the bus for Road trip 2...Punta Arenas, Sandy Point. It is an 8 - 10 hour trip. There are many recognisable faces on he bus but we have 50 seats and 8 passengers..very exclusive. The terrain here is flat, grassy and windswept with beautifully sculptured smooth hills disappearing into the distance. The road is unpaved for much of the way and the driver has certain rally driving qualities with magnificent sliding manoevers accompanying the sweeping corners. Reassuringly you can see for miles into the distance and the approaching vehicles are usually accompanied by a pall of dust. There is much wildlife and farms are dotted on the horizon. It has many of the qualities of South Island, NZ without the lovely green hues you get there.
Finally we approach Punta Arenas, get ourselves checked in and wander to the plaza. There are some grand maisons, financed by the wool trade and mostly imported brick by brick from Europe. Shackleton watered here on is way to rescue his comrades sometime around 1914 and it probably hasn´t changed much since then.
The following day we visit the Magellan Strait. This was avoided in most part by the ships sailing in Dampiers day as it is difficult to navigate and treacherous with its changeable weather, even for Pilots with Dampiers skill. Remarkably they opted to go round the Horn!
We take a trip to Magdalena Island to see the Magellan Penguins.
It is penguins as far as the eye can see and they are clearly slighty peaved by the presence of us humans and nip at your ankles as you pass.
Punta Arenas is a stopping off point on the way to Puerto Natales and Los Torres National Park. We head for Puerto Natales toute suite. It is also a charming little town full of hostals and restaurants but with the most exquisite wood framed houses clad with tin and painted in variegated colours. It also has big skies and grand sunsets as the sun disappears in the direction of Los Torres, our next stop.
Finally we approach Punta Arenas, get ourselves checked in and wander to the plaza. There are some grand maisons, financed by the wool trade and mostly imported brick by brick from Europe. Shackleton watered here on is way to rescue his comrades sometime around 1914 and it probably hasn´t changed much since then.
The following day we visit the Magellan Strait. This was avoided in most part by the ships sailing in Dampiers day as it is difficult to navigate and treacherous with its changeable weather, even for Pilots with Dampiers skill. Remarkably they opted to go round the Horn!
We take a trip to Magdalena Island to see the Magellan Penguins.
It is penguins as far as the eye can see and they are clearly slighty peaved by the presence of us humans and nip at your ankles as you pass.
Punta Arenas is a stopping off point on the way to Puerto Natales and Los Torres National Park. We head for Puerto Natales toute suite. It is also a charming little town full of hostals and restaurants but with the most exquisite wood framed houses clad with tin and painted in variegated colours. It also has big skies and grand sunsets as the sun disappears in the direction of Los Torres, our next stop.
Monday 26 March 2007
The push to Ushuaia
Push to Ushuaia
It was sad to leave the hotel gang and El Calafate which had a village feel about it and a relaxing air in the town. We were in danger of settling into a routine which would have been a welcome change from packing the dirties into the sackie every three days. Catch a shrunken jet from the airport and make an alarming unscheduled stop in Rio Gallegos which was turbulent but not as turbulent as the landing at Ushuaia..the airport being on the windy tip of land thrusting into the
Beagle channel. Ushuaia sits on the Beagle channel and is the very last town going south before Antartica.
It started life as a penal colony and is now the point of entry for most ships going to Antarctica. It is surrounded by mountains, the Tierra del Fuego National Park and Chile is directly in front of you standing in the dock of the bay.
Its cold!!! Hotel great and straight into town for an AYCE Parilla - its all your sunday roasts in one elongated lamb noshage. I think I ate 10kg of lamb with salad sledges to get it down....Fo has delicate rafts of fish but caves in to Parilla madness inevitably and eats the wrong end of the pantomime horse...still in ketosis though...phew!
The Beagle Channel is a possible haunt of the deft capitano Dampier so we arrange a trip in a yacht up the channel.The weather is more changeable than The Shetland Islands...we leave in warm sunshine amd make for H Island to see the barbecue sites of the Ona Indians. Now they didn´t wear clothes from Primark but smeared themselves in Seal fat and ate the rest of the seals to give themselves a blubbery hi fat protective coat, spending their days fishing around the islands in their birthday suits.
