Well, yes I know, I haven't been posting in a long time, but I hope to catch up in the following days. Just be patient :)
I was quite lucky on my trip from Villa Gesell to Puerto Madryn, as I had to take a bus to Mar del Plata, then another one to Bahía Blanca and a last one to my destination. Everything worked extremelly well (I manage to take the 22:00 bus from Bahía Blanca just 10 minutes before, enabling me to travel overnight) and I was able to see a spectacular sunrise in Patagonia from the bus.
Two things surprised me a lot. The first one is that in Patagonia is impossible to look straight into the sun either at sunrise or sunset. I don't know if the thin ozone layer in the Southern hemisphere has anything to do with it, but it is certain that the atmosphere is thinner over here. The second one was that Patagonia looked more like a desert than anything else. It was a huge plain, with no hills or mountains, covered by small plants. The landscape was incredible as it resembled nothing I had seen before.
Puerto Madryn used to be an unattractive industrial town, with an aluminum plant being its main industry and several fishing plants (owned by Spanish and Italian companies), but tourism is changing all that. Actually, I didn't dislike the place. The beach was nice and the town had a laidback look that I found quite nice. And, as all the places in Patagonia, is quite windy.
If you like nature and water sports, Puerto Madryn is a must. You can dive around sunk ships (I did around an uncommon sunk airplane), windsurf (probably the best spot I found in Argentina, since it has very few waves because it's located in a closed bay) and see all sorts of animals, ranging from whales, sea lions, elephant seals, penguins, guanacos (similar to llamas), ñandús, armadillos and foxes. As you probably imagined, I did everything (except whale watching because whales do not arrive until winter).
Península Valdés is where all the animal watching activity takes place. Surprisingly (at least for me), all the land comprised within this national park (one of the most important ones in Argentina) is privately own, so you see cattle and sheeps all around. The animals are not fed, so they roam freely trying to find enough food in this extremely dry land. That's the reason why each "hacienda" (farm) can support only one sheep for every hectare. So the land is quite unproductive, but lambs do taste delicious.
Another surprising thing about Península Valdés, is that all this area was covered by the sea some million years ago. And that's quite obvious near Puerto Pirámides, a small town initially founded to export the salt obtained from one of the 3 salt lakes in the peninsula but that now lives entirely of whale watching tourism. In the beautiful cliffs near this town you can see all sort of shell-fish fossils, including oysters which also shows that these waters were quite warmer at the time.
The landscape all over the peninsula was beautiful, but the animal watching was a bit disappointing. First of all, the summer is ending, so most animals have started migrating North to Brazil or other spots. And second of all, the places from where you watch the animals are so distant that you can barely see them. All males had already left (except for pinguins, because males and females share the breeding process), and there were only a hand-full of female elephant seals that hardly moved. There were a lot of sea lions babies(?), but to far away to actually see them.
Fortunately, the trip to Punta Tombo made up for all that. One of the largest Magellanic pinguin colony in the world, it can hold up to 1 million animals on high season. The interesting part of Punta Tombo, is that you are allowed to walk along with the pinguins. You can seat next to them, watch them walk (with that funny walk style the have) next to you, see them go swiming,... It was an incredible experience to see this amazing animals so close, and see them turn their head upside down when they look at you. You can see some pictures of this in my album.
I also went to see "toninas" (small black and white dolphins) near the shore of Rawson, but we were only able to see a couple of them close enough. But still, the boat trip was a nice experience.
After leaving Puerto Madryn, I headed for Comodoro Rivadavia, where my flight to Ushuaia was departing from. Comodoro is an ugly, expensive and unattractive town that has become a communications hub both for buses and LADE (Argentinian Air Force passenger airline). Its main industry is oil (exploted by Repsol-YPF) and that explains many things. There is absolutely no reason to go there unless you are catching a LADE plane as I was, so my next post will be about Ushuaia, one of the most pleasant surprises of this trip.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Impressions of Buenos Aires
I have finally left Buenos Aires, so it's about time to let you know my impressions about this wonderful city.
In fact, I did not only loved Buenos Aires, but also all the people there. Unlike most stereotypes, all "porteños" that I've met, starting with the guys running the hostel where I was staying, were extremely nice, friendly and helpful. Everybody was willing to give you advice and take you with them to enjoy the city. Although I didn't know anyone in Buenos Aires, one night I had to choose between 3 different plans that friends of other friends had planned for me. They took me to football (soccer) matches (an exciting Boca Jr.-Velez that ended with a 3-3 tie), to dinner, to bars and I was even offered to go on a boat trip in the river. I think that the people I've met, both Argentinian and from other countries (Mexico, Germany, Australia, US, Brazil and Spain) are certainly the best memory I'm taking from Buenos Aires.
