This town was supposed to be a stopover on the way to the south, but I have ended up here for nearly a week! I didn't really know what to expect here, but after being convinced to wait out a couple of days of rain by some new amigos, it turned into a great little trip.
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| Amigos! Cervezas! Shout out to Richard, Romain, Nick and Jordan, hope you're travelling safe. And Gaston of course, you the man. |
The night I arrived, smelling and feeling disgusting after a 20 hour bus ride, I still managed to make enough friends to head out to a local bar after a long, well-deserved shower. We found out that if you go to the right places, you can find bartenders that play fast and loose with the concept of a standard drink, such as the rum and coke which was really a triple rum with a splash of coke for about $8. There was also a lovely selection of local and international craft beers on offer, though pricey. The endless rain provided a handy excuse to stay in bed with my hangover the next day.
Friday was when we started to see some of the main attractions. We rented a car from the hostel, and I got my first taste of driving on the right in a land where road rules and maintenance are
laissez-faire. That said, it was nowhere near as bad as Vietnam, and after a shaky (stall-y) start I was as good as any Argentinian
gil behind the wheel.
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| Advertising the paleontology museum in Trelew on the side of the highway. Didn't have time to go unfortunately, but who needs to see the bones of the world largest dino when you can take pictures with its plastic replica? |
We arrived safely at Punta Tombo, the home of around 1 million Magellan penguins. These cute little critters were endless, and very noisy. Most were newly raised young who were just starting to moult their baby feathers, and at the time we arrived they seemed to be having a little
siesta after a morning of fishing. I think out of all the penguins we saw, only a handful actually moved. They were so still, we thought the first ones we saw were dummies put there by scientists (or tourism board).
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| Pingus as far as the eye can see |
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| Cuties |
The next day we saddled up again and rode out to Peninsula Valdes, home of a very special group of 27 Orcas. These whales have learned a behaviour unique to their species. At this time of year, when the seals are teaching their young how to swim in the shallows, the whales are sometimes able to lunge into the shallows at high tide to snap up a few tasty morsels, beaching themselves in the process. Unfortunately, the conditions were not right for us that day, but we did see lots of alive seals as well as sea lions, the odd elephant seal, Guanacos (smaller llama relative), horses, and giant spiders that for some reason kept crossing the road in front of the car.
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| Lil furry friend - almost as big as my hand |
The biggest surprise that the town held for me was what I found on Saturday night, when two visitors from the north who knew the town invited me on a night out. Getting there was a labour in itself - the locals only put on their party clothes at about 2am, while we had been sipping steadily since about 8pm when our hostel host cooked an
asado bbq for us. One of the guys I was with cracked his head open in the yard to add some drama to the predrinks; he ended up getting a few stitches and a lot of painkillers so he was alright. At about 4am we finally got a taxi, and I was expecting a scungy "country pub that has a club night" kind of vibe.
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| Gaston's asado |
I could not have been more wrong. We arrived to a whole block heaving with people. We got in, which cost the ladies nothing but the gents 150 pesos (the patriarchy giveth, the patriarchy taketh away), but we could pay 200 for 'VIP' entry which included a whole bottle of champagne. They even gave you these enormous cups that could hold the whole thing if you didn't feel like bottling everyone else on the dancefloor. And the dancefloor was HUGE. An enormous setup, with awesome lighting and decor, bigger and better than almost everywhere I have seen in Melbourne. The music was amazing too, a mix of bangers in Spanish and English all mixed to Latin beats. All in this in a dinky provincial capital in the middle of nowhere with less than 100,000 people! The only odd thing was at the end of the night, which for me was around 6:30 when my legs refused to dance any more, there were Army people outside the bar in uniform, patrolling the crowds. Puerto Madryn, the town that parties so hard they need to deploy an infantry platoon to keep it under control.
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| The only picture in my phone from Saturday night :-/ |
All in all, this stop turned out to be great fun and I would recommend stopping here if you ever happen to find yourself on the road to Patagonia. My next stop will be Bariloche in the Andes for some hiking and most importantly, chocolate!
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| Another great street doggo. Seriously considering starting another blog dedicated to dogs of Argentina. |
One final note - sometimes you find a good hostel, which is clean, has nice showers, doesn't stinge on the free breakfast and has friendly staff. And sometimes, you find a great hostel which has all that and something a little bit special. In Puerto Madryn, I found the Hi Patagonia hostel, one of a very few places I would come back to just to stay again. The owner Gaston and his staff are fantastic, always ready with banter, beers and the right kind of help to make your trip something special. 15/10 place, make sure you stop here if you're on your way through!
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