30 November Cabo Dos Bahias and onto Puerto Madryn

A decent night’s sleep and we were up early for breakfast (the kids had returned) before heading out on the dirt road to the Cabo Dos Bahias nature reserve. I had seen this place on a map during our visit in 2003 and have wanted to return since. Driving out, we rounded a bay when Linda spotted some pink in the water. Stopping to look closer, we saw a flock of Chilean flamingos. Quite unexpected in a bay on the Atlantic coast but it is within their range. We had wanted to see them in the Altiplano but here they were on the coast.


Chilean flamingos by the Atlantic

Going further, we finally came to the reserve where the ranger, who looked like he was half mad living out there with his dogs, took our fees and gave us a map. It wasn’t too much further to the reserve which featured more Magellanic penguins. This reserve is much more open than Punta Tomba so you get a better broad view of penguin habitat. A short drive down another road lead us to the point that separates the two bays. Take caution with loose clothing and small children as the winds here were unbelievable, even for Patagonia. Oddly the reserve also had some sort of marine with some dining and tourist facilities there but we didn’t go visit. We also saw a lot of guanacos here, and oddly not one outside the two reserves.







Camper vans from Europe

We had noticed a few campervans from Europe (German) up north . We noticed a lot more here (paved roads), including a French camper in Camarones, and then on the highway to Trelew, even more German vans and an Austrian and Dutch one to boot. It seems to be the Euorpean thing to have painted on the front and side of the vans where the occupants are from so we saw lots of Alemania, fewer Francia and the only Holandia and Austria. Also saw a California-licensed RV that did not follow the European trend. Some adventurous Germans even had a camper built onto a high-clearance 4WD Daimler-Benz truck (bigger than an Unimog).

Leaving the reserve, we backtracked to Camarones to take a few more photos of the church before heading out to the highway and Puerto Madryn. Fuel prices were the cheapest here as I guess the oil fields of Comodoro Rivadavia aren’t too far down the road. There’s also lots of fuel stations relative to the traffic (many trucks). Speed limits seem to be ignored here though the Corsa wasn’t going to go that fast (I’d love to have my Chevy on this road). We wanted a new map of Chubut so drove into Trelew (has the feel of a southern California town of the mid ‘50s, just a bit rundown) and found that the ACA regional offices are hopeless in stocking any decent maps.


View from the bathroom at Indalo Colpjo, Camarones

Getting out of Trelew, we made a stop at REL to find if Avis was there and could swap out our car as it had no functioning air con. They weren’t there but someone told us to find the office in Madryn and so we continued there.
It looks like part of the infrastructure money the Kirchners are spending are going into double laning the road north of Trelew which isn’t a bad idea given the increasing traffic and the fair number of slow-moving which don’t exactly mix well with Argentinean driving. Turning into Madryn, we got to see it in daylight for the 1st time (it was dark for most of our drive from Punta Tomba back in ’03, including 70 Km on a dirt road). I’d have to say Madryn seems to have much more in the way of tourist infrastructure now. There’s lots of restaurants for all budgets, more hotels, and lots of boutiques with all sorts of stuff for the visitor.

We just checked into some hotel that we had prebooked as the prices were either exorbitant or reviews bad or both for most of the places. Our room was fairly spacious and even had two armchairs, though the construction across the road was a bit noisy. As we had been on the road for over a week, this was a good place to do some laundry as it was the 1st place with a nice lavadaria that we had come across. We also visited Avis (after some waiting as they had gone off) who took the car to the mechanic, found that the a/c couldn’t be repaired, and promised us another car in the morning.

1 December Whale watching off Puerto Piramides and seals at Punta Delgada

After a decent breakfast, we packed up and headed to the Avis office where we found that we got a white Gol this time, with 82K Km on the clock. Not the best but at least the a/c was working. We also found that the doors didn’t close well and would find out the reason for this later.
After getting a bit lost this time (but not the 1st), we went off on our favourite back road (never taken the official signed/recommended road in two trips) to Peninsula Valdes, first paying for admission and then stopping at the visitor centre. There are things to see here for those who haven’t visited Valdes but I highly recommend the visiting the gorgeous servicios. The other feature was the whimsical mate-vending contraption.


Valdes visitor center

Getting to Puerto Piramides, we did the trick of going around and inquiring which was the next whale-watching tour. It appears the morning tours are most crowded as that’s when the tour busses from Madryn get there. Settling on one, we bought tickets and waited until it was time to lifejacket up and head down. You don’t get wet boarding here. The large Zodiacs (equipped with sonar) are brought up on trailers and you board on a ramp, giving your reusable ticket/boarding pass a la WN. It wasn’t too long of a trip out into the southern bay before we saw three Southern Right Whales (these make a distinctive V-shaped plume). Being females and young, they didn’t breach but surfaced to have a look, take a breath, and dived again. At a cost of some CAD 40, it was a bargain compared to whale watching up in these climes though I feel bad for disturbing the peace of the whales.









Getting back, we got some empanadas for lunch as a local bakery before heading off to the ends of the Peninsula. On our last, trip, we had passed Faro Punta Delgada and noticed there was a place to stay there while we were having lunch. On our way, we saw that there was a road to a salt lake but unfortunately most roads on the peninsula are private and not accessible.

Getting to Delgada, we noticed that the estancia had changed so that day visitors were diverted to a viewing area quite a few hundred metres away so this place was left for guests only. One checks in at the restaurant here and is escorted to the old lighthouse keeper’s house which has been turned into some 7 bedrooms (and a few more in another building). The place caters to individuals and small tour groups so it is nice. We were then introduced to our porteña guide, Victoria who seemed to have developed a taste for life here. She must have had some castillean education as she pronounced her name as Bicktoria.

The rates here include breakfast, and at an option dinner and lunch too, as well as tours to see the wildlife which was mostly juvenile southern elephant seals and sea lions at this time of the year. The adults were offshore feeding for the birthing season. Victoria took us down to the beach from the lighthouse which was covered with moulting juvenile seals which the orcas hasn’t eaten. There was also the bones of a whale that had washed up some 5-6 years ago and reputedly took some 2 years to rot away which must have made for some interesting smells. The jawbone is still covered with skin. An excursion to another part of the estancia was made in Land Rovers. Unknowing tourists usually have the doors wrenched out of their hands with the winds and this torque on the aluminium body has resulted in doors that don’t close properly, which is the same fate that must have met
our high-mileage Gol.







There are two creatures the guides don’t really tell you much about: the skunk and the armadillo. Patagonia has its own skunk which is brown and white instead of black and white. Other than that, they’re as bad as the ones we have in N. America. Apparently the place to view both (Victoria will deny telling you this) is behind the restaurant by the dumpster. We saw a skunk while having dinner and were amused to see the European tourists chase after it with cameras. They’re much braver than us.

Before dinner, we came upon the lack of initiative (and/or incentive) hospitality staff seem to have in Argentina. Forgetting what our rates were (bed and breakfast), we weren’t told what was included and thought we were on half board. Only after reviewing our orders were we told dinner wasn’t included. A perfect opportunity to upsell was missed (the addition cost for dinner isn’t worth it unless you are very very hungry) as Mario, the manager, didn’t come around and offer to let us trade up to half board until much later.

When we were here in 2003, some people from an English tour group that we had run into at El Calafate and Punta Tomba and would again run into at Iguazu told us that the roast lamb was the best they’ve ever had. We saw the carcass of the lamb on a spike by the parilla but alas, if you want to have the roast lamb here, come for lunch as it’s not served any other time.