December 25, 2007 - Puerto Madryn, Argentina

December 25, 2007 - Puerto Madryn, Argentina
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I must still be on Easter Island time zone. I could not get up at 7:30 AM. I finally got ready and made my way to breakfast by 8:20 AM. Really hard (I mean ROCK SOLID) baguettes with bread and jam for breakfast. Had whatever I could must the energy to chew on! I needed this as I had almost no dinner last night. I am thankful that these folks serve some breakfast rather than say - "Sorry, it´s Christmas, you are on your own today"!

The shuttle arrived around 9:20 AM. The main guide was a Spanish speaking girl with an English speaking translator who interpreted for those of us not fluent in Spanish. Bad, i mean really bad, English translation. At least, the tour company is trying. We had about 10 folks on our minibus.

Our first stop (after an hour) was a gas station in Trelew. We could use the bathrooms and buy something to eat. I got myself an energy bar and some juice bottles. We had a 2-hour drive to Punta Tombo from this Gas Station. I dozed most of the way. The final hour of the drive to Punta Tombo is on dirt road and is quite horrible.

We reached Punta Tombo around 12:30 and were given 40 minutes there! Many of these tour companies try to do too many things in 1-day (their way of being all things to all people - and failing miserably in all aspects) and do everything in a half assed way. We were able to do the short trail of 400 metres and not do the longer trail of 3 Kilometres (2 miles approx.).

The tour company could have started the tour at 7:30 AM from Puerto Madryn instead of waltzing around until 9:30 AM. The only excuse (from their viewpoint) is that they started late because of Christmas.

Anyways, we saw several hundred Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo many of them with Babies. Thousands of pairs come to breed at Punta Tombo each year. I am sure we saw quite a few Penguins during our brief 45-minute stay. I took around 50 pictures.

We got back on the bus and travelled another 2 hours back to Trelew for a pit stop before heading to a place called Rawson - about 30 mins east of Trelew. Here we paid AEP 70 (US$25) to go on a boat ride to see Dolphins.

We spent an hour Chasing them. There were about 20 of us (from different buses) on a motorized dinghy. The captain was more interested in trying to send text messages than in spotting or chasing dolphins. We did spot some and I probably have 2 pictures. Overall, I think it was a waste of time and money.

From Rawson, we were to go to a place called GAIMAN to have Welsh tea. Because of poor planning we did not have enough time. Except for the Penguin colony, the day and the rest of the trips were a waste. If you are ever in the region, my advice is to keep your tour simple. If tour companies are not willing to do specialised tours, pooling resources to charter a taxi is not an expensive option.

The Penguin Colony is much closer to Trelew. Because of some scheduling conflicts, I had to do the Penguin colony from Puerto Madryn. (I will be spending 2 nights in Trelew after Puerto Madryn). Peninsula Valdes must definitely be done from Puerto Madryn. Ideally it should be done from Puerto Piramides. But the hotels in Puerto Piramides are few and they are expensive. I am talking more than US$100 per day for something that may approach 2 star standards!

As I had paid up a lot of cash for the boat trip and park entrance fees, I headed to the ATM in Puerto Madryn to get some cash. I ran into one of my tour buddies from the Punta Tombo trip and we decided to go in search of dinner. Like me, he had his last dinner 48-hours ago.

He was travelling from Israel and had been to a lot of places. He told me that he works in a Bank is Israel, but I think he works for MOSSAD or SHINBET :) The man refused to introduce himself by name and he does not have an e-mail! Sniff, Sniff, something ain´t adding up here.
I will stick with my secret agent theory until proven otherwise!

Many shops and restaurants were open in the evening. We found a restaurant and we both had an excellent dinner. I had an excellent Spinach Ravioli and he waxed eloquent on his beef!

I went to an Internet cafe (the hotel had a dialup connection) to download the memory cards to my portable hard drive. It cost me AEP 2.50 per hour. Seems to be getting Cheaper.

It looks like while most stores stay open on Christmas eve in the US but close on Christmas day, the reverse is true in Argentina. Almost everything was closed by 9 PM last evening and almost everything is open by 9 PM on Christmas day. Restaurants here stay open until 1 AM.

I head to Peninsula Valdes tomorrow morning. Upon my return from the tour, I will take a public bus to Trelew.