This kept them warm in the perishing winds which whip up the channel. We experience this on the way back as the wind whips in from the west, the journey back is sails reafed and bolt down the portholes. Elka and Fo brace themselves in the rigging at the stern in their yellow popeye suits and we defrost Fo back in port with submarinos (hot chocolate)
The extraordiary feat of navigating through these inlets and channels is something it is impossible to imagine. Drastically changing weather, wind dependent, limited manoevrability and no navigation lights on land in these forbidding passages. My admiration for the 17thC mariners is increasing all the time as we see the difficulties they faces and paltry provisions they travelled with. Coupled with constant in fighting, mutiny and a boat full of alpha males...
Wednesday 21st we take a trip up to the Martial Glacier via a chair lift and a brisk walk up through the moraine. This affords fantastic views of the Beagle Channel although we are only at 1000m. Interestingly, the trees that cover the lower slopes get smaller as you ascend becoming ravishing little Bonsai´s by the time you reach the tree/snowline interface. Autumn is coming also and the leaves are turning giving a lovely red hue to the herbaceous carpet on the lower slopes.
I have an appointment with Dr Gustavo Gonzalez Bonorino at the Cadic Institute in the early evening. He is a charming Sedimentologist and very well known in Chile and world Geologial circles. Even more bizarre, he knows Pat Brenchly, our Sedimentology lecturer at Liverpool Uni and recently gave a talk there...Ole! He is incredibly kind and gives me a brief chat on the geology of the area and a window on the paleoecology of the south of Argentina from the last Ice Age, 20000 - 15000 ya, with the Antarctic Ice sheet lipping in the Beagle channel, the sea level was 130m or so lower (worldwide...sorry)....global warmin...ugh
Anyway thanks to Gustavo for a fascinating 90 minutes.
Thursday is Road Trip day and we pick up Julien, Nicole and hefty supplies from the Supermercado all packed in to a two door ice cooler. We set of on the RN3 through the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Scenery suitable dramatic and the freedom of the open road. Reach Tolhuin which marks the end of the road and the end of civilisation, we turn back, but not without a large helados from the disproportionately large ´Burt Reynolds´ heladeria and Banjo rifts tinkling in our ears...
We drive to the other end of the 3 back through Ushuaia to the western end of the TdF National Park. Beavers introduced for their pelts have multiplied like rabbits, the other abundant resident. With no known predators, its a great place to live.
We visit a beaver dam, puts french engineering in the dark, and find two freshly noshed trees and lie in wait. Its a beaver no show so we leave having not spotted any one of the 90,000 residents. We reward our painstaking research with a meal in the poshest restaurant in town....a change from Lamb and Panto horse, the wines are indomitable...its goodbye to Julien and Nicole for the present...or au revoir we hope...tomorrow Punta Arenas
It was sad to leave the hotel gang and El Calafate which had a village feel about it and a relaxing air in the town. We were in danger of settling into a routine which would have been a welcome change from packing the dirties into the sackie every three days. Catch a shrunken jet from the airport and make an alarming unscheduled stop in Rio Gallegos which was turbulent but not as turbulent as the landing at Ushuaia..the airport being on the windy tip of land thrusting into the
Beagle channel. Ushuaia sits on the Beagle channel and is the very last town going south before Antartica.
It started life as a penal colony and is now the point of entry for most ships going to Antarctica. It is surrounded by mountains, the Tierra del Fuego National Park and Chile is directly in front of you standing in the dock of the bay.
Its cold!!! Hotel great and straight into town for an AYCE Parilla - its all your sunday roasts in one elongated lamb noshage. I think I ate 10kg of lamb with salad sledges to get it down....Fo has delicate rafts of fish but caves in to Parilla madness inevitably and eats the wrong end of the pantomime horse...still in ketosis though...phew!
