by
Lynn and
John Salmon
(Back to Part 1) // (Back to Part 2) or See more trip photos
by
Lynn and
John Salmon(Back to Part 1) // (Back to Part 2) or See more trip photos
Rio Gallegos was not one of the high points of the trip. We arrive at 7:00 am at the bus terminal, our bags are unloaded and deposited in a mud puddle. We try to leave our bags at the station for the day and are told to wait until 8:00 am, at 8:00 we are told it is not possible to leave luggage. Before having a clever idea like asking how much it would cost to "ship" the bags to Rio Gallegos, we set out, bags in hand, in the rain.
This is our 3rd time in Rio Gallegos, once again mostly just in transit to another place. Since we have 7 hours this time, we try to see more than the airport, but are met with limited success. The bus terminal is on the edge of town. Lonely Planet guidebooks seem to have a problem with maps. In Rio Gallegos, the city map stops about two blocks short of the bus station. (No excuses that the bus station has moved. The text gives its correct location). Furthermore, someone seems to have decided that the map's aesthetic appeal was marred by all those street names near the edge of the page, so they were simply left off. Result: we have no idea where we are until we walk a few blocks in an essentially random (and lucky) direction. Lonely Planet also failed to put a scale on the map of Rio Gallegos (flashbacks to the LP China book which had notoriously bad maps). We persevere through wind, cold, and rain to the center of town, where every confiteria is either deserted or barred. The only "high-point" of an otherwise dismal trek was when we saw a car coming toward us at high speed, and at the same time saw we were standing next to a very large puddle. Visions of being soaked from head to toe in muddy water flashed through our heads. Thankfully, they also flashed through the head of the driver, and he slowed significantly down and passed us so as not to splash us.
Finally, we get to the tourist office where they tell us there is not enough time to rent a car and drive down to the penguin colony at Cabo Virgenes 120 km south of town. We thought there was, but the tourist info woman assured us the road was too bad and we would need more time. She did recommend a breakfast place at a nearby hotel, but we found it only served guests. Fortunately, we found a deserted, but open cafe across the street and got some breakfast. There was a slight delay while the proprietor ran out to buy croissants, but they are the best croissants we have had in South America.
After lingering for a long time over our coffees, we move to the local historical museum, which is another example of a tiny, but lovingly cared for local museum. This one has everything its larger cousins have: geology, paleontology, flora, fauna, artifacts and rock painting from aboriginal inhabitants, memorabilia from early settlers, a bicycle ridden by Charlotte Fairchild from Buenos Aires to Rio Gallegos and back in 1965, the telephone exchange that served the town for 45 years, etc. All under one roof! You can't say that about the Smithsonian.
After a delightful hour at the museum we go to change our Chilean money into Argentine and manage to get in the bank only seconds before they close for siesta! Then on to a bakery (the same one that was the source of our breakfast croissants) to stock up for lunch, and finally to the airport where we still have time to kill before our flight to Trelew.
The flight is (surprisingly) on time, and we get to Trelew airport around 6:00 pm. There is an hour time difference because some parts of Argentina are not on daylight savings time. We encounter four car rental agents set up in the terminal so we ask for prices. The cheapest one has a 3 day rental with 1000 km for $292. Figuring it will cost at least $150 to take bus tours for two people, and enjoying the flexibility of having a rental in Chile, we take the car and head out into Trelew city traffic.
Drivers are only a little crazed and we soon learn that stopping at stop signs is not fashionable. Exactly when it is proper to yield is unclear, but we err on the safe side and yield to anyone going faster. The Argentines are "aggressive" about passing slow vehicles. It's a bit hair raising getting used to the very loose clutch and the numerous traffic circles (which we just don't have in LA) while trying to figure out how to get on to one of our maps.
We choose to park (Whew!) a block from our target hotel, the Hotel Touring Club, a sort of faded 1930's grand hotel. The hotel has seen grander times, but it has bathtubs! We always seem to find this kind of place once on our vacations: The Imperial in Delhi, Faletti's in Lahore, the Xinqiao in Beijing, the Hotel Darwin in Darwin.
The best day of all! Well, at least one of us gets really excited about penguins and today we get to see 0.5 million of them on the loose at Punta Tombo.
We go bumpity bump in the Scuzio (our nickname for the Fiat Spazio we
rented) for 2.5 hours over 110 km of dirt road to get to Punta Tombo.
