Down Patagonia way

    How strange things are at the bottom of Argentina.  Towards the top end of Patagonia (sort of like the beginning of the end of the world) lies Puerto Madryn.  The main attraction is the wildlife on the nearby Peninsula Valdes.  However, on arrival we were helpfully informed by a pleasant British chap, Jonathan, that the tours are quite pricey (about £55pp including park entry) and we had managed to turn up in time to see almost no wildlife.  Incidentally, Jonathan was travelling alone because, as he put it, it would be unfair to inflict his company on anyone for an entire 5 months.  Kizzy nodded sagely and reminisced at the 18 hours on the bus with me.  I bent down to tie my laces but sadly she was out of range of the cricket bat handle. 

   Puerto Madryn Is quite pleasant as a beach resort with blue seas, a sandy beach and a climate that’s lovely in the sunshine but turns chilly whenever a cloud gets in the way.  In other words, it’s a bit like Cornwall, which had me and Kizzy pining after pasties and cream teas.  After debating the merits of 18 hours on a plane and 4 hours on a train to have afternoon tea in Penzance, we stumbled across the somewhat surreal existence of “Welsh” communities that sprung up in this part of the world about 150 years ago. 

   Our trip to Gaiman, two buses and an hour and a half down the road was a surreal antidote to homesickness.  The Welsh settlers here found somewhere a little bit drier than Cardiff and now in their 8^th generation or so they still maintain a close affinity with the homeland, dual-language signage and truly embarrassing clothes for the kids and all.  Tris, I have to ask, is this really how your mum dressed you back on the borders?

   We stopped in one of the 5 tea houses in town to indulge in a “Welsh” tea with more sticky and sweet cakes than Kizzy could manage.  The proprietors were pleased to see us, as was the young man in tourist information.  We were the only tourists in town when we arrived.  We were later joined in the tea house by an Argentine family who looked a little bewildered by the place but clearly realised that this was it for the town and ordered the tea out of curiosity.  We were directed to the town’s first house, built by David Roberts.  Dave, if you’re reading this, your first house is nothing to shout about but at least you’re on the property ladder.  I don’t think you’ll convince Clemmie to move to Gaiman any time soon. 

   Incidentally, this blog is as you can tell about 4 days behind the times.  Today was the first day in which we started heading north.  We took a day trip to Fuerto Bulnes, 60km south of Punta Arenas at the bottom of mainland South America.  To put this in perspective I will put a map up with the next post.

Our Uruguayan adventure

Our Uruguayan adventure

   Uruguay is a wonderful place to go for a long weekend.  I’m sure it’s great for longer stays too.  It’s one of those pleasant sort of places where things are easy and relaxed and we found it easy and relaxing from the moment we arrived until the moment we boarded the ferry back to BA.  Our first night was in Colonia del Sacramento.  A small town, with a quaint and well-preserved historical centre, it is heavily promoted in guidebooks and at the tourist offices of BA.  The reality was something of a surprise.  Despite being high season, it felt very quiet and laid back.  No hordes of tourists, in fact with the boat fully booked out for Monday returns I had expected it to be madness but our hostel was only half full.  It seemed like a nice place to go back to for Valentine’s day, three days later, and it was.  We spent half the evening sitting in a plaza listening to the chanteuse from a restaurant that was handing out free bubbly to passers-by.  We had enjoyed a big lunch and we indulged on a dinner of gourmet Belgian chocolate from a little shop around the corner.

   On Sunday we took the bus to Montevideo and spent the afternoon wandering the centre of town, including the Carnaval Museum, which we found out was free on Monday’s about 10 seconds after paying UR$130 for entry.  It was practically empty and provided a good opportunity to cross lines that were not meant to be crossed and pose with some of the costumes.  We also stumbled across a little (free) museum, Palacio Taranco, which backs onto Plaza Zabala.  Really just a beautifully appointed house, frozen in the 1850’s and really lovely to stumble upon during our lazy ramble.  Nice loos too.  Actually, Montevideo had some wonderful finds.  One of the best was the Catedral Metropolitana, on Plaza Constitution.  I have no photos of the inside as we popped into the Sunday service.  It was stunning though, you will have to go see it for yourself.  I can’t recall stepping into a Cathedral so beautifully and tastefully appointed.  I don’t know why it isn’t celebrated in guidebooks and on tourist sites.  Whoever designed it (actually, the internet tells me it was Bernado Poncini of Switzerland who gave it a makeover in 1858) made superb use of colour and light and shade and just the right amount of gold leaf and decorative stonework.  We also spent a lot of time on the beaches on Sunday and Monday, it was so warm that Kizzy went into the water twice.  Blue blue sea, what a pleasure after the muddy brown Rio del Plata separating BA and Colonia.

   We popped back to Buenos Aires for most of the day on Wednesday as we waited for our bus to Puerto Madryn.  We gained an hour as we crossed back into Argentina so we had time to finally find the small scale Statue of Liberty in a park in Belgrano.  We spent some more time camped out in the Recoletta shopping mall using their free wifi to book our accommodation in Puerto Natales and  arranged our travel from El Calafate to Bariloche.  We’re now booked and paid for to travel by bus along Route 40 with Chalten Travel.  As luck would have it we’re now hearing bad things about this journey, but we shall see.  A full review will be given after we make it to Bariloche on 28^th February.  In the meantime, we had our glorious trip travelling “cama suite” with our fully flat beds.  The food was ok, they did serve bubbly after dinner, there were no personal dvd players but we did get to watch Prince of Persia, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Apocalypto in Spanish (with Spanish subtitles) and the first 30 minutes of X-Men: First Class in English.  The seats went fully flat, although we only worked out how to get the feet bit to raise up at about 7am in the morning.  Sadly no photos, not sure why, probably because we were both feeling a bit scummy for photos. 

   We’re now in Puerto Madryn but I think there’s been enough typing for one evening.  Kizzy is now asleep and it’s time for me to go to bed too.  Before I do, it’s Byron’s birthday today (it’s now just past midnight on 18^th Feb) – Happy birthday matey!  Lots of love from Argentina.