After
Uruguay I spent 1½ weeks in Buenos Aires, before 3 of my roommates, Nick
(French), Larissa (Swiss) and Edgard (Mexican), and I went to Patagonia! On
Friday October 9th we started early in the morning and took a flight
to Trelew. From there we went to our first destination: Puerto Madryn, a little
town at the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. I was pretty excited for this part of
the trip, but unfortunately parts of it were very messed up. But let me tell
you the whole story.
 |
| Puerto Madryn |
For
Saturday we booked a tour to Punta Tombo, a place with a huge penguin colony!
They said that up to 500.000 penguins live there. The area was pretty big, and
the penguins were very spread so I couldn’t tell you if it is true, but it
seemed like there were A LOT. That day we also had beautiful weather but it was
freezing. It was a little strange to fly towards the south and it got colder
and colder! I guess I still haven’t gotten fully used to living in the southern
hemisphere yet. Well, the penguins were super fun to watch walking around and
hanging out. After Punta Tombo we were supposed to go to a place where people
can get up close to elephant seals. Even though the penguins were really cool,
I was more excited for that place.
 |
| Punta Tombo |
 |
| Punta Tombo |
 |
| Punta Tombo |
Unfortunately
our bus broke on the way to Punta Tombo. While the group was walking around
watching penguins, our tour guide talked to other tour guides and managed to
split up the group so we could all leave Punta Tombo. It was very far from the
next town and there was no cell phone reception so this was our only way to get
away from there. Unfortunately Nick, Larissa, Edgard, and I ended up in a bus
to Trelew to go visit a museum. That was not our plan for the day and so we
were not really happy.
We had to wait forever for that group to leave Punta
Tombo and then sat around in Trelew waiting for them to get done with that
museum. Seeing the penguins was great but the rest of the day unfortunately
felt a little wasted. At least we didn’t have to pay the full price for the
tour.
The next
day was supposed to be the highlight of our stay in Puerto Madryn and it was –
but on the negative side.
For that
Sunday we rented a car to go to the Península Valdés, which we picked up at 9
a.m. at the car rental “RENT A CAR” (I’m just putting the name in here so you
know which one to avoid, if you ever get to Puerto Madryn). I will not go into
detail what all happened, only so much: they give broken cars to customers. We
heard about people having accidents with their cars because they broke down in
the middle of the road, we saw two guys having trouble with the battery, and
also our car was NOT good to go (engine light started flashing right when we
left town). They refused to give us a different car, yelled at us and insulted
us for saying their car is broken, and we ended up not having a car and not
getting the money back, even though the police got involved (we called it). It
was an awful day. The tourist information and some of the hostels in Puerto
Madryn already knew that there were problems with that car rental and they are
now taking care of it.
What a
waste of a day.
 |
| Península Valdés |
Luckily,
one of the tour companies in Puerto Madryn was still open on Sunday afternoon,
so we could at least book a tour to the Península Valdés for Monday, which was
our last day in Puerto Madryn.
After the
disaster on Sunday, Monday ended up to be a perfect day!
 |
| Península Valdés |
 |
| Península Valdés |
Early in
the morning we got picked up at our hostel and finally went to the Península.
The Península Valdés is famous for whales, elephant seals, penguins and many
other animals. We entered the National Park on the peninsula and started our
trip with a whale watching tour in Puerto Pirámides. It was incredible! We saw
a mama whale and her baby, which was about as big as our boat! They came really
close and sometimes they even swam underneath the boat, which was a little
scary because it felt like they could have easily pushed us over. After the
whale watching we continued our trip over the peninsula and saw elephant seals,
penguins, sea lions, a bunch of guanakos, birds, and other small animals.
 |
| Península Valdés |
The weather
was perfect, yet very windy but we enjoyed every minute of the day!
It was just
perfect. J
 |
| Península Valdés |
 |
| Península Valdés |
 |
| Península Valdés |
 |
| Península Valdés |
 |
| Península Valdés |
 |
| Península Valdés |
That Monday
night we left Puerto Madryn and took a night bus to El Bolsón, which is across
the country next to the Andes. It was very interesting to see how the landscape
changes from the coast to the Andes. Around Puerto Madryn it was rather dry and
didn’t have very many big plants but towards the Andes it got greener and
greener.
 |
| El Bolsón |
So Tuesday
morning we arrived in El Bolsón. Nick had decided to go to Bariloche (our next
stop) right away, so I spent the day with Larissa and Edgard, just walking
around that little hippie town and visiting a lake in a national park close to
El Bolsón. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very pretty, but we still enjoyed
the day and continued to San Carlos de Bariloche later that afternoon.
 |
| El Bolsón |
Bariloche
is located in a beautiful landscape of the Argentine Andes in a region that is
also called “Argentine Switzerland” – the pictures show why! (Larissa actually
got her mom confused when she sent home some pictures)
 |
| Bariloche |
 |
| Bariloche |
Around
Bariloche are endless tracks to go hiking or biking, and it is a very famous
place to go skiing. The ski slopes had actually just closed a couple of days
before we got there since winter had just ended. For those of you who know me,
it should be clear that this information didn’t affect me at all, but Larissa
and Edgard were a little sad. Especially Edgard was excited to go in the snow
since they don’t get very much in Mexico…
 |
| Bariloche |
 |
| Bariloche |
 |
| Bariloche - View from Hotel Llao Llao |
 |
| Bariloche - View from Hotel Llao Llao |
 |
| Seven Lake Tour - on the way to San Martín de los Andes |
Wednesday
and Thursday were days to explore for all of us and despite our fiasco with the
rental car in Puerto Madryn, we rented another car in Bariloche and this time
luckily everything worked out perfectly. Early Friday morning we got the car
and took a day trip to San Martin de los Andes, a perfect small place in the
middle of the Andes. In summer it is full with hikers and in winter with
skiers. Since we came in spring, the whole town was super quiet and empty. On
the way there and especially on the way back, we stopped many many times to
take pictures of the incredible landscape that we drove through. The weather
was just perfect and so we all had a really good day!
 |
| Seven Lake Tour - on the way to San Martín de los Andes |
 |
| San Martín de los Andes |
 |
| Seven Lake Tour - on the way to San Martin de los Andes |
 |
| San Martín de los Andes - "Here are no strangers, only friends we haven't met yet" |
 |
| Seven Lake Tour - on the way to San Martín de los Andes |
 |
| Seven Lake Tour - on the way to San Martín de los Andes |
 |
| Seven Lake Tour - on the way to San Martín de los Andes |
Saturday
the other three spent biking but I caught a bad cold and decided to take it
slow and only went to the Cerro Campanario and enjoyed an incredible view. That night we had to take a flight back to Buenos Aires.
 |
| View from Cerro Campanario |
 |
| View from Cerro Campanario |
After our
-mostly- beautiful days in Patagonia I was not too happy about returning to the
big city, but university was about to get super busy again and we only had a
couple more weeks to go until the end of the semester!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen