After our quick detour to the Atlantic (whales, penguin, sea lions, all that jazz…) we finally arrived to ‘real’ patagonia – the glaciers of the Andes. First stop and our base for next week’s trips; Calafate and the popular Perito Moreno glacier
Posted from El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina.
After only a week, braving hungry penguins and coastal winds, we’re driving 300 km of dirt roads to the glaciers
Woke up to start driving the 1200km we have to cover to get back to the Andes and the glaciers around calafate. At sunrise the day was fine, chill wind coming off the sea. 20 minutes later the sky was grey with cold winds blowing wildly. An hour later, no wind , freezing cold. 2 hours later we were driving on dirt roads in pouring rain, hoping the road won’t be washed out. ( we were still 200 km from the nearest village on a trail ) . An hour later the sun came out, took off the fleece. 30 minutes later – snow !
What a country…
Posted from Playa Unión, Chubut, Argentina.
After the incredible morning with the whales, we took off into the peninsula to see other wild animals. Driving on wet dirt roads, we stopped at several viewpoints. Elephant seals were fighting a 100 meters beneath us, and when we stopped at the Penguin site, i took out the 300mm lens only to found out i had to watch out not to step on them
After waking up to pouring rain, we started driving the 150km to our next point of interest. Halfway, we drove to the coast on a dirt road, and thru the open window (winds at 80km, rain…) we saw our first whale breeching 200 meters off.
70km later at Porto Pyramidas, we found out the port is closed and no boats are going out to see the whales. Maybe tomorrow, morning or evening, or the day after. Still raining.
Ran found us a ‘motel’ room with a big window to the sea, and we sat down and watched the whales jumping off the coast.
Early the next morning we took the first boat out in incredible sunny weather. The first whale and her calf were floating a meter off the boat and we had to back off not to run them over. Twice as big as the boat (wikipedia it; southern right whales), we followed them for the next 20 minutes, and then turned to follow others, which were breeching all around us.
According to the plan we were supposed to cross the desert pampas all the way to the coast on routa 12, a 900km stretch of wide dirt trail. As the temperature dropped to almost zero at night and it started raining, a three day boring dirt ride didn’t sound so good. Then we found out that routa 25 (250km south of us thru the snowy Andes) is almost certainly paved by now, and we immediately drove there.
It turned out to be an amazing drive, full of wildlife (we saw Guanacos, Flamingoes, Hawks, eagles and vultures). The desert around us was full of water, small meltwater lakes and marshes full of water birds, and sheep, lots of sheep. Along the Chubot river we saw amazing rock walls without names, in Israel they would’veo been a national park, here they are inconvenient.
We also had the sky half full of rain, which gave us a rainbow for the last 400 km.
After almost 40 hours of flights,airports,taxis and coffee we finally arrived in Barriloche, the switzerland of Argentina.
A young guy with a sign and no english waited to give us an almost new Toyota Hilux 4×4 pickup for an unspecified amount of US dollars, 10 minutes later we shook hands and drove to town to gear up. This ski town is full of chocolate, meat and shopping, and also teeming with Israelis. (we met 20 or so already). So early tomorrow we’re leaving on an 800 Km drive thru mountains, lakes and pampas to the coast to see whales. Pictures will follow soon…
Posted from Neuquen, Neuquén, Argentina.
