Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina

After running around in the heat and sitting on the bus for 17 hours I was in desperate need of a shower. We were scheduled to be on a flight to Patagonia that evening so I was worried I wouldn’t get one for a while but luckily, the hotel staff at the hotel in Buenos Aires really went above and beyond. They let us use a room for an hour or so to reorganize our things and take a shower at no charge! We even managed to take some laundry to get cleaned.

For this afternoon that we had in Buenos Aires we decided we would take the local Double-Decker tour bus. Since Mario has worked on the Double-Deckers in Seattle he was interested to see how they did it in another city. Unlike Seattle, they don’t use live guides for the tours, instead, it’s a recording you listen to with headphones. I thought that would make it too dry but it was actually fun and informative and we got to see a lot more of the city than we would have otherwise. It made me wish we had more time to explore the city. But, alas, we were off for the next part of our adventure.

We flew into a town called, Trelew (pronounce tray-lay-ew), and since we’d made our arrangements fairly last-minute we had to stay one night in a dorm-style hostel that night. As hostels go this one was at least quiet but I never really feel comfortable sharing a room with other people. Plus, the hostel staff was real pushy about selling their tours of the park, insisting that it would be reckless for us to rent a car. We decided to rent a car.

Like most of the rest of the world Argentina only offered manual transmission cars. I didn’t know how to drive one and Mario hadn’t practiced for several years (and the last time ended poorly as some of you may recall…) so we were hesitant. I thought it over for a while and decided that because Patagonia is full of long, flat, lonely roads this would be a great chance for both of us to practice and I really wasn’t interested in seeing Patagonia from a tour bus.

By another stroke of luck the woman working at Budget didn’t notice that Mario’s US ID wasn’t actually a driver’s license so we put him as the primary driver, me as the second. Everything was going well so far but now we had to get the car off the curb and into afternoon traffic in downtown Puerto Madryn. This lovely trusting woman who rented us the car did not stand by to watch us pull away. If she had, she probably would have had second thoughts about renting us the car. After about half a dozen hair raising tries we finally pulled in to traffic. We just had to make it through about thirty unclearly marked intersections and then we’d be on the open road! There was one moment when Mario stalled in the middle of one such intersection with a bus bearing down on us. I waved apologetically at the driver and we moved on.

Finally we made it to the highway. It was beautiful sunny open road with scrubby wind-blown Patagonian landscape on both sides, the jewel blue ocean water twinkling in the distance. Ahh, the freedom of having a car…after our years and years of bus travel this felt like real and true luxury.

Another scary moment came when we approached a police blockade. Mario was tense, I told him to stay calm and smile. He pretended to not speak Spanish well. The police were looking for someone and it wasn’t us. They waved us on.

We arrived to Puerto Pyramides on the Peninsula Valdez around six, with plenty of sunshine left to enjoy the beach. We took a romantic stroll down the beach to the sound of a group of local guys having an improvisational drumming jam session. We ended the day with a great dinner at our hotel.

The next day we headed out to explore the Peninsula. The roads on this UNESCO World Heritage site are all gravel and cover some 250km. We saw elephant seals first, though disappointingly there weren’t any of the odd-looking male seals around because they’d all gone back out to sea, leaving their female harems and young to care for themselves. We also saw some flightless birds (not penguins) that looked like ostriches running across the plains. Later I learned they are called Rheas. Additionally there were wild llamas called, Guanacos. We drove on a then came to the place where we could see the animals we’d come to see, penguins! The Megellenic Penguins were nesting so we were able to see them very close. They don’t try to run away anyway, I guess they realize their limitations when it comes to running.

Before we finished our circuit around the peninsula we went to Punta Norte where we saw a huge South Americas Sea Lion (Lobos Marinos) colony. They were large and impressive and very smelly. Standing downwind from them became unbearable after a short time. So we headed back down the dusty road towards our hotel.

The next day, upon the advice of one of the hotel owners, we drove to a place called Dique Florentino Ameghino about 300km away. Driving further and further out into the desert landscape I wasn’t sure we’d made the right choice. We turned left and started heading downhill. It reminded me so much of Utah with its red and orange towering rocks. It was a surprise because it really was gorgeous. Several long tunnels were blasted right through the rock that made for a rustic wild west atmosphere as we drove through them along the clear blue waters of the reservoir for which the place was named.

At the bottom of the canyon there was a small town, a green oasis in a dry, arid land. It felt like a sort of paradise in the cool green shade of the leafy trees. Mario and I took a rock climb up the canyon walls before sunset.

The next morning we were up early in order to get to Punto Tombo back on the coast before the heat and the tourists got there first. We didn’t pass a single other car along the entire 80km gravel road back to the highway.

Punto Tombo is a penguin reserve, home to the largest penguin colony on the American continent. The paths in the reserve pass right through the colony and you are not at all separated from them. They tell you not to pet them, as they may bite, as cute as they are, I wasn’t tempted. Since they were nesting there were also penguin babies and juveniles. I got a great picture of one grumpy looking teenage penguin. One of my favorite parts was when the path becomes an overpass for the penguin highway they use to get to and from the beach. Watching penguins walk is absolutely the most adorable and hilarious thing I have ever seen. We also sat on a hill above the beach and watched the penguins go in and out of the sea. Penguins are awkward until they flop into the water, then, suddenly, they transform into an animal that is graceful and agile. This was most certainly the highlight of the trip for me.

Just as the sun was becoming withering and the hoards of tourists were descending we took our leave and began our long journey back home. We had a brief stop for souvenir shopping and then we got on our flight back to Buenos Aires after more than 1,000km of driving in 3 days. The flight that night was very turbulent which prevented us from sleeping but we passed out right away once we made it back to our familiar hotel in Buenos Aires.

Our last day we walked around BA once more, took a ferry to Colonia, Uruguay, a bus to Montevideo, a bus to the airport, and then waited until 4am when our flight left. We got duped into sitting in the exit row on the long flight to Panama so our seats didn’t recline. Mario didn’t sleep but I did at least. Mario had a connecting flight from Panama to Costa Rica right away but I had an eight hour wait.

I decided to take a taxi up to the Baha’i temple in Panama City that afternoon. I’d never seen it before. It was on top of a high hill and, according to the taxi driver, had the best view of the city of anywhere. I even ran into a couple from Costa Rica that I knew of from all my friends here but had never met. They were on their way to Bolivia and it reminded me of what a great close community the Baha’is have all around the world.

At long last, I got on my one hour flight back to Costa Rica. Mario was waiting for me at the airport and we went back to his brother’s house, told some stories and slept.