The car rental agent warned us that it was a very bad road, but it was
far better than the "good" roads we experienced in Chile.
Unfortunately, the Scuzio is a poor car for the conditions. The drive
takes a couple of hours and is very dusty. The rear windows of the
car won't stay open, and the passenger seatbelt doesn't buckle. We
have yet to figure out one of the controls next to the turn signal.
We stopped a few times to observe some wild life hanging out by the
road. We saw one very large rhea, some little rodents, and numerous
small birds with punk hairstyles.
We also spotted one live armadillo
and one dead one being eaten by a large eagle. As we pull up the
eagle retires to a fencepost 30 ft away, leaving the armadillo. We
back off hoping the eagle will return to his lunch, but he just sits
on the fence watching. I guess he's got time. I can't imagine very
many creatures that would try to steal his lunch!
Arrival at Punta Tombo did not disappoint, and we put aside any fears that the
penguins may have all "gone fishing." The first penguin
encounter was with a stubborn penguin that planted itself directly in
front of the car on the road and wouldn't move, not even when nudged gently
by the bumper. We have read that penguins will bite if harassed so we
don't try to chase him away.
The road was pretty narrow, but we
managed to finally get around him without getting stuck in the soft sand.
We parked and spent the next 3 hours observing the Magellanic penguins
coming and going around us. One half million penguins summer along
this stretch of beach at Punta Tombo. They head north to spend their
winters in Brazil. There are clearly marked pedestrian trails for
people to stay in, but these are completely ignored by the penguins,
some penguins even dig their nests and set up house in the middle of
the paths.
The penguins are not very concerned about people and just carry on.
There is a constant coming and going of waddling 16" tall penguins
making there way from their burrows to the ocean or back. Most just
go down for a drink or a quick dip, but a few go farther out,
presumably in search of food. The water is very clear, so we can see
them swimming as they approach shore. We spend a while on a rocky
outcropping that overlooks the beach and watch the penguins swim and
walk. From here we can see that the colony extends far along the
beach in both directions.
Many of the penguins are asleep in burrows or standing under scrubby
bushes watching the passing parade of humans and other penguins.
There were a lot of young penguins standing around chirping for
attention but not getting much of it. The young are distinguished by
their uniformly gray coloration and (apparent) lack of oil on their
feathers.
After getting our penguin fill we took the Scuzio bumpity bumping back
the 110 kms to Trelew passing through one seemingly random police
check point, but John's Inter-American drivers license seems to be
fine. We parked, covered in dust, outside our hotel.
We checked out of the Hotel Touring Club and set off for Peninsula
Valdes with the Scuzio. Peninsula Valdez was not yet a
World Heritage Site at the time of our
visit, but became one 6 years later in 1999.
A good portion of today's drive (~160 km) was
over good paved road, very straight through the pampas, and take a
right at the sign for Puerto Pyramides, named for the sandy
pyramid shaped formations that overlook the bay.
At Puerto Pyramides, the only town with accommodations on Peninsula
Valdes, we checked every hotel. There are 4 hotels and most have less
than 10 rooms. We found a vacancy at the last place which was
reserved for Auto Club Members. Although we are members, we didn't
bring an AAA card with us, but we did have Inter-American driver's
licenses which we got at AAA. These proved sufficient for auto club
ID and we got the room.
Peninsula Valdes is very large and sprawling with gravel and a few
sand roads, some places with serious "washboard." What causes
washboard? Here we digress on the virtues of the Fiat Scuzio:
Suffice it to say, our next automobile purchase will not be a Fiat!
Back to the log. We drove to North Point after lunch and witnessed
the sea lions carrying on, loudly. The sea lions are pretty
impressive. If there's a niche for large, fierce looking animals that
constantly bellow and groan and snort, and occasionally lunge and have
serious looking fights with one another, then these guys have it
pretty much covered. The big males do most of the fighting, but the
females do their share, too. Many of them are scarred and bloody.
Some of the sea lion blood may also
be from newly born pups.
Amazingly, some of the sea lions have dabs of blue paint on them!
This is clearly a job for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom "Jim will
apply blue paint while Marlin Perkins watches from the safety of the
overlooking bluffs." At one point three lambs walk along the beach.
Apparently no one was hungry because they made it past unscathed.
