Well I was extremely behind on my posts, so here is the next installment already!
I am now in Bariloche, so I need to tell you all about my few days in Puerto Madryn. :) I arrived there at 3.30pm, one and a half hours later than I was supposed to. People here are so laid back that they are always late and buses are no exception! My host, Alexa, told me that she would be there to pick me up, but she wasn't there when I arrived. I found an internet place in the bus station, sent her message and wrote down her phone number to call her. Just when I was logging off she appeared in the doorway! She had come for me before, but the bus company told her I would be late so she came back later. She is 38, a Marine Biologist, teacher and also has been working for an NGO. She was quite quiet, but very nice. When we got back to her house, her two dogs were extremely excited and jumped around for half an hour, they were so cute! We walked them along the beach, which is a couple of blocks from her house and met up with another couchsurfer called Henning, from Germany. He was travelling around Patagonia for a few weeks as a break from a volunteer program that he was doing in another part of Argentina looking after old people! Alexa organised a couchsurfing meeting in the evening with three other hosts and Henning. We had pizza and beer and chatted a lot. They spoke mostly in Spanish and Alexa would translate for me when I didn't understand something. Everyone talks so fast here, so even though I pick up vaguely what they are talking about, the rest is a bit blurry! It was a good night and the pizza was delicious. Alexa and I chatted for a bit when we got back. She is nice, but a fairly closed and quiet person - compared to me anyway! ;)
In the morning she took me, Henning, Andrea (Henning's host) and a woman called Beatriz to Punta Loma to see some sealions. There were just females and babies because they have just finished breeding and the females come to Puerto Madryn to raise the babies for a few months before they can look after themselves. They were all just chilling on the beach and yawning a lot! It was absolutely gorgeous weather and the beach and ocean were amazing. The ocean was a beautiful turquoise colour. We then had lunch on the beach and then went to Punta Flecha to see if we could track down some whales! Unfortunately I came here at the worst possible time: the penguins have gone and the whales haven't arrived! This also meant that Puerto Madryn was a ghost town, very strange! When I looked out to the ocean, it reminded me of California but I guess there are a lot of beaches that look like that! I'm just lucky to have seen two :)
There were only 4 whales that have been spotted in the area, because they are not due till next month so the chances of seeing them were slim. We sat there and ate facturas (yummy pastries) and drank mate (Argentinian tea) on the beach. It was really nice, but no whales :( boo. It was a long day so we were all pretty exhausted by the end of it. Alexa and I went home, she cooked dinner and I just sent out some couch requests for my next destination! The next couple of days were a bit random. I spent the morning trying to sort out things online and by the time I got into town to have a gander, everything was closed for siesta. I couldn't believe it! Buenos Aires has no such thing so I didn't realise what happens in the afternoon in the south... everyone takes a few hours off in the afternoons and everything closes down! This coupled with the fact that it is also low season, so there weren't many people anyway, just meant that it was incredibly boring! Puerto Madryn also has a lack of proper roads, so it is mainly just dust tracks with little houses. There were hundreds of dogs too, some pets, some stray. It was crazy, I've never seen so many dogs! I'm almost certain that during the whale season Puerto Madryn is incredibly lively, but I certainly didn't get that impression! I met up with Henning in the early evening and we bought some meat for an asado. Asado is just like a BBQ, but with it's cooked with a south american technique. We got lots of beer, wine, salad, crisps and other goodies and got the BBQ fired up at Alexa's house. Andrea joined us later, so it was the four of us. It was a really nice evening and the meat was delicious :) The next day I booked my bus to Bariloche in the lake district (not the one in Britain :P), it left later on that night at 9.30pm. Alexa drove me back to the bus station and before I knew it, I was on the road again! :) I missed out the glacier at the very tip of Patagonia due to lack of funds, but after my PhD I am coming back and doing Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, all of Central America and the glacier so I'll just have to wait till then! :) I'll write another post soon telling you all about Bariloche. It is absolutely amazing here!! Next stop: Mendoza... the wine country!
Hope you all are doing well back home! Keep in touch!
Bye for now!
Gemma