But the city itself was also quite a surprise to me. I was expecting a lot of insecurity, not very lively place, but that's has changed over the past months. Although have of the Argentinians I've met told me they had been mugged with guns (specially when taking a taxi in the street), I found the city quite safe if you follow some basic rules and avoid trouble areas at night. Walking in the street at night in nice neighborhoods seems to be safe (I did it many times and saw a lot of people doing it) and so is visiting most of the city at daytime.
And Boca is a good example. Despite most guide-books advise you not to go alone to Boca, if you stick to the tourist track you are more likely to see two turists for every local guy. In fact, Boca has become so turistry, with people offering you tango shows in every corner (tourists seem to be the only ones interested in tango), that it was a bit disappointing.
Another part of the city that I loved are its parks, filled with trees and plants from all over the world, and the incredible sound of all type of insects and birds. They have this magical atmosphere of old parks, where plants are taken care of but they are still wild. They are, unlike the city itself, more British than French. And there are many of them. You can walk for hours and never visit the same park again.
Other places that I liked a lot are the Teatro Colon (Opera House) and the Recoleta Cementery, one of the most impressives that I've ever seen. It's filled with hundreds of monumental (and a bit pretentious) tombstones and mausoleums (is that an English word?), a legacy of Argentinian egocentric past. San Telmo is also very nice, with its bohemian look and its antique shops and open-air markets.
The fancy part of town is Puerto Madero, on the East of plaza de Mayo, where a lot of nice, quiet and upscale restaurants are located, most of them serving Argentinian favorite dish: "asado". Also around La Recoleta cementery you can find lots of bars and restaurants, but most of them are the American style that you can find in any large city (Hard Rock and so on).
The night life in Buenos Aires starts quite late, even for Spanish standards. Most people are still finishing dinner by 1:30 or 2 am, so places don't start to fill up until 3. Many bars, though, offer food as well (such of those in Palermo Hollywood, one of the night live centers) so people go there for dinner and then have their first drink. One thing that I found quite different from Spain is that unless you go to a "boliche" (night club), people like to sit down in tables and talk, instead of dance, making it quite difficult to meet other people outside your group. The music is very similar to what we hear in Spain, except for some Argentinian "rock nacional" groups. Many Spanish groups and singers are also very popular here.
Moving around in Buenos Aires without even taking taxis is also easy. There are four lines of subway and a lot of buses, which run all night long. Knowing which bus to take is not easy because there isn't much information on the stops, but asking around you get through, and you almost never have to wait more than 5 minutes.
In fact, public transportation was another big surprise for me here, not only local but long-haul. There are very few train lines in the country, but there are many long-haul buses that are unbelievable confortable (the one I took to the town where I am was like traveling in business class). Again the information is the main problem, because you can only get information and buy tickets for buses departing the city where you're at, making combination almost impossible. And I say that because I'm now in Villa Gesell, a town 450 km. southeast of Buenos Aires, trying to get to Puerto Madryn, and it's not going to be easy.
I got here this morning, after leaving Buenos Aires at 2:30 am, hoping to get some beach exposure, but the weather here is so incredible windy that I'm really missing not having my kitesurfing gear with me. Suprisingly, despite the great conditions that this area has for windsurfing and kitesurfing, there is only one windsurf rental place (that was closed today). I think this could be a perfect place to open a kitesurfing school, because you have kilometers and kilometers of wide and almost virgin beaches, with a sideshore wind many days every year (today it was over 20 knots for sure, ideal for hardcore surfers). The only drawback is that the water is quite choppy, but well, that's a business opportunity I'll have to think of :)
This is an area where many "porteños" spend their summer vacations. The younger ones come in January and February, and in March is more like a family place. Nearby there are some very nice upscale complex, most made of beautiful "cabañas" (bungalows). Anyway, all that means that there are not many single travelers as me over here and if I add the weather issue (and my lack of equipment), there's no point on staying hear much longer. So tomorrow I'll be taking what it looks like a 24-hour trip with 3 different buses without known when I will reach my destination.
And that's it from now. Next post will be about my trip to Península Valdés.