The Beagle Channel is a possible haunt of the deft capitano Dampier so we arrange a trip in a yacht up the channel.The weather is more changeable than The Shetland Islands...we leave in warm sunshine amd make for H Island to see the barbecue sites of the Ona Indians. Now they didn´t wear clothes from Primark but smeared themselves in Seal fat and ate the rest of the seals to give themselves a blubbery hi fat protective coat, spending their days fishing around the islands in their birthday suits.
This kept them warm in the perishing winds which whip up the channel. We experience this on the way back as the wind whips in from the west, the journey back is sails reafed and bolt down the portholes. Elka and Fo brace themselves in the rigging at the stern in their yellow popeye suits and we defrost Fo back in port with submarinos (hot chocolate)
The extraordiary feat of navigating through these inlets and channels is something it is impossible to imagine. Drastically changing weather, wind dependent, limited manoevrability and no navigation lights on land in these forbidding passages. My admiration for the 17thC mariners is increasing all the time as we see the difficulties they faces and paltry provisions they travelled with. Coupled with constant in fighting, mutiny and a boat full of alpha males...
Wednesday 21st we take a trip up to the Martial Glacier via a chair lift and a brisk walk up through the moraine. This affords fantastic views of the Beagle Channel although we are only at 1000m. Interestingly, the trees that cover the lower slopes get smaller as you ascend becoming ravishing little Bonsai´s by the time you reach the tree/snowline interface. Autumn is coming also and the leaves are turning giving a lovely red hue to the herbaceous carpet on the lower slopes.
I have an appointment with Dr Gustavo Gonzalez Bonorino at the Cadic Institute in the early evening. He is a charming Sedimentologist and very well known in Chile and world Geologial circles. Even more bizarre, he knows Pat Brenchly, our Sedimentology lecturer at Liverpool Uni and recently gave a talk there...Ole! He is incredibly kind and gives me a brief chat on the geology of the area and a window on the paleoecology of the south of Argentina from the last Ice Age, 20000 - 15000 ya, with the Antarctic Ice sheet lipping in the Beagle channel, the sea level was 130m or so lower (worldwide...sorry)....global warmin...ugh
Anyway thanks to Gustavo for a fascinating 90 minutes.
Thursday is Road Trip day and we pick up Julien, Nicole and hefty supplies from the Supermercado all packed in to a two door ice cooler. We set of on the RN3 through the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Scenery suitable dramatic and the freedom of the open road. Reach Tolhuin which marks the end of the road and the end of civilisation, we turn back, but not without a large helados from the disproportionately large ´Burt Reynolds´ heladeria and Banjo rifts tinkling in our ears...
We drive to the other end of the 3 back through Ushuaia to the western end of the TdF National Park. Beavers introduced for their pelts have multiplied like rabbits, the other abundant resident. With no known predators, its a great place to live.
We visit a beaver dam, puts french engineering in the dark, and find two freshly noshed trees and lie in wait. Its a beaver no show so we leave having not spotted any one of the 90,000 residents. We reward our painstaking research with a meal in the poshest restaurant in town....a change from Lamb and Panto horse, the wines are indomitable...its goodbye to Julien and Nicole for the present...or au revoir we hope...tomorrow Punta Arenas
Sunday 25 March 2007
El Calafate, Patagonia
El Calafate is another ramshackle pioneer town hidden among the Patagonian Andes only 35km to the Chilean border somewhere on a mountain!We arrived by flying from Trelew with accompanying turbulance over the top of the Andes but a fantastic aerial view. The town did not exsist until the early 80´s when only a few Argentinians had visited and no foreigners at all. Then a TV crew were called to film a chunk of ice falling off the great Perito Moreno Glacier and the rest is history!Its full of backpackers (nearly all at least 20 years younger then your intrepid friends)quite alot of annoying public school kids on their gap year who have been everywhere and done everything in their short lives already, lots of hostels and all you can eat parillas for $p32 which Mark insists on visiting at every mealtime!
