South Trip

I spent the past two weeks on one the most fantastic trips I've ever been on exploring Patagonia, the southernmost province of Argentina with a little less than fifty other exchange students. We stopped at five different places, traveling from each destination to the next by bus. So much happened that I can't cover it all in one blog post. Let's start with the first stop!

First Stop

This map illustrates the three main events that Puerto Madryn included. First, there's the city which we arrived to on Day 2. To the North there is a small town called Puerto Piramides which we visited on Day 3. Then, way down to the South, is Punto Tombo which we visited on Day 4 on our way out.

Puerto Madryn

After departing from Cordoba around 3 PM on Friday (Day 1), we arrived in Puerto Madryn around 1 PM on Saturday just in time for lunch. After settling in at the hotel, we boarded the bus and went on a brief tour of the port city.

The city is right on the water, but was too cold to swim in.

The water in the South of Argentina all has a slightly green-blue tint.

The bus stopped at a small park on the ocean named "Parque Historico Punta Cuevas". It was extraordinarily windy and the shore wasn't sand, but black rocks with lots of tide pools. In this picture I'm standing above the beach.

Here I'm down on the beach and these are the giant rocks I was standing on above. These cliffs were hallowed out by the sea before the ocean the water receded. 

Then, after our short tour of the seaside city, we were allowed free time to wander about, buy souvenirs and go to the bank if necessary. Like most of the cities we visited, the stores were fairly expensive and the food was more expensive (if only by a few pesos) than where we live. I didn't buy much, but my friend Bregje from the Netherlands did.

A street vendor saw us looking at his gadgets, came up to us and hooked us right in. The ropes were criss-crossed and we had to figure out how to untangle them. We tried for nearly twenty minutes before the man took mercy on us and showed us how to properly do it. It was way too easy. 

Puerto Piramides

Day 3 we got on a bus headed an hour or so North to visit the small, tourist city of Puerto Piramides. We were given time before and after lunch to hang out on the beach or the rocks. 

The island just of the shore there is called bird island and is apparently inhabited by many species of birds such a flamingos and penguins, although this is the closest we ever got.

 This is the city as we entered. There is not much to the left of the photo. It was, as I said, a very small tourist town. Half of the buildings belonged to whale watching companies.

These are the rocks we could pass time on. I stayed here as opposed to the beach.

Again, the water was that same lovely blue-green.

The rocks were completely sedimentary, made up of broken shells like this and covered with fossils.

These two dogs were hanging out with the rest of us and made everyone jealous as they jumped in and out of the water as they pleased. It was sunny and quite warm that day, the water looked very appealing.

After lunch we got aboard a beached boat, were pulled out to the water and rode out past the harbor. The guide told us to not talk above a whisper and instructed that we had to sit on the side of the boat where there was a whale and could stand on the opposite side. Several exchangers had previously pessimistically that we were probably just going out for several hours and not see anything. It almost seemed that may happen after five quiet moments. Then a mother whale and her baby appeared!

Here you see the baby's tail and the mother's head.

A whale using its blow hole, being a whale and such.

The white spots are growths that developed on the whale at a young age to protect its skin.

The mother whale even gave us a show. She jumped four times! Even time she landed it sounded like thunder.

Punto Tombo

Day 4 was day of the penguins! Let me start this brief journey by saying the penguins were definitely one thing-- disappointing. They did not huddle, they did not slide on their bellies, they did not surround us as we walked. They mostly just laid around like they were dead or in their nests, only a few were up and about. Regardless, they were still adorable.

First we visited the small museum which included exhibits on the development, lifestyle and habitats of penguins. This photo here illustrates the latitudes of all the different penguins in the southern hemisphere.

Here is a lazy penguin laying on its belly.

Two lazy penguins on their bellies. This is the closest I got to huddling penguins.

I'm pointing at a penguin huddled in its nest. The girl on my shoulder is a Danish exchange student, Kia Black, that also lives with me in Chilecito.

Here are two penguins up and about! They would flap their wings but they never did fly . . . At least that was as I expected.

 I did happen to see penguins swimming! The water looked lovely, but their was no belly sliding. They just waddled in and splash flopped right in.

This is a picture of the shoreline of the penguin habitat. The colors were very vivid and beautiful!

I had the pleasure of a penguin crossing my path on the way back! Not sure if I mentioned it, but we were walking on a marked path that had no fences to restrain the penguins from joining us. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to touch them because they bite.

Then we boarded the bus for a 24 hours on the way to Calafate, my favorite stop! Sorry it took so long to get this posted. I'm not sure when I'll get the next one up. There's been some disorientating changes here, but all will be normal again soon. 

Ciao!