In fact, I did not only loved Buenos Aires, but also all the people there. Unlike most stereotypes, all "porteños" that I've met, starting with the guys running the hostel where I was staying, were extremely nice, friendly and helpful. Everybody was willing to give you advice and take you with them to enjoy the city. Although I didn't know anyone in Buenos Aires, one night I had to choose between 3 different plans that friends of other friends had planned for me. They took me to football (soccer) matches (an exciting Boca Jr.-Velez that ended with a 3-3 tie), to dinner, to bars and I was even offered to go on a boat trip in the river. I think that the people I've met, both Argentinian and from other countries (Mexico, Germany, Australia, US, Brazil and Spain) are certainly the best memory I'm taking from Buenos Aires.
But the city itself was also quite a surprise to me. I was expecting a lot of insecurity, not very lively place, but that's has changed over the past months. Although have of the Argentinians I've met told me they had been mugged with guns (specially when taking a taxi in the street), I found the city quite safe if you follow some basic rules and avoid trouble areas at night. Walking in the street at night in nice neighborhoods seems to be safe (I did it many times and saw a lot of people doing it) and so is visiting most of the city at daytime.
And Boca is a good example. Despite most guide-books advise you not to go alone to Boca, if you stick to the tourist track you are more likely to see two turists for every local guy. In fact, Boca has become so turistry, with people offering you tango shows in every corner (tourists seem to be the only ones interested in tango), that it was a bit disappointing.
Another part of the city that I loved are its parks, filled with trees and plants from all over the world, and the incredible sound of all type of insects and birds. They have this magical atmosphere of old parks, where plants are taken care of but they are still wild. They are, unlike the city itself, more British than French. And there are many of them. You can walk for hours and never visit the same park again.
Other places that I liked a lot are the Teatro Colon (Opera House) and the Recoleta Cementery, one of the most impressives that I've ever seen. It's filled with hundreds of monumental (and a bit pretentious) tombstones and mausoleums (is that an English word?), a legacy of Argentinian egocentric past. San Telmo is also very nice, with its bohemian look and its antique shops and open-air markets.
The fancy part of town is Puerto Madero, on the East of plaza de Mayo, where a lot of nice, quiet and upscale restaurants are located, most of them serving Argentinian favorite dish: "asado". Also around La Recoleta cementery you can find lots of bars and restaurants, but most of them are the American style that you can find in any large city (Hard Rock and so on).
The night life in Buenos Aires starts quite late, even for Spanish standards. Most people are still finishing dinner by 1:30 or 2 am, so places don't start to fill up until 3. Many bars, though, offer food as well (such of those in Palermo Hollywood, one of the night live centers) so people go there for dinner and then have their first drink. One thing that I found quite different from Spain is that unless you go to a "boliche" (night club), people like to sit down in tables and talk, instead of dance, making it quite difficult to meet other people outside your group. The music is very similar to what we hear in Spain, except for some Argentinian "rock nacional" groups. Many Spanish groups and singers are also very popular here.
Moving around in Buenos Aires without even taking taxis is also easy. There are four lines of subway and a lot of buses, which run all night long. Knowing which bus to take is not easy because there isn't much information on the stops, but asking around you get through, and you almost never have to wait more than 5 minutes.
In fact, public transportation was another big surprise for me here, not only local but long-haul. There are very few train lines in the country, but there are many long-haul buses that are unbelievable confortable (the one I took to the town where I am was like traveling in business class). Again the information is the main problem, because you can only get information and buy tickets for buses departing the city where you're at, making combination almost impossible. And I say that because I'm now in Villa Gesell, a town 450 km. southeast of Buenos Aires, trying to get to Puerto Madryn, and it's not going to be easy.
I got here this morning, after leaving Buenos Aires at 2:30 am, hoping to get some beach exposure, but the weather here is so incredible windy that I'm really missing not having my kitesurfing gear with me. Suprisingly, despite the great conditions that this area has for windsurfing and kitesurfing, there is only one windsurf rental place (that was closed today). I think this could be a perfect place to open a kitesurfing school, because you have kilometers and kilometers of wide and almost virgin beaches, with a sideshore wind many days every year (today it was over 20 knots for sure, ideal for hardcore surfers). The only drawback is that the water is quite choppy, but well, that's a business opportunity I'll have to think of :)
This is an area where many "porteños" spend their summer vacations. The younger ones come in January and February, and in March is more like a family place. Nearby there are some very nice upscale complex, most made of beautiful "cabañas" (bungalows). Anyway, all that means that there are not many single travelers as me over here and if I add the weather issue (and my lack of equipment), there's no point on staying hear much longer. So tomorrow I'll be taking what it looks like a 24-hour trip with 3 different buses without known when I will reach my destination.
And that's it from now. Next post will be about my trip to Península Valdés.
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