DECEMBER 09
ARGENTINA-Bahia Blanca
Tuesday 1st we relaxed in the
morning, said “goodbye” to Kev and Lorraine
, lunched and drove to the gas depot. The
lorry was not there. We went into town to try for the net but
there was nowhere to park. A hunt for another gas depot was
unsuccessful. We returned glumly to camp. Wednesday we left Bahia
Blanca two days later than planned, passed through two fresh food
checks which were there to prevent the contamination of the locally
grown fruit and vegetables. We drove on south to camp at Viedma, the
instructions given to us were wrong but with the map supplied with the
directions we found the camp and booked in. We went out shopping
to buy meals for two nights. There is one more food check to go
through. Thursday
we left Viedma early for El Condor on the coast, with only 30k to go we
arrived at the camp for lunch. A restful afternoon
followed. Friday we left the camp
early and drove through the
biggest colony in the world, of Burrowing Parrots, we arrived at La
Loberia at 1000 and continued on to the sanctuary, Punta Bermeja, only
to find that it opened at 1300. We returned to La Loberia to go
to the café for elevenses. The café was also
closed. After tea break and lunch we returned to Punta Bermeja
where we had a warm welcome from the guide who spoke English. We
walked onto the walkways and with the help of a Monocular we saw a Petr
el, a Kelp gull on her
nest and many Southern Sea Lions, this is their biggest colony in the
world. Mixed in with the Southern Sea Lions were ten Elephant
Seals. As we were leaving the Park we bumped into Rudi and
Berlinda who had just arrived. As we drove to the Park we saw
three Vultures, the first in Argentina. We returned to the camp
at El Condor.
Saturday 5th with a reasonably early start we left El Condor for Las Grutas. The day passed smoothly and we arrived at Las Grutas, visited the Visitors Centre followed by visits to two Supermarkets, the first one was closed, and two Internet Cafés the first one also being closed. We then booked into the closest, and most expensive, camp. Sunday we left Las Grutas and passed through a quick food check, it only took two minutes with a look in the fridge. We drove south for the rest of the day to Puerto Madyrn, where we stopped at the Visitors Centre to ask directions to the camp. The camp office was closed until 1900. We returned to the Visitors Centre and were given another camp, this one was closed completely. We passed the first camp, spotted the gate was open and entered to pick a site by 1600. Monday we lazed around until 0900 when we strolled up to the office to find it open and pay for one night. Howard then went to chat to a German couple about filling our gas tank, they offered us a connector but the thread was wrong. The Germans were on the “Repubblica Argentina” and are also heading south. We drove west to Península Valdés, saw an Armadillo alongside the
road, we then paid
our entrance fee and continued on to Puerto Pirámides where the
camp was found, again with difficulty. On the peninsular we saw a
group of Llamas. Tuesday
we set out to tour the peninsular on gravel roads. Before we
reached our first stop we saw two groups of Llamas and five Rheas in
two groups we also saw two pairs of Small Deer (Mara). We reached
the Punta Delgada where we had a distant view of Elephant Seals.
From there we travelled north to Punta Cantor for a closer look at
Elephant Seals, we then had lunch in the Hotel there. Our last
stop was at the Penguin Colony where we were within two feet of the
Magellanic Penguins. We also saw three Salt Pans at a
distance. We were back in camp by 1600. Wednesday was our day for
Whale Watching. We arrived at the office at 0845 only to wait an
hour for the start. The boat was fast and sea kindly but with a
high bow. It took twenty min to reach the Whales, a group of ten,
mothers and young. We stayed there for about fifty min and then
returned to the beach in another twenty min. We left the camp and
drove to Punta Madryn, we stopped for lunch on the way. In Punta
Madryn we drove to Carrefour to shop. Rudi and Berlinda were
there and we had a short chat, they are also headed to the camp
here. After dinner Rudi & Berlinda visited us along with two
Dutch R & Erna, we chatted until 2230. Thursday Rudi &
Berlinda left at 0800 to go to the Peninsular Valdés. We
chatted to the Dutch and then left for a laundrette in town, we
returned for a rest day. The laundry was collected just before
1700. Friday
with no one to chat to we left at 0900 to drive to Gaiman via
Trelew. The journey was was boring and we arrived just before
lunch, which was delayed because we had to change the plug to connect
to the electricity. There are two different sockets in Argentina.
