PENINSULA VALDES - ARGENTINA

Managing to get a ticket to visit the south coast of Argentina proved quite difficult given that almost every single Argentine and his dog seemed to be travelling during January. However having overcome this initial complication I travelled for about a day and a half from Cordoba to Puerto Madryn to visit this world reknowned marine wildlife sanctuary. My first ´half day´ Puerto Madryn was spent organising activities for the next day and with a little persuasion I managed to convince 3 others staying at the hostel that we should hire a car to explore the Peninsula rather than take an expensive tour option where there would be limited opportunities for photos. This proved rather more difficult than we had all first imagined given that none of us had credit cards (only debit cards) and so we had to cough up a significant quantity of cash to cover the insurance excess on the car.

Coastal Patagonia is characterised by some of the most monotonous and I must say boring landscapes I have ever encountered. Rolling plains which differ in altitude by at most 10 cm over a 1000km length, small shrubs and sandy terrain. Our adventure around the peninsula in our makeshift 4WD (a VW golf) took in alot of this scenery and we got a great look at it given that the gravel roads were so bad we could only really proceed safely at a speed of around 60km/h. The day trip seemed to encompass only small periods for viewing the abundant marine life in the aea and more time just driving between the various viewing points. Still, throughout the day we did manage to take in some interesting attractions including a very large seal and sea lion colony in the north of the peninsula, a large magellanic penguin colony in the south and my favourite, some crazy armadillos who raced between the shady areas in the parking lot of one of the wildlife sancutaries.

In all, the peninsula was actually quite dissapointing and perhaps a little too far out of the way to warrant a trip just to see the wildlife. This is of course based purely on my point of view and can perhaps be attributed to the fact that in Australia we are spoilt with an abundance of wildlife - we have whales in Sydney harbour for instance and there aren´t many cities in the world that can match that ! Also, the timing of my visit to the peninsula could have been better as it was not the right season for viewing whales and there had not been an orca sighting for almost a week.

Whilst the visual attractions of the peninsula and area around Puerto Madryn left a little to be desired, my other experiences in the area were very favourable. The city of Madryn was absolutely packed full of visitors, both from abroad and within Argentina. As such the nightlife was absolutely cranking ! After changing hostels in search of a better vibe, I had a great time just chilling in a nice hostel filled with great people including a nice bunch of Australians and 6 crazy but absolutely awesome argentine girls. Together, the 10 of us, plus a few others, enjoyed some great meals and parties at the hostel and also frequented a number of clubs and bars in Madryn on both Friday and Saturday nights and had a great time. The friendships formed with people at the hostel are some of the strongest I have made in all my travels and I´m hoping I can catch up with many of them again.

There are far too many stories from my time in Madryn to possibly cover them all here but some of the more notable ones include:

1) Dancing on the sandy beach at one of the nightclubs and then having half of the sand their deposited all over us by the Patagonian wind.
2) Gareth playing 1 Tracy Chapman song about 10 times with a 5 string guitar.
3) ¨Cordoba¨ cooking up a storm and never managing to be seen wearing a shirt (see photo).
4) Me ¨being asleep¨ and the need for me to be ¨part of the family¨ and to provide the necessary ¨Australian papers¨.
5) Learning some very useful Argentine insults - ¨Forro¨& ¨Boludo¨ etc.
6) ¨Todo Bom¨
7) ¨Calmly¨ discussing Argentines comming from other regions to steal the jobs in La Plata.

Despite being quite ordinary in terms of the scenery on offer my visit to the Peninsula was well worth it and definately one of the best experiences thus far in my travels !

Photos 1&2: Beach alongside Puerto Madryn.
Photos 3: Penguin colony in the south of the peninsula.
Photos 4&5: Armadillo at the parking lot at Punta Norte.
Photos 6&7: Patagonian scenery - flat !
Photo 8: Peninsula valdes exploration group members.
Photos 9-15: Hostel group enjoying a tasty Asado and later one of the many clubs in Madryn.