The Vagrant Gypsy Life

Day 94, Thu Dec 2 El Chalten/ Rio Gallegos

Almost all day on the bus. El Chalten to Puerto Madryn.

El Chalten to El Calafate: 4 hours; El Calafate to Rio Gallegos: 6 hours; Rio Gallegos to Puerto Madryn: 21 hours. The one thing I remember from the busride from Gallegos to PMadryn is the amazing colours of the sunset. I could still see the sun on the horizon at 23:00.

Day 95, Fri Dec 3 Puerto Madryn

Arrival in Puerto Madryn around 15:00. Went for a walk and cooked dinner with a couple of folks from the Navimag.

Puerto Madryn seems to have a lot of stores named after ballenas (whales) and penguins. A lot of tours as well. The town is not very pretty or enticing, but is the place most tourists arrive to go on tours to see sealions, seals, penguins, whales. Peninsula Valdes and Whale-watching tours being the largest draw.

Day 96, Sat Dec 4 Puerto Madryn

The weather forecast was a lot of wind, which meant that tours to Peninsula Valdes were probably not going to run since the boats couldnt get out. We ended up renting bicycles to ride to Punto Loma (17 km each way) to see sea-lions. Had a nice dinner.

Day 97, Sun Dec 5 Puerto Madryn! Bus to BA

Off on a tour to see Magellan Penguins. I arrived at the time of the season that they set up nests and rear their young before heading up to Brasil. It was a grand hour and a half! Enroute to Punto Tomba, the guide stopped whenever he noticed an animal that would be quite unusual to tourists. Ostrich-like creatures and Lama-like animals galore…

Lunch was an apple. However, the treat of the day was tea in a Welsh village called Gaiman, set in a valley. They served us various cakes, sandwiches and some tea, all for an overly exorbitant price. However, the Welsh town was extremely pretty and being on water, an extreme contrast to the stark dry surrounding area!

The tour guide was very intelligent and knew a lot of things: we had some interesting conversations.

Another long bus ride after dinner – sigh, I am a broken man. Argentina is too beguiling and quite big.

About 17 hours to Buenos Aires.

Day 108, Fri Dec 17 Cordoba/ Rosario

Rosario is a lovely small town, north west of Buenos Aires, on the river Parana. It is famous for beautiful women, for being the town where the flag was conceived and for being the birthplace of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and a certain Lionel Messi.

The weather forecast for both Cordoba and Rosario was in the upper 30s! I was almost glad to have been in the bus that long.

Headed to the river and walked along the river for a bit. Then heeaded into town – Monumento a los Banderas, Catedral, Plaza San Martin (the man square).

There was a big crowd surrounding a stage at the main square. The Memorial Museum was being inaugurated. Memorial museum deals with the people who disappeared during the military regime from 1970s to early 1989s, till the Falkland war lead to the military being overthrown. There were a few speeches and some music. Speech from the founder of Madres y abuelas de Plaza de Mayo drew a lot of applause. It was a moving speech from her.

Day 109, Sat Dec 18 Rosario

Woke up to pouring rain! Went for a walk all the way down to Parque de la Independencia and then to the Plaza de Che Guevara to see the memorial to Che. Walked then to the other end of town to see the Che mural. I was extremely hungry by the time I got back to the hostel.

I decided that I had enough of the rain and ended up at the cinema to watch the movie “Devil”. It was pretty awful! The weather forecast for the next day had more rain listed for the next day. Decided that I was better off in Buenos Aires than in rainy Rosario.

Day 92, Tue Nov 30 Puerto Natales/ Perito Moreno glacier/ El Calafate/ El Chalten A long day. A early start as we have breakfast at 06:30 and get on the van at 07:00. It is a bit of a squeeze. Among ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 91, Mon Nov 29 Puerto Natales The same spoilt girls whom I was able to ignore the night before, managed to wake me up early Monday morning around 5:30. They were back in the common area packing and chatterng away, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Photos of the trek. I offer the link at the beginning since I am no poet and will not be able to do justice to the scenery and the trek. I ran out of adjectives to describe the scenery ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 85, Tue Nov 23 Puerto Natales I liked Puerto Natales. It is a nice little town with some gorgeous views of fjords. It is also the starting point for most people who trek in the Torres del Paine national ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 81 - 84 Navimag I get on the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. 3 nights on a ferry was a new experience for me. One got to see fjords, a seal, a glacier, lots of rain ... [Continue reading this entry]