Saturday 12th in the morning Howard replaced the stopcock to the toilet, there was a leak in the old system and it was impossible to tighten it. For lunch time we decided to go out for a Welsh Tea, we are in the Welsh area of Argentina. The tea shop, Ty Gwyn, was not open for another ninety minutes. We lunched in the caravan and then relaxed. Sunday we left on a cloudy day for Camarones, further south on the coast. We had several very heavy rain showers on the way. Apart from the rain the drive was very boring, the country side was flat and the roads very straight. Howard worked out that the distance between bends was 24km (15miles). The only bonus was a constant speed of 50mph. We arrived at the camp in time for a late lunch. It showered all afternoon and we decided to have our evening meal in the camp restaurant. The meal was lamb cooked on an open fire, it was excellent, and accompanied with salad. We ate with two Germans and two Swiss and enjoyed the whole evening. Monday We returned to the main road and continued south to Comodoro Rivadavia. Shortly after lunch we saw a Rhea with six chicks on the roadside. We then passed through the town of Comodoro Rivadavia looking for Carrefour and a gas depot. We eventually camped in Rada Tilly where the manager, who spoke some English, marked the gas depot and Carrefour on a town map for us. We then chatted for about fifteen minutes. Tuesday we started the day with a visit to the Surgas depot. The men there were very helpful and we left with a full gas tank, we moved on to Carrefour for a big shop, the fridge will now run on gas when no other fuel is available. We drove south but at 1310 we were stopped along with several lorries. The demonstrators were sitting on tyres in the road. At 1415 they set fire to the tyres and most of them went off to lunch. The road was cleared at 1600, we were ten minutes too late to miss the start of the demonstration. Instead of continuing on to Jaramillo we camped just south of Caleta Olivia. Wednesday we made an early start to make up for Tuesday’s missed miles. We passed through flat dreary countryside, the only movement we saw was from Oil Donkeys pumping up oil. Between tea break and Puerto San Julián, where we camped, we saw twenty plus groups of Llamas of up to fifteen a group in the hill country. We also saw a Rhea with four chicks and another Rhea with a last year’s chick. Thursday with another long day ahead we made an early start. We crossed three river valleys which helped to break the monotony and saw many Llamas, one Fox and one Rhea. When we arrived in Rio Gallegos at 1400, we had great difficulty finding the camp only to be told “tents only“. We drove back twenty five km to camp at Güer Aike. Friday we left the camp at 0900 to travel north west. The morning was broken by two stops for fuel, there was no fuel at the first stop. We eventually stopped for lunch on the hard shoulder, this was unusual but there was nowhere else, and the shoulder sloped to the right. We did see many Llamas and Rheas, some with chicks. We continued into El Calafate, looked for the laundry and then drove to the camp where we settled in. We have had problems with the local three pin sockets, we went to the manager to ask where we could buy an adaptor, he sold us one. We walked into town, asked for the laundrette and found it.
Saturday 19th a rest day. Howard took his washing to the laundry and then we shopped. We tried the Wi-fi and the local
computer, in the camp, which would not
take the memory stick. After lunch Howard went out to the internet café,
tried the ATM and collected his washing. When he returned to the
camp he tried the other local computer which accepted his memory
stick. Mervyn baked the Christmas Cake and then went for a
walk. Sunday we
started out early for the Perito Moreno Glacier. The first part
of the trip went quickly but the second part on very twisty roads was
very slow. We arrived in time to have tea break and to catch the
first boat. The views of the glacier were superb. When we
returned to the lake side we drove to the end of the road to see the
north side of the glacier. We saw several chunks of ice falling
from the glacier, creating small ice bergs. As we returned we
detoured to visit Punta Bandera for the views of the Lago
Argentina. We were back in camp by 1515 and Mervyn marzipaned the
cake. Monday we
shopped before we left to go to El Chalten. The journey was
uneventful except for combating the head wind which caused the van to
swerve. We entered the mountains and met with rain. We
camped at 1345. It rained heavily for the rest of the day. Tuesday the weather seemed
better and we decided on a rest day. There were showers, every
time Mervyn took his camera out, it was a signal for rain. Wednesday was even better
but it was time to move on. We had several camera stops on the
way back to El Calafate. At the last of these a Southern Caracara
was on the ground fifteen feet away from the van. We arrived back
at El Calafate in time for lunch. In the afternoon we went
shopping and then relaxed. Thursday was a fine sunny
morning. Howard relaxed for the morning and Mervyn
pottered around. We went to an internet café in the afternoon. Friday we had another fine sunny day, we ate a Christmas dinner of lamb with roast potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. As we had Wi-fi the computer was going for most of the day.
