Next stop, Puerto Madryn and the Peninsula Valdes

Elegant crested tinamous, Peninsula Valdes, Argentina.

I left Camarones after a very good few days, but I still needed to make progress heading north. I had not finalized plans for shipping my van back, but expected to do so very soon. At this point, I still had at least a few weeks, if not closer to a month, though I could not dawdle. 

I drove the 72 km from Camarones back to Ruta 3, and headed north. I passed on Punta Tombo, a common stop for many, as well as Trelew, Gaiman and Rawson and made my way to Puerto Madryn. This was a nice, coastal town, bigger than I expected, and very busy, it was Sunday. I wandered around to see if I could find a cheap hostal for the night, no luck, so I wild camped, in a parking lot along the beach, next to a small naval station.

The next morning, after coffee, breakfast, and a quick stop a grocery store, I topped off the fuel tank and headed up the road to Peninsula Valdes and Puerto Piramides. It cost me $330 pesos to get into the reserve, Reserva Faunistica Peninsula Valdes. I had heard that the peninsula is actually privately owned, even if it is currently managed by the Argentinian park service; there are still several large estancias and many sheep. All I later learned is that the roads are horrible, some of the worst I have experienced during my travels.

I went into town, Puerto Piramides, neat little place, tiny in fact, and headed to the municipal campground, which was a zoo. I paid my $170 pesos for me and my van, and wandered around trying to find a spot to park. There are not really any designated campsites, you just park wherever you can get a little shade, and not block the road. I bet there were a 1000 people in that campground, just crazy. I found a place to park, with at least some afternoon shade, and headed to the beach, which was also pretty crazy. But it was low tide, and the beach was huge, a very nice beach. I went for a swim, water was cold, but nice, and then hung out until early evening. It was a pretty mellow late afternoon, evening. Things quieted down later as many people left, it was Sunday, perfectly fine with me.

The next day I headed off for Punta Norte, about 70 km away, where there was supposed to be a nice colony of elephant seals, a few penguins, and maybe even a killer whale or two. The peninsula supports quite of bit of terrestrial wildlife in spite of all the sheep, but most people visit, especially during the spring (August - November) to see the marine life, including whales, southern right whales. Whales have been reported to frolic right off the beach in Puerto Piramides. Also, the colony of southern elephant seals at Punta Norte is the largest, and most northern colony in the world. Unfortunately, I never made it. I got about 20 km down the road heading out to Punta Norte, and the road turned not just bad, but horrible. It was all ripio of course, but the washboard I ran into was the worst I had experienced anywhere in South America, we, me and my van, just could not take it, and I had to turn around. They charge $330 to get into the reserve, but the roads are so bad, you cannot get anywhere to see the wildlife, I was not happy. I did not totally give up, and instead headed out to Punta Delgado, and while the road was not good, I could still drive it. The problem was that when I got there, there was really nothing to see. The place is the site of a hotel and restaurant, and you have to buy something to get access to the beach, where there was supposed to be elephant seals. Well, after an already long day of ripio, I kind of needed a beer, so did not mind taking a break. But then when I wandered down towards the beach, total disappointment again as you were not allowed to get anywhere near the beach. You could only stand on an observation platform and look down, maybe 1/2 a km to the beach, where I could spot maybe 8 or 9 elephant seals. I am not sure if I even took any pictures, only the interesting lighthouse you pass on the way was worth a photograph. What a waste of a day, I would have been better off just hanging at the beach in Piramides, saved diesel, time, and disappointment. So far, Peninsula Valdes was a total bust, again, not excited about my adventures in Argentina.

I ended up staying at the campground in Puerto Piramides one more night, then a hostal one night so I could get some wifi access. I hung a the beach a bit, worked on my blog, got in a bike ride (which of course included being chased by some dogs) and ate great fish tacos at the Guanaco; they also brew their own beer. I saw very little on the peninsula, and left after three nights and two days pretty bummed. I had few opportunities left to see much of anything along coastal Argentina, and I was technically still in Patagonia. All I could do was head north, hope for at least one more opportunity to see something special. 

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