2 December - Private estancia stay at La Ernestina

Victoria has told us we could go down to the beach but only to the cliff edge, so that’s what we did the next morning to view the seals. Though they are just a year old, some of the males were already huge and vastly outsized the juvenile females. Though they hadn’t developed their inflatable snouts, you could see where they would be soon. The larger males were already practicing mating battles with other males as well as mating with (unwilling) females.





After breakfast and a second tour (another cliff walk this time), we visited the lighthouse which was also an Argentinean naval facility until the land was leased out to an estancia. Heading out, we drove up north passing facilities and sights we had passed before. At one of the tourist points, we saw a fox, of course behind the restaurant. We also came across a penguin habitat (this one up a what could be considered a cliff) with nests at clifftop level. It certainly wasn’t as big 6 years earlier.

On our drive in 2003, the Renault we rented had a leaky tire and I stopped to change it at some point along the shore. The PoA has wandered off to the beach while I was doing that and saw lots of bleached shells and bones. Having just visited Punta Norte, she got scared and came back to the car. All prepared to conquer her fear this time, we drive along but found all access off the paved road was fenced off – something new in the past 7 years.

Getting to La Ernestina a bit too early, we decided to drive past it and go on a bit further to Punta Norte. Change has come here too with more visitor-friendly facilities such as a nice café. The beach scene has changed too with the sea lion females and pups replaced with juvenile seals. I checked with the ranger observation station and found there hadn’t been any orca sightings in a few days.

Heading back to La Ernestina, we got there and were greeted by some half dozen of the estancia’s half-dozen or so border collies. They’re friendly but they’ll also pee on anything. Juan was busy but the hostess, Gloria showed us to our room which was one of some half dozen. Fortunately, we were the only ones here tonight (there were some 4 rooms occupied the previous night). The rooms here are spacious though it appeared a couple of guest with an infant had occupied our room the night before and we were greeted with a clogged toilet. Some inflexibility as they wouldn’t give us another room (they had 5 spare ones) but Gloria fixed the plumbing while we were out. Juan, the current operator and 3rd generation owner came to greet us as a wool truck has just finished loading and left, explaining the visit schedule to us.


Juan

After a tea, and photographing the peacocks that Juan’s mother keeps, we boarded the Land Rover to see the penguin colony on the estancia. Repeating the line that no orcas were seen that day, we climbed onto the rooftop seats and no sooner than we turned onto the road when the PoA called out that she had seen orcas. We stopped and sure enough, there were there but just too far offshore to see up close. It appeared to be one of the local pods making its way south and wasn’t sighted by the ranger at Norte. Heading on, we passed Norte and then went off a closed side road to the penguin colony. Penguins aren’t fixed by habit and apparently there were no penguins on the estancia some 30-35 years ago until some came, liked it, and stayed so that there are an estimated 70,000 now. The penguin’s feeding grounds are apparently only a day’s round trip away from here and some 6 days from Punta Tomba. The chicks here are bigger as a result and often both will survive. The colony extends to the next estancia which operates a well-marked visitor centre.



While we were there, Juan got a radio call from the ranger that some orcas were headed our way and he estimated they’d pass us in some 15 minutes. We waited by the beach, stared at by a seal who was debating whether we or the orcas were less harmless (Juan was throwing pebbles into the water to attract the orca’s attention). The shore goes down very deeply here so the orcas apparently can swim within 1m of shore. We were rewarded with a view of the orcas with one surfacing not more than 200m away from us. No attacks on seals, unfortunately.








Going back, we noticed that penguins were already scouting the Land Rover as a nesting site. They like to burrow under thorny shrubs which deters flying predators.


Scouting out a new nesting site

The drive bask to the estancia was cold (it gets cold as soon as the sun starts to go down, coupled with the wind). Gloria served a nice dinner and there was a large selection of alcoholic beverages though they were the cheap local products and quite a few of the wines had gone off.


3 December We found the same B&B again

The next morning after breakfast, Juan took us across the road to a beach that was full of sea lions and elephant seals. He could have told us we had to crawl through shore bird sh!t to be among the critters. Unfortunately our location was south of them so we had to photograph into the sun. Though no orcas came around this morning, we did get to observe the sea lions and seals very closely. It wasn’t until I saw these particular species of sea lions that I understood how they got their name. We also saw these white birds which are called the equivalent of Antarctic doves in Spanish. Their English name is a bit less refined as they apparently make a diet of sea lion poop. As La Ernestina offers full board, we went back for a nice lunch before paying and heading off.






This bird has an interesting diet


Had to crawl through their poop


If you make reservations here, you will first contact Marina, Juan’s sister, who lives in Madryn. The whole estancia is evacuated in winter with only one caretaker who stays behind. A drought has apparently stricken Valdes and the toll is visible. There was a very dead (and fortunately dessicated) sheep outside out back window. Juan told us that the estancia has some 5,000 sheep now with some 3,000 dead because of the drought.

Stopped at Norte one more time on our way out and saw an armadillo who must only come out when there’s a tour bus. They still look like a giant wood louse/pill bug. Just before passing Piramides, we turned off to go visit a beach which wasn't what we expected. Taking a quick tour of the shore line, we went up to the cliff tops where we saw whales far out in the bay. We also came across a young Spanish couple from Barcelona (carless, on a camping holiday) who had walked along the shore from Piramides. They asked us how far it was back to town and we said it was a long walk. Given that they were overdressed and it was warm, we gave them a ride back to their campsite.


Back in 2003, we visited Valdes on the hottest day on record for that date (some 40C) and to top off the day, spent the night in Gaiman near the airport in a small B&B that didn’t have any screens, fans or airconditioners so we got eaten by mosquitoes all night. Only place we stayed in Argentina not to have a bidet. Linda made a point not to stay at the same place so she made some bookings since the Trelew hotels were reported not to be very nice. Finding our way to Gaiman, we found that she had booked the same hosteria which operated under a new name with new owners. More interestingly, we got the same room. Fortunately it was cooler this time and the mosquitoes weren’t biting yet.


Same hosteria, different owner. Our room is the window right of the door

We walked around Gaiman which hasn’t changed too much from our first visit, seeing the gardens and a pedestrian suspension bridge that we hadn’t seen the first time. What Welsh influence there once was has rapidly faded (including the previous proprietor of the hosteria who looked as if she could be running a B&B in Wales). We decided to skip dinner at the restaurant we ate at the last time as it appeared to be deserted though open. The alternative, a parilla that was run by the nephew of some Welsh restaurateurs wasn’t very good. We have a rule where we eat wherever the French eat to get good food and it generally has never failed us. I guess since the 2 French couples who ate there came in after us, we weren't following our rule.