snrtobias

Included among the “must-sees” in our Patagonia guide book are the Reservas Provinciales Península Valdés and Punta Tombo. Both are along the Altantic coast of Chubut Province. Going by way of the coast seemed to be an interesting route by which to return to Buenos Aires. We’d seen the mountains and the steppe, but had not yet seen the ocean.   

 Click on “read more” to learn about our wildlife adventure.

We left Esquel late on Sunday night, 2-22-09, and took an overnight bus to Trelew, a city located between the two reserves. It was a ride of about 10 hours or so. We chose to stay in Trelew, instead of the larger and more tourist oriented town of Puerto Madryn.  Via the internet, we found a comfortable, although somewhat sparse, apartment to rent for a few days. Trelew, we decided, is basically a farm town even though the population is 100,000 and it is considered a big city. Raising sheep for wool seems to be the main kind of farming. Merino wool comes from these sheep.

In addition to the landscape and the wildlife that is found in the area, its interesting history includes the fact that in 1865 Welsh people fleeing slavery in Great Britain found their way here and established settlements. There remain some remnants of Welsh culture, noticeable in the architecture and the tea houses where afternoon tea with traditional fruit cake is still available. Many of the Argentines living in the area trace their origins to these folks, and their Anglo-sounding names reflect their national heritage. An interesting bit of information is that the name Trelew comes from its Welsh founder, Lewis Jones. In Welsh, tre means “town”and lew is short for Lewis.

While the city itself was not too exciting, there were some interesting things to see. Most notable is a state of the art paleontological museum that documents important Argentine dinosaur discoveries. Of course I knew nothing about the central Patagonian steppe and its importance as one of Argentina’s prime digs. Apparently discoveries made here were able to confirm a theory about how the earth’s large land mass broke apart and about the evolution of various types of dinosaurs. All of it was more information than I could take in, but still fascinating. 

 

 

One day we rented a car to take ourselves 100 kms south to the “must-see” Punta Tombo reserve, the breeding ground of the Magellanic penguins. It is the largest penguin breeding ground in South America. Nearly 250,000 birds come ashore here every spring to mate and nest. We got here towards the end of their season, when the fledglings are getting ready to take off with their parents into the sea to where ever it is they go from here. Because it was the end of the season, there were not too many tourists. Though there were still a lot of penguins. We did not, however, see many other seabirds that are said to be here in great numbers. Still it was well worth the drive along the dusty unpaved road and through a different type of landscape to get to the reserve where we spent several hours walking the paths and observing nature.  

 

 

 

 

Our other big excursion was to Península Valdés, which is north of Trelew. For this all-day trip, we signed on to a guided tour which got on the road at 7:15 a.m.  

The tour guide was knowledgeable and well organized, and the other folks on the tour were congenial. The drive from Trelew to the peninsula took a couple of hours, the roads on the peninsula were unpaved and difficult. We were glad not to have to deal with that.

 

 

 

Península Valdés is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve and is the place where the great southern right whales breed and give birth in the winter (June – December). Of course we missed all of that. But the up-side was that the place was not overrun with tourists who come from all over the world to witness this major world event.

We stopped at several places along the several hundred km circuit through the reserve where there were specific things to see. Although not there in great numbers this time of year, we did see elephant seals, sea lions, herds of grazing guanacos (relative of the camel), a few rheas (a big bird sort of like an emu or small ostrich) and one hairy armadillo. Also some penquins. 

  

 

 

An exciting thing that can occur here between October and April (we are here in March) is that killer whales (Orcas) patrol the beaches in search of sea lion pups to kill and consume. One disadvantage of being with a tour group is that we were not able to hang around long enough to wait and see if we’d be fortunate enough to witness such an event.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were a little disapppointed that we did not see more wildlife while on this sort of safari. But seeing the environment was also fascinating. Broad sandy beaches where people are not permitted line most of the coast, but there are also steep cliffs of relatively loose sediments with lots of fossils embedded in them. Most of the interior of the peninsula consists of sheep ranches. Wild guanacos (relative of the camel) and rheas (sort of like an emu) share the arid grasslands with the sheep. There are some salt depressions, and salt was mined here at one time. The climate is very dry and windy. Of course, a day excursion like this can only gives you a taste of what a region has to offer. That was more than satisfying for us at this point.

Our bus to Buenos Aires left Trelew at about 1 p.m. on 2-27-09. We arrived in Buenos Aires the following morning around 6 a.m. For our last bus trip, we chose to go first class: chairs that fully reclined for sleeping comfort, two meals (wine included) plus a snack.

 

 

 

 

I’d found a place to stay in BsAs on the internet, but it turned out to be a dump. After one night there, we moved to the most expensive hotel we’d stayed in the entire trip ($90.00 a night). It was a small boutique type hotel in a trendy part of the city. It was clean, comfortable, with good service, friendly staff and worth it. We mostly just relaxed, did a little shopping, went to the Museo de Bellas Artes again, and repacked our luggage in preparation for the flight home Tuesday night 3-3-09. We also found a good kosher restaurant in the same trendy neighborhood, so Steve and I were able to share and enjoy a good steak for final dinner of the trip.

Nest stop, Pennsylvania. 

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 1:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.