Saturday 26th we left El Calafate to head south and then west to cross into Chile just after lunch. We then turned north to drive, on gravel roads, into The Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. We saw several Flamingos and over two hundred Llamas. We camped at Laguna Azul in a primitive site. Sunday We continued to drive through the park, on the gravel roads, to visit the Cascada Paine (a waterfall) and photograph the lakes. We saw three Andean Condors and many Llamas. We finished the drive at the Lago Pehoe campsite before lunch. Monday morning was cloudy, we were planning to leave the park so we drove south for about one hundred km on gravel roads until twenty km before Puerto Natales when the road was smooth concrete. In the town we stopped at the Tourist Information to ask for a campsite, a supermarket and an ATM with this information we drove to the supermarket being very confused by the one way streets. We then made our complicated way to the camp where we ate lunch. After lunch Mervyn set off to walk one block to the banks. Tuesday we set off early for Punta Arenas. We arrived just after lunch. It was impossible to stop in the centre of the town at the Tourist Information so we continued on to the camp at an hotel The entrance ramp was too steep for the caravan but there was a camp thirty km south of the town. Before we set off we met and chatted to Henk from Buenos Aires, he had problems with his Land Rover’s bodywork. After we had driven fifteen km Howard spotted a camp sign, we entered and parked in a field. We did see several Black Necked Swans on the way. Wednesday with nothing to delay us we were away by 0815. We arrived at the ferry for Tierra Del Fuego at 1100. When we reached the front of the queue the ferry was full. We were on the next one. While we waited for the ferry we were treated to a display by five dolphins. We ate lunch while the ferry crossed to Tierra Del Fuego and started off immediately on the concrete road. After forty km the road became gravel and it took us until 1600 to travel the hundred km to San Sebastián. There was no charge for the camp and we had an excellent meal in the restaurant. We did see over one hundred Rheas alongside the road and in a field there was several coloured Llamas, Woolly Brown, Grey, White and one Black. Thursday we made an early start and were soon across the Chilean border. Unfortunately the Argentineans were not so efficient. We were told “over there” and waited with several other people, unknown to us we were at the front of the queue and ignored. We waited ten minutes before discovering this. We drove south on tarmac roads looking for a camp. We did not find one until we were one hundred km. from Ushuaia. There were no facilities, but lots of campers.
, lunched and drove to the gas depot. The
lorry was not there. We went into town to try for the net but
there was nowhere to park. A hunt for another gas depot was
unsuccessful. We returned glumly to camp. Wednesday we left Bahia
Blanca two days later than planned, passed through two fresh food
checks which were there to prevent the contamination of the locally
grown fruit and vegetables. We drove on south to camp at Viedma, the
instructions given to us were wrong but with the map supplied with the
directions we found the camp and booked in. We went out shopping
to buy meals for two nights. There is one more food check to go
through. Thursday
we left Viedma early for El Condor on the coast, with only 30k to go we
arrived at the camp for lunch. A restful afternoon
followed. Friday we left the camp
early and drove through the
biggest colony in the world, of Burrowing Parrots, we arrived at La
Loberia at 1000 and continued on to the sanctuary, Punta Bermeja, only
to find that it opened at 1300. We returned to La Loberia to go
to the café for elevenses. The café was also
closed. After tea break and lunch we returned to Punta Bermeja
where we had a warm welcome from the guide who spoke English. We
walked onto the walkways and with the help of a Monocular we saw a Petrel, a Kelp gull on her
nest and many Southern Sea Lions, this is their biggest colony in the
world. Mixed in with the Southern Sea Lions were ten Elephant
Seals. As we were leaving the Park we bumped into Rudi and
Berlinda who had just arrived. As we drove to the Park we saw
three Vultures, the first in Argentina. We returned to the camp
at El Condor.Saturday 5th with a reasonably early start we left El Condor for Las Grutas. The day passed smoothly and we arrived at Las Grutas, visited the Visitors Centre followed by visits to two Supermarkets, the first one was closed, and two Internet Cafés the first one also being closed. We then booked into the closest, and most expensive, camp. Sunday we left Las Grutas and passed through a quick food check, it only took two minutes with a look in the fridge. We drove south for the rest of the day to Puerto Madyrn, where we stopped at the Visitors Centre to ask directions to the camp. The camp office was closed until 1900. We returned to the Visitors Centre and were given another camp, this one was closed completely. We passed the first camp, spotted the gate was open and entered to pick a site by 1600. Monday we lazed around until 0900 when we strolled up to the office to find it open and pay for one night. Howard then went to chat to a German couple about filling our gas tank, they offered us a connector but the thread was wrong. The Germans were on the “Repubblica Argentina” and are also heading south. We drove west to Península Valdés, saw an Armadillo alongside the
road, we then paid
our entrance fee and continued on to Puerto Pirámides where the
camp was found, again with difficulty. On the peninsular we saw a
group of Llamas. Tuesday
we set out to tour the peninsular on gravel roads. Before we
reached our first stop we saw two groups of Llamas and five Rheas in
two groups we also saw two pairs of Small Deer (Mara). We reached
the Punta Delgada where we had a distant view of Elephant Seals.
