Buenos Aires and on, then back again

Arrived bleary eyed at Buenos Aires bus station after an overnight bus journey from Puerto Madryn. The bus station is very bustly and busy and there are things like "Subways" that I have not seen for a while. The recommended hostel is in the district of Palermo, it is full, so I go down the street and find another. I´m back in the big city with all it´s incipent advantages (food ! drink!) and disadvantages (noise, crowds, murderous vehicles). My first night at the hostel, and I seem to be the only who even attempts sleep, cos even at 0730am only two others have returned to the 6 bed room. And this is the way of it in Buenos Aires, genuinely, the city that never sleeps !! Partly because, I think, it is hot and humid 24 hours a day and unless you drink it is difficult to sleep, and often you don´t even want to....

Palermo is bit too European (i.e. smug and wealthy) for my tastes, so after 2 nights I move to the more run down but seemingly friendlier "San Telmo" district of town and find a cheap but mangey hostel in the center. For a week I roam about town, covering huge distances on foot. I watch many live Tango shows on the street, is there a more intense dance than this ? I´ve not seen it.... There are street decorations and buskers aplenty. I went  to a show called "La bomba de tiempo", fantastic percussion-only band in a "rave setting" - an adandoned industrial works of some sort and they play as the sun goes down behind them. BUT, as I always find, the city is impersonal, it is hard to make connections and I don´t make a success of my time in BA. Not really helped by my lack of Spanish in a mainly Spanish speaking hostel.

So after 6 days I buy a ferry ticket to Uruguay, not sure whether I´m going to come back to BA or not.

Uruguay is very sleepy by comparison! I travelled on the "Cacciola" ferry from Tigre (borough of BA) to Carmelo, a light twin hulled boat that whizzes through the shallow marshy channels of the River Plate. I then took a bus to the old colonial town of Colonia. I find a nice rustic hostel and walk about town. It´s predictably touristy, but in a sleepy way, it reminds me of Orford (or Southwold) in Suffolk. A day to look around is enough, so I head to Montevideo on the bus.

I enjoyed my day and half in Montevideo, I think it´s get´s a bad press ! From the town centre (a peninsular) you can see the sea in 3 directions (unlike BA which for some strange reason completely turns it´s back on the sea) which makes it breezy and cooler for walking around. The neighbourhoods are obviously poorer and a bit grubbier than BA, but it has good beaches within walking distance (unlike BA). A day here is enough though. Xmas is coming ! (it´s the 20th Dec). I decide to spend the whole Xmas period on the beach at Punta del Diablo (4 hrs North up the coast) and not travel anywhere. To buy my bus ticket I have to queue for an hour, things are getting crazy holiday busy already.

Punta del Diablo was a sleepy fishing village until a few short years ago. Now it is a rapidly developing beach resort, 120 houses built on the sand dunes this year alone, a rate resembling a Spanish resort in the 1970´s (I should think). I opt for a hostel out of the town, it´s brand new, very smart and anxious to please, Hostel de la Vieuda. Within 10 minutes I have a very narrow shave with a sunbathing snake on the garden decking. I surprised it and vice versa, we both jumped !! it then curled up and struck out, and fortunately, missed ! I told the hostel owner and she arranged for a neighbour to come over, he, rather unfortunately, killed it with a piece of wood. This was rather a shame as it was a beautiful thing, the subtle colours and the texture of it. However, I looked it up on google later http://bit.ly/gd3LSN (correct I think as it had a matte black rattle) it´s turns out to be very poisonous !! one of my lives used up I think! It made me think twice about walking through long grass the whole next week. And so the 6 days of Xmas passed pleasantly enough, every day swimming in the surf and lounging about in the hot sunshine, just like the UK at Xmas !! Uruguayans celebrate Xmas eve not Xmas day, so the hostel organised a big Parilla (BBQ) for late late Xmas eve, the punch was super strong, I drank too much and predictably passed out (without making into town for the disco).

I was going to go straight to the Brazil border only 30km away. But I made the odd decision to return all the way to Buenos Aires and spend another week there, including New Years day. On the way back to BA Chaos !! in the holiday craziness the Montevideo bus station had half burnt down. Very long queues everywhere to temporary tents in the car park. I was lucky to come away with a ticket at all, let alone to the right place ! It cost a bit (I had to get what I could) but I got back to BA that night, by ferry, arriving back at 2am (and finding it even hotter than when I left...).

Sunset @ Colonia

Puerto Madryn - what ! more Penguins ??

The first shock of stepping off the bus from Patagonia is....the temperature !!  I realise I have not been properly warm since leaving Valparaiso (over 2 long months before), it feels very strange...

Puerto Madryn is another of those Argentinian towns founded by the Welsh, I spot a few unusual Celtic-skinned locals down on the beach. It´s very dry and deserty here, not what I expected. It´s main attraction is "Peninsular Valdez", it´s particularly famous because this is the only place in the world where (at the right time of year, this is not it) Orca´s will "rush the beach", swim up it at speed and take unwary Seals straight off it (for their lunch...). There is a well known clip of this in "Blue Planet" (I had just assumed that it was in Antarctica, or some such, but, no).

I cycle 20km out to one of the whale spotting beaches. I sit and wait for 4 hours, staring at the sea, and see absolutely nothing. By the early evening I give up and cycle back up the nearest headland. I look back one last time and there is a Southern Right Whale and her Calf, frolicking in the sea, only just off the beach, exactly where I had been sitting !     NUTS !!!

The day after that I put up a notice in the hostel, I want to share a hire car and drive all around Peninsular Valdez. I find four 19 year old German backpackers who are too young to hire a car themselves, perfect !  except they are all tall, it´s going to be cheap, but a bit of a squeeze.

Somewhat unusually the hire company transacts a $2000 deposit payment straight off my credit card, this helps me stay focused !  It´s pretty easy to slide on ripio.

The hostel guy says the Park Entrance is not manned until 6am. So we leave at 5am (not easy...) and get to the Park Entrance at 05.40, a sleepy face pops-up at the booth ! Crapola !  We are each relieved of a hefty 18 bucks entrance fee. This was my idea (getting up at 04.30am for no purpose), and it pushes German humour to it´s limits....

Peninsular Valdez is very hot and very dusty (over 400km of gravel road). There is really nothing there except the odd wildlife in various spots, mainly penguins and sealions, some elephant seals, all in the distance, Fauna no Flora. It was a long hot day, we were all a bit disappointed really, but our day was comprehensively saved by a fab sighting in the evening. I wanted to go back to the same beach I was at before (outside the park). And sure enough, there was a Southern Right Whale and Calf, frolicking, just 7-10 metres off the beach. Incredible ! we were all  mesmerised for a good couple of hours, the magnificent size of these beasts. We got back to Puerto Madryn in the black dark at 5 mins to 10pm, just in time to return the car and secure my deposit. It was soured slightly when I realised I´d left my mini-binoculars somewhere in the park...doh !

Not a sandbank !  an adult Southern Right Whale and Calf (calf not visible)

Next day, I head to Buenos Aires on the bus, the German guys head to Patagonia.