Backpacking

We pulled up in Bariloche Station the following morning at about 12 having spent 17 hours on the bus from Trelew, via esquel (and unfortunately bypassing Trevelin... the furthest West of the Welsh settlements)

The bus station was nice so rather than pay for a taxi to the hostel we jumped on a bus and headed for the centre of Bariloche. This was easily done and cheap compared to the taxi... $1.20 pesos each.

We got off in the centre, got our bearings and headed for our hostel. We´d checked into the Ruca Hueney hostel and were greeted with a coffee whilst they cleaned the room (a 4 bed dorm) It was nice enough and we dropped our bags and headed in Bariloche proper.

Bariloche sits perched on the hillside overlooking a rather Picturesque lake with the snow capped mountains in the background. It´s very much like little Switzerland... or so they like to think (looked more like Austria to me!) with log cabins and loads of tourists ambling around the streets. Have found out since that (apparently) a few Nazi´s may (or indeed may not) have settled down here in the late 30´s so maybe that´s where the look and the money´s come from.... well... that was what I heard anyway

It´s the peak time of the year and all the tourists were walking around browsing in the shops and eating Ice cream and chocolate... poor Steph was drooling most of the time we passed one of the shops... but to her credit... managed to refrain til the last day

We went to the El Chalten travel office to see about the "Ruta Nacional 40", after yet another not so nice or helpful woman in the tourist office said there was only the one company that did the route, and then popped into the supermarket to buy 2 litres of Quilmes and some food for tea.

Quilmes.....

Local brew and it costs about $3.50 for a litre in the supermarket. If you take an empty bottle with you, you get $1.50 back... so it works out at $2.50 a litre of beer... 35 pence !!!! and surprisingly, alcoholism doesn´t seem to be too much of a problem here!!!!

So... hangover in tow we booked our bus down to El Chalten for three days later and our hostels etc.... after some wrangling and pigeon spanish conversations on the phone (I´ll explain Chalten travel and the Ruta later...... grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!)

We also arranged to hire a bike each the following day to do the "Chico route" which is a cycling (and subsequently we were to find our car based) journey around the lakes and some beautiful scenery.

We were up bright and early and went to the bike rental shop for 9am as arranged.... we left three quarters of an hour later having been waiting for the guys to firstly arrive at work and then faff about with the bikes (i.e. pumping the tyres up... which was nice of them!) but they were cheap at $30 for the days hire! Manyana... manyana !

We´d arranged to not cycle the entire chico route (60k´s) and had arranged to drop the bikes off in Colonia Suiza later that night which cut off 15 k´s (thank god!)

So we set off... along the main road and headed towards the Chico route....

Now... to say that the roads were narrow in Bariloche, and especially on the chico route.... was an understatement!

Trucks... articulated lorries... buses... all zoomed past us at top speed literally skimming our elbows as we struggled with the roads... until eventually we gave up and decided to ride on the dirt track on the side of the road... which is where, evidentally, cyclists should cycle.... so an apparently easy 45k jaunt on a sealed road turned suddenly into a 45k off road moutain marathon!!!

Having spent two hours (and some 18k´s) trying our hardest not to get squashed we pulled off the main road and onto the Chico curcuit proper. Here the traffic did improve.. however... we still stayed on the dirt hard shoulder for periods.

We stopped off at a charir lift up one of the mountains and having arranged with the guy at the bottom that he´d watch our bikes for us... had our lunch at the top of the mountain... surrounded by fantastic mountains, beautiful lakes and even the odd tourist!

We picked our bikes up at the bottom of the chairlift (surprised that they were still there!) and set off in the direction of the Llao Llao hotel (which is fantastic and ridiculously expensive... $750 US dollars a night!)

This is where the ferries that tour the surrounding lakes set off from and having noted this for another day, we headed off along the remainder of the Route.

Colonia Suiza is like a little hippy town in the middle of the mountains. It´s much smaller than Bariloche and far...far... more relaxed. It looked like a great place to stay also and most of the walking routes start from around here, so highly recommended for a couple of nights stay if we return!

After an hour of bouncing down a dirt track, we pulled into the place. Dropped our bikes off and promptly downed two litres of Quilmes in the hour before the bus back to Bariloche arrived! We got back to the hostel which was nice and quiet, had a quick tea in the kitchen and went to bed.... shattered!

OK.... we´ve had a bike ride in Argentina now..... no more !!!!

So we rocked up into the City sprawl that was Gaiman.... NOT !
It´s a Tiny little place and the home of the Welsh Speakers in Argentina.

We´d booked into "Gwesty Tywi" and here we met Diego and Brenda (our hosts for the next four nights). The hostel was fantastic and Having spent a few minutes getting our stuff our and into wardrobes and drawers and had a shower in our private ensuite bathroom ...Flash or what.... we headed out for a stroll in Gaiman. The room was only $90 per night and was immaculate.

We went to the museum in town which opened at four and met the tour guide.... who spoke Welsh! Wow... how strange it is to speak Welsh with someone from Argentina! Having had a few minutes of general chit chat.. we were introduced to an older lady who was third generation Welsh and her grandfather had been one of the original settlers to Chubut (the province in Patagonia). Her Grandmother was originally from Holyhead and her Welsh was more North-Walian than South which was interesting.

