Since leaving San Martin de los Andes, a week ago, we have covered quite a lot of ground. We took a short, scenic bus trip along the seven lakes circuit to Bariloche where, due do to an unfortunate ‘lost in translation’ misunderstanding, we arrived at our hosteria to discover we had only one night booked instead of the three planned! After traipsing around in the cold only to be met with the proverbial ‘no place at this inn’ on more than one occasion, we changed plans and decided to leave the next day and put Bariloche on our ‘to come back to when we can stay in a luxury hotel’ list. However, we did not waste our just over 24 hours there and enjoyed the finest the city had to offer - delectable ice cream, the best steaks of our trip so far, delish chocolates and a wholesome plate of the day at a local’s favourite, not to mention the gorgeous views of the famed lake.
The next night we boarded our last (big hurrah at this stage) overnight bus for the trip and headed for Puerto Madryn for a few days of whale watching. It was awesome to be able to see so many (southern right) whales in the bay at Puerto Madryn and it held the same joyous surprise as a fireworks show everytime we caught a glimpse of one of the giants leaping out of the water, blowing water, or flicking their tails. Oh! And the seafood that night was out of this world - especially after the lack of fish in our diet for the last two months. I am still daydreaming about it!
The next day we hired a car and Guy tried his hand for the first time, very successfully I might add, at driving on the wrong side of the road. It was such fun to have independent transport after two months of relying on public options. I was so pleased to be able to open the windows, control the heat and volume, and stop for breaks whenever we felt like it! We took a lovely scenic route to Peninsula Valdes stopping for regular whale watching breaks and a picnic along the way. We spent that night in Puerto Piramides - the smallest town we have been to so far with a population of only 250 people at last count! We couldn’t resist another seafood dinner - yum! Of course, we drove to the restaurant even though it was only 600m away - still not over the novelty of the rented car! The next morning we went on a whale watching boat trip, which was fantastic. We had amazing sightings and could not have thought of a better way to spend the morning.
That afternoon we went for a drive around the reserve, which was made very slow by the fact that we had a VW Golf and the road was best suited to a 4×4 but Guy, and the car, did so well and we made it through mud and water to get to our lunch spot for some famous Patagonian lamb. Unfortunately, after lunch we headed off down a road but had to turn back after we came across a puddle we just didn’t have the heart to make the Golf drive through! So we retraced our steps back to Puerto Madryn for one more night. The Peninsula is another ‘to come back to’ spot as in Autumn you can witness the spectacle of the killer whales storming the beaches to feast on sea lions a la National Geographic.
On Friday, we caught a plane to the end of the world … but more about that next time.
|
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)