With one big exception...
PATAGONIA!
Now, I'll be honest. If I had had my way, I would have chosen to go to the Patagonian mountains (Chalten, El Calafate) rather than the Patagonian coast. I just generally prefer mountains to the beach, especially a beach as cold as those in Patagonia. But, I must say, that the animals and places we saw were definitely worth the trip. Amazing!
We made the trip south in stages, first going from Buenos Aires to the beachtown of Villa Gessell about a 6 hour bus ride away. We stayed in the apartment of Patti's aunt and uncle there, and it would have been a great place to be, except for the fact that we were two months too early. Almost everything in town was closed and it was freezing cold. We passed the time watching really bad movies on TV and hanging out at the one place that was open - the arcade.
From Villa Gessell we headed a few hours farther south to Mar del Plata, where Patti has another aunt and uncle who were kind enough to take us in. Jorge and Leni were really great to us. They showed us around town and took us out to some great places in Mar del Plata. One of them was a microbrewery where I had the first truly good beer in Argentina. Most people here drink beer colored water, but this was a proper brewery. Jorge ordered me the sampler, so I got to try the whole range. I found out that they have a location in Palermo Hollywood in Buenos Aires, so I can get good beer here if I want.
From Mar del Plata, we continued south for many, many more hours to Puerto Madryn. There we met up with Jen, Chris and Albie. Now, for those who don't know, Puerto Madryn is just south of the Peninsula Valdez, which is where there is the largest gathering of southern right whales (coincidently, National Geographic just did a story on them). Out of the 10,000 or so southern right whales there are, about half of them gather around the Peninsula Valdez to breed around October. So, our first hour there, we found ourselves sitting outside of a cafe on the beach, drinking tea and watching whales breach a hundred yards or so out in the bay. To really see the good stuff we rented a car and drove out onto the peninsula. It was a bit exciting, since there is very, very little development there, and the road is kilometer after kilometer of dirt and gravel. We drove to the small town of Puerto Pyramides where there are whale watching boat tours. We spent about and hour and a half on the boat right up next to the whales, which felt a little strange, since they were all mating. It was a little instrusive, but the whales didn't seem to mind.
The next day we drove down through more nothingness to Trelew. Albie wanted to see the dinosaur museum there, so we made a short stop. Trelew has one of the best dinosaur museums in South America. From there, we continued on to Punta Tombo - home to the world's largest colony of Magellan penguins. There are about a million there. They also show up this time of year to mate. There is a walkway through the mating grounds, and literally under every bush and shrub for as far as the eye can see is a penguin or multiple penguins. Oh yeah, and there were sea lions, too... and conaco's, sea birds...
That's the very brief overview of the trip. I'll try to fill out the details of the last two months soon.
Complete photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/PRotherbennett/TripDownSouth#
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