Heading South to Penguins and Whales...Nov 2, 2009
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Today has been a day of traveling and trying to avoid the rain.
When we woke up in Mar del Plata the rain was chucking down outside. Not a great start for a beach holiday. We had explored the city yesterday afternoon and we didn’t like it particularly. It felt like a run-down version of Brighton. Most buildings were concrete high rise buildings and there wasn’t any charm to the city. As the weather forecast indicated further rain, and Mar del Plata was a dump, we decided to continue our journey south.
After breakfast we headed to the bus station a few blocks away and bought bus tickets to Puerto Madryn. It is located half-way down the coast and it is famous for whales and penguins. We were planning to do some solid nature watching and enjoy Patagonia.
We got the tickets without any greater difficulty. We ended up with a 13.30 departure from Mar del Plata and arriving in Bahia Blanca at 20.00. We then had to wait until 21.30 in the bus station and take a bus heading south. We were scheduled to arrive in Puerto Madryn at 6.27 the next morning. We also decided to splash out and get cama seats rather than semi-cama seats. They are slightly wider and a bit more comfortable. Travel in Argentina is pretty cheap. Our 18 hour adventure cost around 250 pesos or about 35 pounds / 400 kronor per head. The cama add-on was about 5 pounds or 75 kronor.
The rain was still pouring down in Peurto Madryn as we left the bus station. We attempted to find a supermarket without getting absolutely soaked. We succeeded with the former but failed miserably with the latter… At the supermarket we bought some stuff to eat on the bus - we had been told that there wouldn’t be any food on it.
We spent an hour or so hiding in the hotel lobby (and enjoying their WiFi) before walking through the rain to the bus station. At the bus station we had some lunch at the cafeteria before boarding the bus to Puerto Madryn. Iris had a very nice lomo beaf with fries and I had a Milanesa that was a bit dry. Loads of fries.
The bus ride to Bahia Blanca was uneventful and we spent a lot of time reading our books. I managed to finish a book in Spanish - Paulo Coelho’s “El Alquimista“. It was very good and I’m really amazed I managed to finish it. I wouldn’t claim to have understood 100 percent but sufficiently to be able to follow the plot (and missing the finer details).
The landscape outside was very flat and it seemed to go on forever. When we started the trip at 13.30 it was very flat. When we pulled into Bahia Blanca seven and a half hour later it was still equally flat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much of a flat landscape before. Most of it was fairly green and a mixture of fields for growing crops and fields used by grazing animals. Strangely enough, we didn’t see too many farm buildings. They must be further from the roads.
We arrived pretty much on time in Bahia Blanca. They had a very nice and new bus station - probably the nicest one so far on this trip. We waited there until the departure of our bus and also had a steak sandwich in their cafeteria - we didn’t expect any food on the bus.
The bus from Bahia Blanca to Puerto Madryn was really great. The seats were fantastic! They were pretty much like first-class seats on intercontinental aircraft. Leather, wide and possible to recline. We got our pillows and blankets. They also had nice flat screen TVs showing some movies - I believe they showed one of the Bourne movies. And to our surprise we also got a hot meal on the bus. I was quite impressed with it whereas Iris really didn’t like the food.
We felt asleep quite quickly and only woke up as the bus stopped at Puerto Madryn. We were actually feeling quite relaxed and well rested. Great!
We managed to find the hostal where we were planning to stay - El Gaulicho - which was located some blocks away. We hadn’t booked rooms in advance but they had some beds in their dorms. The rooms have turned out very nicely and this is probably the best hostel we have stayed in on our entire trip. It has just been refurbished and everything is nice and clean. We even have en suite bathroom and it was fantastic! The kitchen is very well-equipped and well laid-out. Perfect!
Marcus