We went back to the hostel and met Brenda´s mother. She was there with a Welsh couple from Caernarvon who also spoke Welsh and so poor Steph was left for a while listening to us all jabbering away.... me doing my utmost to remember to use "Chi" (the polite way of saying you", however, I did slip up when chatting with Brenda´s mum... who was a bit older) by saying "Mae fy´ghymraeg yn ifernol"... "Ifar" being a not to nice word for "bad" and one of the last words you should use when in a formal situation... she clocked it straight away and being a teacher... I got a stern look and the next day I apologised profusely... If I´d been a pupil.... I´d have been sent to the headmasters office for sure!

We spent four days touring around Gaiman. Visited Trelew which was nice. The Tourist Information office wasn´t too helpful, however, the museum was fantastic and we saw a bone belonging to one of the largest dinosaurs in the world... the Argentisaurus Goliathicus... or something like that ! It was huge.... so we took a picture of Steph stood inbetween it´s back legs with her arms spread wide and she still couldn´t touch either leg! Luckily for her the Dinosaur was long dead else she´d have been in serious trouble had it been taken short... "Death by Dino doo doo"

Diego loaned us his and Brendas bikes for one day and we rode the 10km´s to the Dinosaur park, just south of Gaiman. It was a self interpreted walk up the side of the canyon, leading you to the top where you could look across the entire Chubut river valley, from Trelew in the East to Dolavon (another small Welsh village... really nothing there though! not even a tourist info place!) in the West. It was a nice view and having been thrilled with fossils on the way up well worth the ride there and back... although we were a bit worse for ware by the time we got back to the hostel!

The four days was fantastic and although the town of Gaiman was small, there were a few nice restaurants and a few things to do to entertain you for a few days... although by the fourth day, we were both ready for a change!

We booked our tickets on the direct service from Trelew to Bariloche with Patagonia transport for $160 pesos each and the next day got a lift from Brenda´s mum with the couple from Caernarvon to the bus station and boarded our bus....
Cama class.... but of course!

We woke up and I was presented with a little card from Steph to say happy Birthday (with Happy Birthday written in it in Castellano!... bless !)

Being not that bothered about birthdays (especially mine!) The fact that it was the 27th of Jan was quickly dropped and we wondered what we´d do for the rest of the day.

We Met Roy on the Beach and looked after his stuff while he went swimming and then, we decided we´d give it one last chance and sped off to Punta Norte!

The High Tide was later in the day (about 5pm) so we hung around til about 6:30.

Nothing again... boo hooo

well.... I think we´ve learnt that you can´t expect to see something all the time and also, that the next time we come (which we will!)... it´ll be in mid to late Feb !

Anyway, we headed back to Puerto Piramides and headed to the La Estacion restaurant with Roy for a Birthday feed (Which was fantastic!) after a few cheekies we headed back to the hostel and noticed that we could see a bright star in the sky... although this star had a bright tail spilling out from behing it !

Now I´d heard that there was a comet about at this moment... however... I never thought it would be this clear !

It was fantastic and the McNaught comet covered most of the night sky! It´s the brightest comet for 40 years and will dissappear off into space, never to be seen again !

We crashed out and arranged to pick Roy up at 8am the next day as we had to get the hire car back before 10am.

We dropped Roy off, said goodbye and dropped the hire car off... a little bit dustier than we´d received it... which the guy wasn´t overly amused about... and then headed to the bus station to get the bus to Trelew ($6.50) and then jumped in a cab ($25 fixed costs) to Gaiman... the Capital of "Little Wales"... It was time to forget my rubbish Spanish and get back into my rubbish Welsh! Poor Steph just wanted the next four days to be over ASAP I´m sure

We set off early to cross the Peninsula from Peurto Piramides. The road soon turned into a dirt track and since it was my first time on the tracks I obeyed the speed limits and trundled along at 60kph.

Roy, Steph and I had planned the route so that we´d end up in Puerto Norte at the North of the peninsula for about 2pm and headed directly there so that we´d miss most of the tourists... that was the plan anyway!

We arrived and the were greeted by a fairly tame Patagonian Fox (Which is very rare) and some even tamer Armadillo´s. Some photos were taken and we then set ourselves at the top of the cliff in the public viewing spot for the patient wait to see if the Orca´s would turn up!

The Sea Lions were interesting enough on their own and with Roy´s Lemon Tea, the frolicking of the sea lion pups and the posturing of the Male sea lions, the hours flew by.

Unfortunately, High tide came and went with not a whiff or Orca!

We checked in the Guarda Faunica office (which is right by the viewing spot) and apparently there had been about 12 Orca spotted two days earlier... so, seeing that it was getting close to the "Sea Lion Pup Chomping" time of year (End of Jan, Feb and early March) we thought we should be in luck!

We left about 5pm, miffed, but undaunted and trundled back via the Penguin colony just south of Puerto Norte. These little Guys were entertaining (if a bit smelly) and since you were virtually on top of the wee buggers... some quality shots were had! We then trundled back to Puerto Piramides for tea.