From there we travelled north to Punta Cantor for a closer look at
Elephant Seals, we then had lunch in the Hotel there. Our last
stop was at the Penguin Colony where we were within two feet of the
Magellanic Penguins. We also saw three Salt Pans at a
distance. We were back in camp by 1600. Wednesday was our day for
Whale Watching. We arrived at the office at 0845 only to wait an
hour for the start. The boat was fast and sea kindly but with a
high bow. It took twenty min to reach the Whales, a group of ten,
mothers and young. We stayed there for about fifty min and then
returned to the beach in another twenty min. We left the camp and
drove to Punta Madryn, we stopped for lunch on the way. In Punta
Madryn we drove to Carrefour to shop. Rudi and Berlinda were
there and we had a short chat, they are also headed to the camp
here. After dinner Rudi & Berlinda visited us along with two
Dutch R & Erna, we chatted until 2230. Thursday Rudi &
Berlinda left at 0800 to go to the Peninsular Valdés. We
chatted to the Dutch and then left for a laundrette in town, we
returned for a rest day. The laundry was collected just before
1700. Friday
with no one to chat to we left at 0900 to drive to Gaiman via
Trelew. The journey was was boring and we arrived just before
lunch, which was delayed because we had to change the plug to connect
to the electricity. There are two different sockets in Argentina.Saturday 12th in the morning Howard replaced the stopcock to the toilet, there was a leak in the old system and it was impossible to tighten it. For lunch time we decided to go out for a Welsh Tea, we are in the Welsh area of Argentina. The tea shop, Ty Gwyn, was not open for another ninety minutes. We lunched in the caravan and then relaxed. Sunday we left on a cloudy day for Camarones, further south on the coast. We had several very heavy rain showers on the way. Apart from the rain the drive was very boring, the country side was flat and the roads very straight. Howard worked out that the distance between bends was 24km (15miles). The only bonus was a constant speed of 50mph. We arrived at the camp in time for a late lunch. It showered all afternoon and we decided to have our evening meal in the camp restaurant. The meal was lamb cooked on an open fire, it was excellent, and accompanied with salad. We ate with two Germans and two Swiss and enjoyed the whole evening. Monday We returned to the main road and continued south to Comodoro Rivadavia. Shortly after lunch we saw a Rhea with six chicks on the roadside. We then passed through the town of Comodoro Rivadavia looking for Carrefour and a gas depot. We eventually camped in Rada Tilly where the manager, who spoke some English, marked the gas depot and Carrefour on a town map for us. We then chatted for about fifteen minutes. Tuesday we started the day with a visit to the Surgas depot. The men there were very helpful and we left with a full gas tank, we moved on to Carrefour for a big shop, the fridge will now run on gas when no other fuel is available. We drove south but at 1310 we were stopped along with several lorries. The demonstrators were sitting on tyres in the road. At 1415 they set fire to the tyres and most of them went off to lunch. The road was cleared at 1600, we were ten minutes too late to miss the start of the demonstration. Instead of continuing on to Jaramillo we camped just south of Caleta Olivia. Wednesday we made an early start to make up for Tuesday’s missed miles. We passed through flat dreary countryside, the only movement we saw was from Oil Donkeys pumping up oil. Between tea break and Puerto San Julián, where we camped, we saw twenty plus groups of Llamas of up to fifteen a group in the hill country. We also saw a Rhea with four chicks and another Rhea with a last year’s chick. Thursday with another long day ahead we made an early start. We crossed three river valleys which helped to break the monotony and saw many Llamas, one Fox and one Rhea. When we arrived in Rio Gallegos at 1400, we had great difficulty finding the camp only to be told “tents only“. We drove back twenty five km to camp at Güer Aike. Friday we left the camp at 0900 to travel north west. The morning was broken by two stops for fuel, there was no fuel at the first stop. We eventually stopped for lunch on the hard shoulder, this was unusual but there was nowhere else, and the shoulder sloped to the right. We did see many Llamas and Rheas, some with chicks. We continued into El Calafate, looked for the laundry and then drove to the camp where we settled in. We have had problems with the local three pin sockets, we went to the manager to ask where we could buy an adaptor, he sold us one. We walked into town, asked for the laundrette and found it.