As another town in the making there are no restrictions on buildings, style or position, so Mark (a 17th September Virgo!) was desperate to tidy and organise a bit of town planning! As a result if you didn´t perch your timber frame hotel on the edge of a precipice overlooking the huge Lago Argentino then Joe Bloggsios is likely to plonk his shack right in front of your guests view!Our hosts for the stay had had the foresight to do this at Hosteria Lumapa and a very friendly home-like feel greeted us along with Tehuelche Indian wall hangings - but some precarious fixtures and fittings also!All under 25 yrs, the youthful hoteliers Pablo (so like Martin Stubbington it was uncanny)Anna and Leandro are ready to help and enjoy your company at any possible moment culminating in a deliciouso dinner with the beautiful Mabel from Sardinia and promises of meeting there for Italian lessons summer 2008!Nowhere near Alghero!
The highlight of our 5 day stay in El Calafate was the trip to and mini-trek on the amazing Perito Merino Glacier amd meeting Nicole and Julian from Melbourne. They too had to endure the babbling factoid-stream that omits from the Naylor orifice as fast as snow melts on the equator and view his attempts at youthful leaps from ice cap to ice cap - a true life long member of the tufty club,girls!
For number crunchers the formidable glacier is 8kms wide, 32kms in length to the snow field and 110m in height; the visible wall above the waterline of Lago Argentino reaching 64metres or 15 storeys of a high rise.It is moving at an amazing rate of a metre a day which is why its so special - 500 metres a year, so the content of the snow field arrives to the front of the glacier in about 75 years. In comparison in the Alps it takes about 10,000 years for the snow field to reach the end of glaciers!So truly the speediest of glaciers!
Half hourly the glacier cracks and loses a whole building´s mass of ice that seem to explode into the Lago with bomb-like force and resonance. A truly wonderful sight to watch,hear and wait for on the balconies above. Our trek on the top of the glacier to the fastest moving part, the middle,was a great experience with crampons attached and the nimblest of mountain guides it was certainly a test for the new knees and achilles tendons! Stepping gingerly over azure blue clefts of melting ice which you could just about fall through imagining the ice closing over you and crushing you into the heart of an icy tomb - how did Joe Simpson manage to get down to base camp with his leg in pieces? Many discussions about Australian /British sport, politics,culture and history has hopefully made new firm friends between Melbourne and Henley on Thames! Until the next cricket or rugby match anyway!Adious El Calafate XX
As another town in the making there are no restrictions on buildings, style or position, so Mark (a 17th September Virgo!) was desperate to tidy and organise a bit of town planning! As a result if you didn´t perch your timber frame hotel on the edge of a precipice overlooking the huge Lago Argentino then Joe Bloggsios is likely to plonk his shack right in front of your guests view!Our hosts for the stay had had the foresight to do this at Hosteria Lumapa and a very friendly home-like feel greeted us along with Tehuelche Indian wall hangings - but some precarious fixtures and fittings also!All under 25 yrs, the youthful hoteliers Pablo (so like Martin Stubbington it was uncanny)Anna and Leandro are ready to help and enjoy your company at any possible moment culminating in a deliciouso dinner with the beautiful Mabel from Sardinia and promises of meeting there for Italian lessons summer 2008!Nowhere near Alghero!
The highlight of our 5 day stay in El Calafate was the trip to and mini-trek on the amazing Perito Merino Glacier amd meeting Nicole and Julian from Melbourne. They too had to endure the babbling factoid-stream that omits from the Naylor orifice as fast as snow melts on the equator and view his attempts at youthful leaps from ice cap to ice cap - a true life long member of the tufty club,girls!
For number crunchers the formidable glacier is 8kms wide, 32kms in length to the snow field and 110m in height; the visible wall above the waterline of Lago Argentino reaching 64metres or 15 storeys of a high rise.It is moving at an amazing rate of a metre a day which is why its so special - 500 metres a year, so the content of the snow field arrives to the front of the glacier in about 75 years. In comparison in the Alps it takes about 10,000 years for the snow field to reach the end of glaciers!So truly the speediest of glaciers!
