Wha...Wha...WHALES!

After leaving Ushuaia we took a plane to Comodoro Rivadavia (up the coast). The planes from the company LADE (and probably other companes as well) are like busses in the sky, actually literally an airbus. It lands in all the places along the way. Hopping your way up the coast in a plane it is. From there we took a bus to Puerto Madryn. Puerto Madryn is a small town along the eastcoast. A nice stopover along your way up to Buenos Aires or down south to Ushuaia. However it is not just a stopover, it is the gateway to Peninsula Valdes! And Peninsula Valdes was one of the places on my list to absolutely visit in Argentina. It is a wildlife sanctuary and WWF Netherlands is funding a project there and bought a piece of land a couple of years ago. So for me it was very special te actually be there. Guged by two large bays, the oddy shaped peninsula is mostly a flat, bleak and dry landscape of unrelenting low shrubs. Driving along you will be able to spott guanacos, sheep, horses and perhaps some rheas or armadillos. Once you get to the coastline, the real celebrity wildlife awaits: sea lions, elephant seals, southern right whales, dolphins, penguins and if you are very lucky you can spot orca´s. Puerto Pyramide is a sandy one street kinda town and the home to 300 people. It is the place where the movie La puta y la Ballena (the prostitute and the whale) has been filmed. The movie is well worth seeing by the way.

We rented a car to drive along the peninsula. The night before however, it rained a lot and the roads on the peninsula are not paved. So it was kinda muddy. But the first day al went well......we went with an Englisch couple, Lee and Imogine. Very, very sweet people. All went very, very well I might add. When we arrived in Puerto Pyramide we got out of the car and Lee shouted right away: a whale, a whale! Honestly, after being out of the car for just one minute we saw whales.......not very close to shore, but not very far out either. Good enough to see them jump and play. I litterally screamed, and screamed and screamed a third time. I was so happy to see them. It was amazing, soooooo beautiful! We stayed for a while, got closer but then only spotted the blow-holes....and a fin here and there. Still all very beautiful! After a while we left to get to the other side of the peninsula to see sea lions. There were not many of them and we could not get very close (which ofcourse is a good thing) but it was all very nice. But nothing that day could compare to seeing the whales. The second day we went back to peninsula valdes by ourselves. Two girls in a car on very muddy unpaved roads as it rained again that night. But all went well, until at the end of the day we drove back from the other side of the peninsula. I was driving (really not that fast, honestly!), Miriam just fell asleep and suddenly there we were, stuck in the mud. ´Oeps, sorry ´ I said. I just had no control over the car anymore. We got out, knee-deep, well actually not knee-deep but absoloutely ankle-deep (shoes are still paved with mudd) overlooked the situation and decided to try to push the car out of the mud, Miriam behind the wheel and I was pushing from upfront. It seemed to work for just a brief moment, but then the car got totally stuck. Miriam felt it and was thinking ´shiiiiit´. But I could not feel it as I was pushing so I was not in the ´shiiiiiit scary kinda modus´ yet. Because I saw another car!! (miriam did not see it yet). There is something with this ´just after a minute´on peninsula valdes I tell you. After one minute out of the car we saw a whale. After one minute being stuck in the mud I saw a car driving towards us. A small miracle I might add, because driving there for two days we hardly saw any other cars. The car stopped and ended up dragging us out of the mud. Pour man, his shoes were totally full of mud and his picnic blanket as well. But hey, we were out! We were full of mud, but we were out! And we were happy! The time was too short to got really scared, but thinking about it afterwards, men we were lucky. Otherwise we still would have been there as we speak....Quite the little adventure I´ll tell you that! So we´ve seen whales and sea lions and we got stuck in the mud and got rescued by a very nice man. I say, viva peninsula valdes!

The place where we have seen the whales

Muddy and slippery roads on the peninsula valdes

After staying in Puerto Madryn for three days we decided it was time to leave Patagonia behind us. A bit melancholy I was, though. Patagonia delivered us very, very beautiful and amazing things. Phenomina, naturewise, I have not seen before and will probably never see again. Memories to stick for a lifetime. I have been overwhelmed by it´s roughness and outstanding beauty and remoteness. In Patagonia I have been happy and I have been sad. And I have been cold!

So: say goodbye to Patagonia....and say hello to Buenos Aires!!!

Yeah, we´re here. BsAs as they shorten it. We arrived a few days ago....after a very, very long busride of 20 hours (knees still hurt). BsAs is sweet, it´s colourful, it´s impressive, it´s sooo huge, it´s full of contradictions. It´s all of this and even much more. And more will follow soon.