Having a whale of a time in Wales (sort of)...
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2003
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63
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Trip End
Oct 29, 2004
Sierra de la Ventana, Puerto Madryn and Trelew, Argentina
Saturday, August 21, 2004
The tourist office didn´t open until 9am so we hung around for a couple of hours in a cafe and on a wall (!) and by 9:10 am we were ensconced in a quaint little hotel with piping hot rads and cable TV.
The hotel was probably the highlight of Sierra de la Ventana. There really isn´t that much to see or do there. Especially when it´s chucking it down, as it was the next day. Thank god for cable. Watched The Godfather again.
On the (bank holiday) Monday we decided to check out the major tourist attraction of the area - Cerro de la Ventana - it´s a hill! It´s about a 5 hour round trip hike. So we got up early, donned our walking boots, woolley hats and big coats and caught the special bus there. Only to find they´d closed the hill due to bad weather. It didn´t look that exciting anyway! We did a mini hike - 2 hours - pretty boring - and then decided to walk part of the way back - the bus wasn´t coming for another 4 hours! 8km later we were cold and fed up so we hitched back. I can honestly say that Sierra de la Ventana wasn´t really a highlight of the trip!
However - we then got a bus to Puerto Madryn (3 hours to Bahia Blanca, 2 hours in the bus station, and then 10 hours to Puerto Madryn - semi cama again). We decided to treat ourselves by staying in a "splurge" hotel (Lonely Planet recommends a posh hotel for each place if you fancy treating yourself) - so we paid a whopping 18 pounds per night instead of the usual 10 - 14. And we got a room with a bath! First bath since Auckland. Heaven. Had a nice "pottering" day - got laundry done, booked a trip to the Valdes Peninsula for the next day and went to see The Ladykillers. Not bad but as much as I love the Coen Brothers, I think I prefer the original.
The next day (3 baths later) we were picked up at the hotel by Ruben, our guide for the day. We were well chuffed when we realised that it would just be Ruben and us two for the day. And Ruben didn´t speak any English so we got to speak Spanish all day - since college ended we´ve been restricted to "tourist Spanish" again - unless you try to accost a stranger and force them to speak to you about films, books, world peace, etc., which neither or us is prepared to do.
Our first stop was El Doradillo beach. We pulled onto the beach and Ruben told us to look out to sea. There were LOADS of whales just splashing around in the water. Everywhere. Everywhere you looked you could see heads popping out or tails flicking up. Absolutely beautiful. And there was hardly anybody around. You´d have thought that the beach would be packed. I could have sat there for hours watching them. Apparently the water at the beach is really deep so the whales can come right in safely. This time of year they are there to mate or have their babies.
After that, the rest of the day was a little bit of an anti-climax. We did a boat ride at Puerto Piramides, along with loads of other tourists, and got quite close to some whales but it just didn´t seem to have the same impact as the beach. We also saw some elephant seals, which were quite cute, and some salt lakes. We did a lot of driving - about 400 km in total - which was a bit tiresome. Ruben knew how much we´d enjoyed the first beach, so on the way back he took the beach road again and we stopped there for another 15 minutes. And this time we really were the only ones on the beach. So cool! And then as we drove back into Puerto Madryn, we had an amazing pink and lilac sunset.
We decided to stick around another day and catch up on sleep and stuff. By this time I had a stinking cold and our splurge hotel was particularly lovely...
On Friday we moved on to nearby Trelew - only an hour away. Along with Puerto Madryn and some other nearby villages, Trelew has links with Wales - apparently Welsh settlers came to this area in the 1860s. Not that you´d really know it. There are some Welsh road names and Welsh dragons dotted around but it´s not overwhelmingly Welsh or anything.
Today (Saturday) we did a little day trip to Dolavon and Gaiman, the other "Welsh" villages. They were both a bit disappointing really. Dolavon was dead. There is nothing there. We weren´t too worried - we thought we´d be able to hole up in a cafe or bar until the next bus, 2 hours later, but there wasn´t one. We decided to head back to the bus stop and have a game of Scrabble (yeah - there really was nothing there), when something caught my attention down this little side road. Turned out to be a flour mill museum (yawn) but out the back was this little restaurant (yeah!). As we walked into this fantastic room, the smell of cooking hit you, it was lovely and warm and this wonderful lady swept us to our seats. Suddenly Dolavon didn´t seem so bad. We managed to stay there until the bus came, nursing a cuppa and a snack each. We jealously watched this Italian couple have a fantastic 3 course meal, which looked amazing. We were holding out because we´d been advised to try to have an empty tummy for the next town, Gaiman, because there are loads of Welsh tea shops there...
So, on we went to Gaiman. Slightly busier than Dolavon, but not a lot going on really. We found a Welsh tea shop and had the required tea and cakes. The cakes were pretty good but the tea was stewed! Bit of a rip-off price-wise really. The whole thing seemed a bit gimmicky.
We´re now just killing time until our bus leaves at 9:30 tonight. We´re heading over to the other side of Argentina - to the lake district and mountains (the Andes). Other than Puerto Madryn, this little stretch has been a tad disappointing but the next couple of weeks should be cool.