Half hourly the glacier cracks and loses a whole building´s mass of ice that seem to explode into the Lago with bomb-like force and resonance. A truly wonderful sight to watch,hear and wait for on the balconies above. Our trek on the top of the glacier to the fastest moving part, the middle,was a great experience with crampons attached and the nimblest of mountain guides it was certainly a test for the new knees and achilles tendons! Stepping gingerly over azure blue clefts of melting ice which you could just about fall through imagining the ice closing over you and crushing you into the heart of an icy tomb - how did Joe Simpson manage to get down to base camp with his leg in pieces? Many discussions about Australian /British sport, politics,culture and history has hopefully made new firm friends between Melbourne and Henley on Thames! Until the next cricket or rugby match anyway!Adious El Calafate XX
Sunday 18 March 2007
On the trail of Lava Bread...to Puerto Madryn
The last night in Villa Gesell we hit upon the Cine Pacifico to see the much vaunted
`Parfum`. `The draughtmans contract` with a hint of ´Predator´. Judging by the quizzical faces in the Cinema they were as puzzled as we and what was Dustbin Shortman doing in that hat, in that cellar, most unnerving to the casual observer.
Its not a must see...but it beats Jaws 4 in spanish, in Encarnacion Paraguay with Micheal Caine playing drunk lothario Shark-hunter to the stars and hilarious bloody death of dreadlocked shabby sidekick...thus a final trip to Studio 212 before leaving the place...nice!
Next day off to Johnny Newbury airport, BA for plane to Puerto Madryn. Oh so nearly first travelling disaster anecdote with troublesome language gaff on a ticket we had but nobody could understand. Apparently Aerolineas Andes not a commonly bandied about name and we nearly fell for it....but by hook and crook we get on to the plane.
Fabulous scenery to Puerto Madryn, we are now truly in the Wide sweeping expanse of Patagonia and it does not disappoint. It stretches as far as the eye can see from a plane and is barren and featurefull.
Check into Solar de la Playa hosteria which is gorgeous and walk into the town which has more of a frontier feel to it. Standard uniform...funny trousers with pocket for needle and thread, gortex top (breathable) and fashionable windbreak. Thouands of Mate cups on sale, Patagonia t-shirts for the discerning and trips to Peninsular Valdes or tea in Gaimen with Mrs Jones...
Beautiful sweeping beach and a layed back atmosphere, beachside restaurants litter the broadwalk back to the Hosteria....we are also further than we have ever been from vegetables and fruit..intake of protein about to reach atkins proportions...Ketosis here we come
`Parfum`. `The draughtmans contract` with a hint of ´Predator´. Judging by the quizzical faces in the Cinema they were as puzzled as we and what was Dustbin Shortman doing in that hat, in that cellar, most unnerving to the casual observer.
Its not a must see...but it beats Jaws 4 in spanish, in Encarnacion Paraguay with Micheal Caine playing drunk lothario Shark-hunter to the stars and hilarious bloody death of dreadlocked shabby sidekick...thus a final trip to Studio 212 before leaving the place...nice!
Next day off to Johnny Newbury airport, BA for plane to Puerto Madryn. Oh so nearly first travelling disaster anecdote with troublesome language gaff on a ticket we had but nobody could understand. Apparently Aerolineas Andes not a commonly bandied about name and we nearly fell for it....but by hook and crook we get on to the plane.
Fabulous scenery to Puerto Madryn, we are now truly in the Wide sweeping expanse of Patagonia and it does not disappoint. It stretches as far as the eye can see from a plane and is barren and featurefull.
Check into Solar de la Playa hosteria which is gorgeous and walk into the town which has more of a frontier feel to it. Standard uniform...funny trousers with pocket for needle and thread, gortex top (breathable) and fashionable windbreak. Thouands of Mate cups on sale, Patagonia t-shirts for the discerning and trips to Peninsular Valdes or tea in Gaimen with Mrs Jones...
Beautiful sweeping beach and a layed back atmosphere, beachside restaurants litter the broadwalk back to the Hosteria....we are also further than we have ever been from vegetables and fruit..intake of protein about to reach atkins proportions...Ketosis here we come
Saturday 17 March 2007
Puerto Madryn
We returned to Buenos Aires for another night in the Ayacucho Palace and another enormous BA steak supper and then set off to the beautiful port of Puerto Madryn.