Saturday 19th a rest day. Howard took his washing to the laundry and then we shopped. We tried the Wi-fi and the local
computer, in the camp, which would not
take the memory stick. After lunch Howard went out to the internet café,
tried the ATM and collected his washing. When he returned to the
camp he tried the other local computer which accepted his memory
stick. Mervyn baked the Christmas Cake and then went for a
walk. Sunday we
started out early for the Perito Moreno Glacier. The first part
of the trip went quickly but the second part on very twisty roads was
very slow. We arrived in time to have tea break and to catch the
first boat. The views of the glacier were superb. When we
returned to the lake side we drove to the end of the road to see the
north side of the glacier. We saw several chunks of ice falling
from the glacier, creating small ice bergs. As we returned we
detoured to visit Punta Bandera for the views of the Lago
Argentina. We were back in camp by 1515 and Mervyn marzipaned the
cake. Monday we
shopped before we left to go to El Chalten. The journey was
uneventful except for combating the head wind which caused the van to
swerve. We entered the mountains and met with rain. We
camped at 1345. It rained heavily for the rest of the day. Tuesday the weather seemed
better and we decided on a rest day. There were showers, every
time Mervyn took his camera out, it was a signal for rain. Wednesday was even better
but it was time to move on. We had several camera stops on the
way back to El Calafate. At the last of these a Southern Caracara
was on the ground fifteen feet away from the van. We arrived back
at El Calafate in time for lunch. In the afternoon we went
shopping and then relaxed. Thursday was a fine sunny
morning. Howard relaxed for the morning and Mervyn pottered around. We went to an internet café in the afternoon. Friday we had another fine sunny day, we ate a Christmas dinner of lamb with roast potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. As we had Wi-fi the computer was going for most of the day.
Saturday 26th we left El Calafate to head south and then west to cross into Chile just after lunch. We then turned north to drive, on gravel roads, into The Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine. We saw several Flamingos and over two hundred Llamas. We camped at Laguna Azul in a primitive site. Sunday We continued to drive through the park, on the gravel roads, to visit the Cascada Paine (a waterfall) and photograph the lakes. We saw three Andean Condors and many Llamas. We finished the drive at the Lago Pehoe campsite before lunch. Monday morning was cloudy, we were planning to leave the park so we drove south for about one hundred km on gravel roads until twenty km before Puerto Natales when the road was smooth concrete. In the town we stopped at the Tourist Information to ask for a campsite, a supermarket and an ATM with this information we drove to the supermarket being very confused by the one way streets. We then made our complicated way to the camp where we ate lunch. After lunch Mervyn set off to walk one block to the banks. Tuesday we set off early for Punta Arenas. We arrived just after lunch. It was impossible to stop in the centre of the town at the Tourist Information so we continued on to the camp at an hotel The entrance ramp was too steep for the caravan but there was a camp thirty km south of the town. Before we set off we met and chatted to Henk from Buenos Aires, he had problems with his Land Rover’s bodywork. After we had driven fifteen km Howard spotted a camp sign, we entered and parked in a field. We did see several Black Necked Swans on the way. Wednesday with nothing to delay us we were away by 0815. We arrived at the ferry for Tierra Del Fuego at 1100. When we reached the front of the queue the ferry was full. We were on the next one. While we waited for the ferry we were treated to a display by five dolphins. We ate lunch while the ferry crossed to Tierra Del Fuego and started off immediately on the concrete road. After forty km the road became gravel and it took us until 1600 to travel the hundred km to San Sebastián. There was no charge for the camp and we had an excellent meal in the restaurant. We did see over one hundred Rheas alongside the road and in a field there was several coloured Llamas, Woolly Brown, Grey, White and one Black. Thursday we made an early start and were soon across the Chilean border. Unfortunately the Argentineans were not so efficient. We were told “over there” and waited with several other people, unknown to us we were at the front of the queue and ignored. We waited ten minutes before discovering this. We drove south on tarmac roads looking for a camp. We did not find one until we were one hundred km. from Ushuaia. There were no facilities, but lots of campers.
ARGENTINA-Tierra del Fuego