We drove south to another colony of penguins. This one is much
smaller, but no less interesting. The sun is low and the light is
perfect, so we burn a few more exposures. We also see a VERY LARGE
bird (Giant Petrel?) sail by just out of reach off the edge of the
cliff. This guy was about the size of a small single engine plane
(ok, I exaggerate, but it was big).
At this point we are getting pretty tired of driving the Scuzio over
these dirt roads, but the drive back rewards us with some additional
animal sightings. We see a few guanacos, a couple rheas, many, many
"punk partridges", plus a new animal, the Patagonian hare. We were
driving near dusk when the animals seemed to come out more.
We left Peninsula Valdes and headed back toward Trelew. We bypassed
Trelew and visited the Welsh town of Gaiman, 17 km west. Gaiman was
settled in 1886 by Welsh immigrants, and it has only been the last
generation or two that have assimilated into Argentine society.
Gaiman's second attraction are the Welsh Tea Houses. We are in luck
and find one open. It smells wonderful (baking pies and breads). The
tea is excellent and is served with an enormous selection of tea
cakes, breads, pies and scones, which were delicious. We ate our fill
and then some only making a small dent in the pile, and we had missed
lunch! It was a pleasant relaxing place to spend time until we had to
leave for the airport.
We crossed another police check point on the way to the airport. This
time there was traffic other than us, so we saw that they just stop
people at random points and check IDs, basically. What purpose it
serves, I don't know, but it gives the police something to do.
We returned the Scuzio with 826 km added to its odometer (we had a
1000 km allowance on this rental). Gas ran about 33 cents a liter in
Argentina. We were not sorry to say goodbye to the Scuzio, but we
realize the vacation is coming to a close as we leave on our flight to
Buenos Aires.
In Buenos Aires we chose the Hotel Phoenix, which once had the Prince
of Wales stay there. A realtor would describe the Phoenix as
"charming" or "has lots of character" but we quite liked it.
Especially the
100 year old elevator with the buttons labelled
3, 2, 1, 3 and all the mechanisms visible. "Keep arms and legs inside
the compartment for the duration of the ride." It was late when we
arrived so we did little other than shower and find dinner before bed
time. Late dining hours are proving useful.
We have a final day in Buenos Aires as the trip winds down. We slept
in late, got some food and then made our way toward the Recoleta
district. We never got there, but instead got a cab to take us to the
zoo. The zoo was the only place we found that would not accept US
dollars and needed Argentine pesos. We exchanged a $20 with an ice
cream vendor near the entrance and made our way in.
The zoo was a nice way to spend the afternoon though some of the
animal enclosures were a bit cramped. The polar bear in particular
looked miserable in the 86 degree heat, but a new house is being built
for him. The zoo had Patagonian hares running loose about the park so
we got to see some up close. We also witnessed one getting chased by
a Canada goose. You are allowed to feed most of the animals at the zoo with
special zoo-provided food packets.
After the zoo we headed back toward Recoleta, but once again didn't
make it in the heat. We passed an Esso, "put a tigre in your tank"
billboard. I remember that ad campaign from a while ago. Buenos
Aires has some wide streets with painted lane lines on the roads, but
they seem to be disregarded by the drivers.
We took a cab back to the hotel and then went to dinner. John had a
good entree but mine was pretty miserable. We should have known
better than to eat at a restaurant called the Palace of French Fry,
but the Spanish name, the table cloths, and the butter patrol led one
into a false sense of security about the place. Unpleasant memories
of the dinner were assuaged by an excellent ice cream at a stand in
the pedestrian mall area.
We were up late last night and had to get up at 4:30 am this morning
to get to the airport to begin the major undertaking of getting home.
It was raining when we woke up so we opted for a taxi rather than a
walk to the airport bus 9 blocks away. It only cost $40 as opposed to
$28 for the bus.
We had to wait in a huge line to check in followed by a huge line for
customs, but other than taking a lot of time there were no problems.
The lines were efficient and line-jumping was not an obvious problem.
The Buenos Aires airport had a shrink-wrap service and perhaps 10% of
the people had their luggage shrink wrapped before checking it. This
seems like an excellent solution for backpacks with straps that could
be caught in airline machinery.
The plane was full, but left almost on time. We arrived in Sao Paulo
with 14 hours until our connecting flight to Los Angeles. Rather than
spend it in the transit lounge we ventured out into Brazil. Customs
in Sao Paulo had millions of people with heaps of luggage, while we
had only a single day pack, having checked our bags through to LA. It
was a good move, lugging two bags around Sao Paulo would not have been
fun. We've never seen so many people with "something to declare" at
customs before, but we maneuver past and are admitted to Brazil.