This horseshoe bay is approximately 1500kms south from BA and is where 60 Welsh settlers came ashore in 1865 on rowing boats from the ¨Mimosa¨ to start a new life in Argentina. They dug cave holes out of the sandstone shore to make shelters and lived like this for six months before they moved 60kms south as they found no true source of water and the barren land grew little for them to eat. There is a monument to the Welsh founders of Puerto Madryn on the southern point of the bay and the original cave holes still survive and are protected today. So this is the point where the Welsh association with Patagonia begins and we went in search of Welsh tea rooms in Trelew and Gaiman later in the stay. Very tasty and more cakes you could shake a leek at!
Puerto Madryn is still a town in the making as so many places in the south are but is a popular tourist destination as home to the highly recommended natural wildlife reserve of Peninsula Valdes. The promise of orca´s berthing at high tide to catch themselves a baby seal supper was on one hand gruesome but only other side Blue Planet in the flesh! Seal rookeries and lanuid penguins basking in the sun were so close that the fishy smell was quite potent!
To the north of PM the coast runs for miles, utterly deserted with Seal colonies dotted along at various points. Next cafe stop....Punta Arenas. To the north of PM is the wannabe-island of the Peninsular Valdes. Confusing the connected land mass for an island..seal colonies and birds prefer islands allegedly (Like the English)..they stop off here to breed. Spending 90 percent of their time in the water they still breed and rear their young on land - for the 3 months or so of the pups life (without a private bed or midwife). The Pups suckle their mums to skin and bones, the mothers losing 40 percent of their body weight in this period and the pups get correspondingly larger..do the math! There is also the biggest disparity in size between the male and female of any species, the males being up to 10 times the size of the female - this doesn´t decrease the females ability to spend the husbands bonus let it be said.
The peninsular is teeming with other wildlife, cormorants, shags, penguins, Choique (emu style birds), Caranco (large birds of prey) and herds of Guanaco galloping majestically across the pampas to name a few. Colonies of penguins live on the very unforgiving Spit, Calveta Valdes that runs N/S on the edge of the island. They live, breed and fish from the stony shoreline and more surprisingly live in burrows towards the tops of the cliffs.
In Puerto Pirmides we all took to a boat captained by the Thompson Twins, two salty young sea-dogs who with flowing black hair and 8.30 shadows but with insatiable charm (and knowledge). Here we visited the barking Fur Seal colonies. There were many young and the routine tussles between the Bull Seals and their hareem (array of squeezes)..this is bloke seal heaven.
Peninsular Valdes is a jewel..get down here bloke seals!!!
We had a marvellous guide, a humming bird of a lady called Veronica who took us through all the
This horseshoe bay is approximately 1500kms south from BA and is where 60 Welsh settlers came ashore in 1865 on rowing boats from the ¨Mimosa¨ to start a new life in Argentina. They dug cave holes out of the sandstone shore to make shelters and lived like this for six months before they moved 60kms south as they found no true source of water and the barren land grew little for them to eat. There is a monument to the Welsh founders of Puerto Madryn on the southern point of the bay and the original cave holes still survive and are protected today. So this is the point where the Welsh association with Patagonia begins and we went in search of Welsh tea rooms in Trelew and Gaiman later in the stay. Very tasty and more cakes you could shake a leek at!
Puerto Madryn is still a town in the making as so many places in the south are but is a popular tourist destination as home to the highly recommended natural wildlife reserve of Peninsula Valdes. The promise of orca´s berthing at high tide to catch themselves a baby seal supper was on one hand gruesome but only other side Blue Planet in the flesh! Seal rookeries and lanuid penguins basking in the sun were so close that the fishy smell was quite potent!