The next day we decided to hit the Peninsula from the South Upwards. Once again... the plan was to try and avoid the hordes of touristicos being ferried along the peninsula.

We arrived at Punta Delgada to find that the gate was shut and the notices stating that we were unable to enter the public viewing spot. Luckily Roy spotted some local guys, and found out that the public viewing area was just the other side of the gates and you were perfectly entitled to open the gate and drive the five minutes down to the public viewing spot.

This we did, although we did mutter on about how the hotel was taking a liberty by placing the gate literally on the road side of the public entry point! Obviously trying to be overtly exclusive... i.e. if you´re not in the hotel... you can´t get in!

The views from Punta Delgada were nice, however, you were quite a way up from the Elephant seals. However, this didn´t stop you from seeing how big the buggers were!

The ones we could see were Immature males and then were roughly about 2 tonnes and about 3 metres long. A full grown male can grow up to 6 tonnes and about 6 metres long !!! These things are massive (I might be a bit wrong with the numbers here but you get my drift!)

We then headed up to Caleta Valdes, which was North and about half way to Punta Norte. Here we were greeted by the masses of touristicos and their buses. We had a quick look at the sea lions, some Lemon Tea (kindly provided by Roy Again) and a sandwich and then headed up to Punto Norte for a second days´vigil!

Nothing......

Not a sausage !

However, the Armadillos and the Sea Lion pups did their best to entertain us in the meantime!

Feckin Nature I tell you !

Homeward bound and by now the speeds in the car were up to about 80kph and I´d started to overtake other cars.... although I know it´s not big or clever... it´s a hire car... what dýa expect

So we got the bus in Retiro in BA and headed down to Puerto Madryn. The bus was a hour late leaving the station, however, when we got on it was virtually empty and it was brand spanking new!!!! So, like lord and lady muck, we had our vino en route by our butler (come attendent!) and settled down for yet another short journey of 20 hours.

The next morning we arrived in PM. It´s a sleepy little town and the bus station was a chilled as the town. We´d decided to walk to the hostel as it seemed fine and the hostel was only a few blocks away.

We checked into our 4 bed dorm and then strolled about Puerto Madryn for a few hours. Had something to eat, and then Steph decided that we´d go for a short walk to the other end of town to see the Eco-Centre.

This seemed like a good idea as the distance looked short on the map! After an hour or so, we finally dragged our sunburnt bodies into the centre.

We were given an English handbook to accompany the exhibitions and so, we set about gleaning as much as we could about the flora and fauna of the area (and specifically Peninsula Valdes)

The centre was $18 perso´s for Non Nationals, $12 for Nationals and $6 for locals.... I thought of trying to claim that since I was a "direct" decendent(ish) (i.e. from Wales) of the first Welsh to land in PM and without them the town wouldn´t even exist I could try for a local ticket.... however... thought better and bought two $18 peso tickets (being that we were gringo´s after all!)

We got to see a replica of one of the orcas (Mel), the Blue Planet film (in Spanish) for 30 mins or so and then walked up the lookout for a good view of the Massive Cruise liner (that´s based in PM) heading out to sea for a 20 day trip to the Malvinas (Falklands) and on to Antartica (Not long now.....!)

On the way back we stumbled across a little Welsh Museum on the side of the road! They had a big flag outside (of which the girl inside was particularly proud... although she couldn´t speak any Welsh) It was the official flag of the Galles (Welsh) in Patagonia...

Think of the Argentinian flag (light blue, white and light blue horizontal strips) with the Welsh Dragon set on the white bit in the middle of the flag... it´s a slightly different draig (dragon) as it´s much thinner and the idea was that it would link and yet not be an exact copy of the original.

So after an hour or so of walking round this little room, looking at the original ships (El Mimosa) log of passengers and checking out that there were two William Williams already in the area... and been allocated land in the Valley to the south... which is where Gaiman and Dolavon are (where we´re heading in a few days or so)... we decided to get a sticker for posperity and a copy of the Local Newspaper (which was in Welsh of course!!!)

On the way home we popped into a rent a car place and found out that it would cost us ($120 per day for four days and 200km´s) to hire a car and having popped outside for all of two minutes we decided we´d take it, we booked the car for the following day... ready to head to the Peninsula to "possibly" see some Orca´s eating some young seal lions....

We crawled back into the hostel and bumped into a few guys who were having an Asado (Argentinian BBQ).... We stumbled in broken English and Spanish as to what we needed to do (which turned out to be... go and get some meat from the Butchers around the corner) and then the guys cooked it!

You buy meat by the Kilo (so you can get a kilo of Rump Steak for $20).... just over 3 pounds!

The guys cooked a great feast and we all sat around being filmed by an older geezer who was filming his trip around Argentina. Couldn´t speak a word of English but a nice guy!

We went to bed about 1am leaving the guys to rant on in Castellano about whatever they´d been ranting about for the past two hours and got some kip ready for the experience of driving on South American roads the following day!!! Right Hand driving !!!