The person at the airport tourist info office spoke English and helped
us arrange a tour of the city. We got on a bus and headed to town in
a country where we speak far less of the language than we do Spanish.
The bus dropped us at a point in the central city though Sao Paulo is
pretty sprawling, a little like LA. It's kind of a cross between New
York and LA in the feel it emits. We weren't sure where to go from
the bus drop off, but a helpful passerby who spoke Spanish directed us
to a tourist info kiosk in the center of a market area. It was
Saturday and food vendors were out in force so we picked up some snack
foods for lunch.
At the tourist kiosk the woman called the tour operator and two guys
came and met us there. The tour was a ~3.5 hours drive around the
city with a few stops. There were two guides, both multi-lingual
including English, and one other passenger, a guy from Peru. The
company was called GOOL.
Sao Paulo is spread out and we drove by a lot of places without being
very oriented to where we were. We drove around and had many places
pointed out to us including Republic Square, the Clinical Hospital,
and University City as well as other buildings, memorials, and parks.
Perhaps it's coincidence, but it seems like many streets are Dr. ___
or Prof __. I'd like to think this indicates a respect for learning.
We also stopped at Sao Paulo University which is free to qualified
students. Medical care is also free for all. One wonders about which
is the third world country, the US or Brazil.
We then went to the Butanta Institute whose motto seems to be "if it's
poisonous we got it." The herpetarium specializes in extraction of
poisons for production of antivenom. There we got out and visited the
snake museum which also included poisonous frogs and spiders. I
especially liked the detailed anatomical exhibit showing how the head
and jaw of a snake is constructed to allow it to open so wide.
We then drove through the Morumbi District. I believe this was one of
the high class "Beverly Hills" type areas. We saw houses belonging to
Pele the soccer player, Emerson Fittipaldi the race car driver, plus
some mafia drug kings, and other "new " rich. We also drove through
another ritzy neighborhood with homes of the "old" rich from the coffee
industry and such. We drove by Government Palace, through the America
and Europa Garden district, past an obelisk, and some other drive by
sitings, but we also got out at the historical museum and spent some
time there.
As the tour finished our guide caused some paranoia by warning us
about muggers and telling John not to wear his watch visible on his
arm, even though it was an inexpensive watch.
We walked to the Italia Tower and went to the 41st floor restaurant
for coffee. It is possibly the tallest building in South America.
The waiter was very nice to us. We don't speak Portuguese and he
didn't speak English or Spanish. Eventually he communicated that
there was a minimum charge and we communicated to bring us some
appetizers or something to make up the difference after the coffees
and he did.
We returned to the bus stop and took the bus back to the airport and
waited around for the final 12 hour flight that will take us home and
put an end to vacation. The transit lounge in Sao Paulo airport is
far more comfortable than the main airport, though there is more to do
in the main airport. Now a guy with 20+ pairs of shoes is frantically
discarding the boxes to save weight for check-in to a flight. An
airport employee came along to clean up the discarded boxes.
No one stamped our passports on the way out of Brazil so I guess we
never left. Somehow we find ourselves back in LA typing this log.
So ends the Great Patagonian Adventure of 1993.
January 13, 1993 [Peninsula Valdes a World Heritage Site]
Elephant seals fill a different niche - huge gray masses of flesh that
haul up on the beach and go to sleep in overlapping sets of 6 or 8.
Easily mistaken for large outcroppings of gray rock, they occasionally
give themselves away by yawning. During our period of observation,
two yawns constituted their entire behavioral repertoire. According
to propaganda, they do some very spectacular fighting during the
mating season. Now, apparently, is the sleeping season.
January 14, 1993 [Gaiman, then back to Buenos Aires]
In Gaiman we visited a weird "attraction" made out of bottle caps, old
cars, pieces of string, discarded paint cans and other detritus of
20th century technology. A sign reminds one at the entrance that
"This is not Disneyland." The place is El Desafio, and is comprised
of a labyrinth, a throne, a car-henge, a circus, and everywhere one
looks are aphorisms painted on the tops of old paint cans (or whatever
else happened to be handy). It must be experienced. This description
does not do it justice
January 15, 1993 [Day in Buenos Aires]
January 16, 1993 [Transit in Sao Paulo]