To the north of PM the coast runs for miles, utterly deserted with Seal colonies dotted along at various points. Next cafe stop....Punta Arenas. To the north of PM is the wannabe-island of the Peninsular Valdes. Confusing the connected land mass for an island..seal colonies and birds prefer islands allegedly (Like the English)..they stop off here to breed. Spending 90 percent of their time in the water they still breed and rear their young on land - for the 3 months or so of the pups life (without a private bed or midwife). The Pups suckle their mums to skin and bones, the mothers losing 40 percent of their body weight in this period and the pups get correspondingly larger..do the math! There is also the biggest disparity in size between the male and female of any species, the males being up to 10 times the size of the female - this doesn´t decrease the females ability to spend the husbands bonus let it be said.
The peninsular is teeming with other wildlife, cormorants, shags, penguins, Choique (emu style birds), Caranco (large birds of prey) and herds of Guanaco galloping majestically across the pampas to name a few. Colonies of penguins live on the very unforgiving Spit, Calveta Valdes that runs N/S on the edge of the island. They live, breed and fish from the stony shoreline and more surprisingly live in burrows towards the tops of the cliffs.
In Puerto Pirmides we all took to a boat captained by the Thompson Twins, two salty young sea-dogs who with flowing black hair and 8.30 shadows but with insatiable charm (and knowledge). Here we visited the barking Fur Seal colonies. There were many young and the routine tussles between the Bull Seals and their hareem (array of squeezes)..this is bloke seal heaven.
Peninsular Valdes is a jewel..get down here bloke seals!!!
We had a marvellous guide, a humming bird of a lady called Veronica who took us through all the
Wednesday 7 March 2007
Villa Gesell - Mar del Plata
We have spent an intersting few days in a beach resort about 400kms south from Buenos Aires reaching Villa Gesell by 6 hrs coach ride. I left my brazilian flip flops on the coach Luiz! Greeted by rain on our arrival we were happy to find our room overlooked the beach with a balcony so ´the future looked bright (you gotta wear shades!´)
Next day it was baking so we went off to swim and roast in the sun - its essential we have a tan before we go south to 6 degrees and the penguins!The main street scene in Villa Gesell is a bit like Scarborough so we felt so smug, I mean lucky, to find the coolest bar in town Sutton 212 which not only had live modern jazz but fab tuck too! Each night we return as there is no place so cool to hang out.
Practical necessities mean we cannot swim at the same time so we protect our belongings etc but yesterday (TUES 6 MARCH)I swam and was suddenly shocked to see in front of me about 6ft away a dolphin arch in and out of the water. What a treat and I imagine unsual so close to the shallows (needless to say I was out of my depth as is my watery want)That night we had a serious storm and on our hike the following day to find the dunes and uninhabited shoreline further along the coast we were very suprised to see dead fishes of all sizes thrown up on the beach by the crashing waves
some bigger than my foot (see photo!) and not just fish but also.... grasshoppers or even locusts! Locusts of different sizes and hues along with huge moths and smaller butterflies. We guess they were all travelling above the sea and got caught in the hurricane force wind (apparently) and waves and this sandy sarcophagus was their sad end.
Still eating steak by the kilo - and still can´t get any real veg so looking more corpulent by the hour -tish tish.
Next day it was baking so we went off to swim and roast in the sun - its essential we have a tan before we go south to 6 degrees and the penguins!The main street scene in Villa Gesell is a bit like Scarborough so we felt so smug, I mean lucky, to find the coolest bar in town Sutton 212 which not only had live modern jazz but fab tuck too! Each night we return as there is no place so cool to hang out.
Practical necessities mean we cannot swim at the same time so we protect our belongings etc but yesterday (TUES 6 MARCH)I swam and was suddenly shocked to see in front of me about 6ft away a dolphin arch in and out of the water. What a treat and I imagine unsual so close to the shallows (needless to say I was out of my depth as is my watery want)That night we had a serious storm and on our hike the following day to find the dunes and uninhabited shoreline further along the coast we were very suprised to see dead fishes of all sizes thrown up on the beach by the crashing waves
some bigger than my foot (see photo!) and not just fish but also.... grasshoppers or even locusts! Locusts of different sizes and hues along with huge moths and smaller butterflies. We guess they were all travelling above the sea and got caught in the hurricane force wind (apparently) and waves and this sandy sarcophagus was their sad end.
