Peninsula Valdes

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The truth is that when I read again my traveler posts I find them quite boring. I get the impression they are not really much fun but a sort of monotonous shit (I went to this place, very nice, then to this one and blablabla), I don’t know what you think about it… Anyway, the idea of this blog was always to be a reference for people doing the sort of trip I am doing, people who probably don’t give a flying fuck about my problems getting a work permit but, on the contrary, might be interested to know what is to see in San Luis. I ignore if this sort of people is reading this or is just my friends around but, jut in case, I will keep going…

Time now to speak about the second weekend I went away from Buenos Aires to join Javo in his trip. In this case I had to move my ass a bit further, to Puerto Madryn, a 1300 km bus ride from Buenos Aires. Not too bad since Monday was bank holiday here in Argentina. Puerto Madryn is the entry point to Peninsula Valdes, in Chubut, North Patagonia. So what there is to see there? Basically some interesting fauna, specially, due to the time of the year, whales and sea lions.

The whales

You don’t see such a huge animal everyday, I dont know about you but I never did (excluding the ones you find very late when clubbing). The thing is that, for some reason I dont feel like looking for right now, these funny big guys chose this area of Argentina to hang around a few months. The great thing about Peninsula Valdés is that you can see them really close. There is a place, Doradillo beach, where the whales are like 10 meters from you, you really feel like having a bath with them…

Not that you get to see a lot of them anyway, they get out of the water from time to time, make some noise and then down again, proving a surprising ability to avoid my pictures. We were there for a while and I didn’t manage to get a decent one. They seem to be aware of the bunch of gringos bothering them from then shore and didn’t show themselves too much. Still, it was an interesting thing, as I was saying before, you don’t get to see whales everyday (I mean, the ones living on the sea).

In fact, the way to get the real view of these animals is to take a boat from Puerto Piramides and get close to them when they are in deeper waters. By doing this you can see them jumping and getting their tails about of the water like in the most typical pictures. It must be a great experience, a shame we couldn’t live it because, due to the wind, no boat left the two days we where there…. shit! Well, sometimes there are things out of your control and a trip doesn’t work out as you expected without having anyone to blame for it. This was one of these times. All we saw of the whales was this.

Mr Jones

By the way, I haven’t spoken about this trip logistic so far. The thing is that, once again, we came up with the conclusion of renting a car. Prices were more or less like in San Luis and we would save the shitload of money agencies charge you for the trip to Peninsula Valdes. Besides, we have the hope of finding more people in the hostel who would join us to make the ride cheaper.

So, after the Doradillo beach which was the first and in fact the final whale experience, we looked for a place where we could still eat, been so late. And we ended up in what would practically become our base camp in Puerto Madryn: the mythical Mr Jones! A very advisable place where you can eat fantastic hamburgers and, most remarkable, a selection of beers from over the world. We forgot about Quilmes for a while and enjoyed beer with a real taste. I would recommend the patagonians Barba Roja or Otro Mundo in any of their varieties (blonde, dark or red).

We liked Mr Jones so much that we came back that night, after drinking the mandatory bottle of rum. And that place gave us all we needed. For starting we made friends with two other Spanish guys hanging around there. Gabi and Dani, two great dudes from Majadahonda (Madrid) working as ski instructors in Esquel. Not that I remember much about it but the thing is that we ended up partying with them till Mr Jones shut down and then we joined the waitresses to party somewhere else. It was a lot of fun and, even more important, we got two travel mates to our trip to Peninsula Valdes next day.

As I said before there was no way to take the boat to the whales but, anyway, we had a very good time speaking and drinking beer in the card with Gabi and Dani. I have to admit, however, that we didn’t really put too much effort in the touristic itinerary. We got to Puerto Piramide, found out there was no boats that day and came back. We hardly saw some sea lions from quite far away. When I think about it now I regret we didn’t really take more advantage of the car but had waken up quite late and quite hangovered. You can’t have everything… We ended up again in Doradillo beach seen whales before Gabi and Dani left back to Bariloche.

The sea lions

In any case, the bad feeling we had about not seen the whales from the boat, got compensated by what we did the last day. The idea was to dive with sea lions, apparently something that can only happen there. I really like this diving business so I use any opportunity I get to practice. It was the first experience of Javo, a baptsim as they call it. We had to start that early so that night we limited the action to some pizza and a few beers at Mr Jones where we were already know at this point.

All over the Puerty Madryn shore there are plenty of places for scuba diving and prices are similar. In theory the charge you the huge amount of 500 pesos (almost 100 euros) just for one dive with sea lions but, in fact, if you hesitate a bit, they quickly add another bonus dive. It is still quite expensive but that is the way it is, after having saved money sharing the car and not doing the boat, we decided to take it. We got our full body scuba diving suit (remember, it is winter here) and jumped into a boat that took as to the sea lions colony.

Really funny animals!! There was plenty of them, half of them sunbathing on the sand and screaming really loudly, the other half messing around in the water. As soon as the boat got close they started to emerge from the water to “say hello”. And it was even funnier when we got down there. True that it was fucking cold but the experience is well worth it. The sea lions love to play with you, the swim around, friendly bite you, piss you off, you touch them… I think this video will probably give you a better idea…

So, expensive but a must-do. However, it is not like the typical dive where you move around, this is about been quiet in a place so the sea lions go to you. You are very close to the surface and not doing much but still having a lot of fun with all these guys around you. It is definitely a thing you have to do if you are there. Very advisable!

However the scuba diving agency was not that advisable. When we were coming back from the sea lions, the guy told us it was to late for doing the second dive. Javo did not care cause he was leaving soon and does not feel too much like going through that cold again but I do care. These clever bastards are trying to rip us off. I know it and they know it too. So evident they do that they don’t resist too much when I said I wanted my second dive. In the end, they charged me an extra 50 pesos that I paid not to argue too much and they set the boat again just for me. I was taking to dive in a sunken boat and that was a real dive. Water was clear and you could see the ship structure very well and plenty of small fishes all over. An amazing experience as always I have dived! No pictures unfortunately but I was not in the mood to pay again for that. Hopefully one day I will get myself a water case for my camera.

So, this was all about the short patagonian experience and also Javo’s visit. It was great, I really needed to feel a traveler after so much time stopped in BA. The problem is that I am running out of nearby places and right now I don’t see any possibility of travelling in the close future. It is kind of difficult with the money I am getting paid right now and having only 10 days off per year. Living in Argentina is a bit hard when it comes to that but thats another story…

Tags: Diving, Patagonia, Peninsula Valdes, Video, Wildlife