Posts Tagged boat

As you saw in the last post, I found the sign at the end of the world. Fellow travelers had told me that there wasn’t much to do in Ushuaia so I only gave myself one full day there; I’m glad I did, as it was a bit rainy and the activites there were mini-versions of stuff that I’d already done (mountains, a little glacier), or was planning to see later (whales, sea lions). But I really did have fun going to the converted wilderness-prison-cum-museum. The plaster of paris mannequins were just delightful, and there were portions of the prison that hadn’t yet been fixed up and so were still dirty and damp and full of holes and prison stink, which was cool.

The long walk:

Also, I stayed in Ushuaia at a place called Freestyle Hostel, which was nice (and caro) except for the one reception dude who was a totally disinterested snowboarder lifty-type guy. And the nice-looking hotelish bathrooms smelled like some very old sweat socks. But Rasta Max’s kindness (and haircut – guess what kind!) totally made up for it. I also ran into Laura again (for at least the fourth time on my trip down South), so it was nice to see her again before she went back to San Diego.

4:30 the next morning I arrived grumpy and hungry at the Ushuaia bus terminal (actually a parking lot next to a gas station) to find the bus to Puerto Madryn. It was a long ride, longer than one might expect after looking at a map, but the roads down there are circuitious and one has to find one’s way around channels and mountains and whatnot. In all, I think that it took around 30 hours (with an incredibly uneventful stop in Rio Gallegos).

But Puerto Madryn was totally worth it. I expected another small tourist town with dozens of parka stores, and was very happily surprised to find a large tourist town in the middle of an incredibly gorgeous spell of warm weather with a long beach spanning the entire town. There were even some crazy kids swimming in the ocean, and I managed to take my shoes off and walk along the shore a bit. It was exciting, and unexpected, to find myself in a city that looked a lot more like coastal Florida than Antarctica, so I was happy. And I stayed at a great place called El Gaulicho in Puerto Madryn with a friendly staff, good rooms, a big kitchen, lots of friendly travellers, and a cute little courtyard with two(!) hammocks. I really could have stayed there for a week, but I think I’d better get traveling if I’m really going to make it to Santiago before Christmas.

Puerto Madryn, suprisingly:

Oh, and I went on a whale-elephant seal-sea lion-penguin tour, on which we also saw lots of maras (which are kind of like rabbits/dogs) and more guanacos.

But the whales were definitely the best part. I caught the very tail end (so to speak) of the whale watching season, so there evidently weren’t many left in the harbor to see, but the moment our super-sized Zodiac came within 50 meters of the one pair we did track down, the baby started jumping out of the water like a lunatic. It breached seven or eight times before its mom came over, jumped out of the water herself, and calmed baby down. I also managed to find myself pretty much the best spot on the boat, standing in the bow with a railing to hold on to and the guide’s girlfriend (also a biologist, I think) telling me exactly what was going on the whole time and how lucky we were to see that kind of stuff so late in the season. Not that you can tell from my pictures, of course, but I’m ok with that. I’ve got it all up here (point at head). And then I partook in the communal asado at the hostel, during which I drank just a smidge too much vino.

The next day I got up, ate free breakfast, and promptly fell asleep in the hammock. And then I went to the EcoCentro, which was a well-produced marine ecology museum and a great way to spend some time on a rainy afternoon (which is what it turned into), and fell asleep on a cushy couch in the upstairs library while waiting for a squall to pass. I needed some sleep, evidently.