Still eating steak by the kilo - and still can´t get any real veg so looking more corpulent by the hour -tish tish.
Tuesday 6 March 2007
A Voyage of Discovery!
Whether you are bucaneering round the world setting standards for exploration and discovery or you need a bit of a life change - the spirit of adventure spurs you to lands new and exotic. Our trip involves travelling through several countries - even continents of the world and at relevant points following some of William Dampier´s journeys and pausing to visit places he frequented and then recorded his fantastic discoveries of flora and fauna in the time of pirates and mutineers. 1670-1715 ish!
2007 -8 will be our time frame and the first leg of this slightly more luxurious voyage is Buenos Aires Argentina! After a brief sojourn in this passionate and cosmopolitan city we have ventured to the northern tip to the formidable Iguazu Falls, where three great countries meet at the joining of rivers to create the largest waterfall in the Americas - Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. On the Tropic of Capricorn Iguazu is in the rainforest jungle where temperatures in March hit 32 degrees C and humidity is between 85-100% - yeah- HOT! So tripping along the walkway right upto the top edge of the Devils Throat and being soaked from the voluminous clouds of spray from the torrents of brown river water is a welcome respite and a gratifying experience! The boat ride into the base of the fall was even wetter and better but no cameras could be used! The truck drive back though the jungle helped dry our clothes a little and then a quick tarte dulce de leche to replenish the spirits!
2007 -8 will be our time frame and the first leg of this slightly more luxurious voyage is Buenos Aires Argentina! After a brief sojourn in this passionate and cosmopolitan city we have ventured to the northern tip to the formidable Iguazu Falls, where three great countries meet at the joining of rivers to create the largest waterfall in the Americas - Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. On the Tropic of Capricorn Iguazu is in the rainforest jungle where temperatures in March hit 32 degrees C and humidity is between 85-100% - yeah- HOT! So tripping along the walkway right upto the top edge of the Devils Throat and being soaked from the voluminous clouds of spray from the torrents of brown river water is a welcome respite and a gratifying experience! The boat ride into the base of the fall was even wetter and better but no cameras could be used! The truck drive back though the jungle helped dry our clothes a little and then a quick tarte dulce de leche to replenish the spirits!
the first footsteps
We have arrived. After much preparation and much ado, we, the intrepid two have go to the start line and are holed up in Buenos aires, argentina. It will take the usual period of settling in to accustom the sensibilities to the travel protocol... new hotels..new smells..and the wallpaper..this is worse than the nightmare that was harburton in Polzeath...remember those poodle pictures??..anybody reading in PNG..this won´t mean a thing to you. Buenos aires is a beautiful city and where are those hoards of drunken teanagers swopping drinks and body fluids outside the high street giants...Wo ist Starbucks..nowhere to be seen. Conditioning has so hardened my perception of GB that i can´t believe how quiet, clean, civilised and wholly individual BA is. We stop for an ice cream (fo declined as her body has experienced no toxins for 38 seconds), dulce de leche with dulche de leche extract topped with clotted dulce de leche, zero calories the lady tells me - although she talks with strange tongue - so it could have been 2 zero zero zero calories..this parlour closes at 2am..back later. I Love BA.
We go to the football match on the sunday..River Plate contra Independente..this is not football its knockabout with backing vocals by the Blenau Ffestiniog male voice quoir, cast of 10,000. The noise is deafening but not a pint of ´wife beater´ in sight, the football is a side issue , fortunately, as this is a non contact sport. River plate win 4-2 and not a dry throat in the house..need to see Boca vs River Plate..that would be opera of proportions
We go to the football match on the sunday..River Plate contra Independente..this is not football its knockabout with backing vocals by the Blenau Ffestiniog male voice quoir, cast of 10,000. The noise is deafening but not a pint of ´wife beater´ in sight, the football is a side issue , fortunately, as this is a non contact sport. River plate win 4-2 and not a dry throat in the house..need to see Boca vs River Plate..that would be opera of proportions
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