Patagonia
31 december 2000
As we crossed into Patagonia, the terrain soon changed from the lush pastures of the Pampas into about 1300 miles of scrub desert, swept by incredible winds. We had decided that, in a hurry or not, we would not miss Peninsula Valdez. Guillermo was having tire problems, two flats in two days, so he was on the lookout for appropriate new tires. He also had a battery problem, which turned out to be an alternator problem. We spent the night in an ACA (Automobil Club de Argentina) campground next to a filling station, a little north of the turnoff to Peninsula Valdez. In the morning, Erika and Guillermo took off looking for a mechanic while we headed for Valdez. Immediately upon our arrival, we jumped into a boat for a ride out to visit the whales. It's a little late in the season since the whales are usually gone by the end of November. Nevertheless, we were lucky enough to see a few stragglers, including a mother and baby. These are called Right Whales in the United States, since the whalers in olden times said that these were the right whales to harpoon and are called ballenas francas here. It was the first time Tyler and Shay had seen whales and only the second time for me. A close encounter with whales is a truly awesome experience and we were very happy they'd stuck around for us.
After the whale trip, we jumped into the van and took a ride around the peninsula. It took all day. We left Tyler's van behind and took the Syncro since this was our first day on Patagonia ripio (gravel). In retrospect, this was the best ripio we've been on and we thought that this really wasn't so bad. The other drivers were very polite and considerate and we all slowed to a crawl when passing each other so as not to throw rock. When nobody else was around, I could drive very fast! No problem, we thought. We found penguins, but they were a little too far away from us to see them very well. We found the elephant seals and sea lions. It's the breeding season so the beach was littered with enormous numbers of them, including what looked like a thousand babies. Along the road, and at times in the road, we saw herds of guanacos, a kind of llama. It was really wonderful.
At last, Guillermo and Erika caught up to us and we decided that we would all spend the night in Puerto Piramide, right on Peninsula Valdez. They continued on to see the wildlife while we went to stake out a campground. The campground was cold, windy and not very nice. In addition, water is at a premium on Peninsula Valdez so it cost's $1.50 for a 5-minute shower. Ah, well. Que le hace. The next day we headed south of Trelew to Punto Tumbo (another nasty stretch of ripio) where we found Penguin Heaven. Punta Tumbo is a breeding ground and has a colony of Magellan Penguins estimated to be HALF A MILLION! I certainly don't doubt that number. The nests extend quite a long way from the beach and the parents have to go to the water to get water and food for the chicks. Accordingly, there is a never-ending parade of penguins going to and from the beach. When you get near the beach, the penguins come out to greet the cars and you have to be very careful not to run over them! They're a small breed and weigh only 1 to 2 kilos each. They are really fearless and approach you with impunity. The books say to be careful as a penguin bite might require stitches. Nevertheless, it's very difficult not to try to pet them. We looked for sleepy ones with their backs to us to sneak a pet. When they realize what you're up to, they turn around and hissssss but we didn't get bit. They are very solid little guys, all muscle. There is a path leading out to a point from which you can watch them on the beach. They swim with amazing speed, like little darts flying through the water. Erika couldn't resist going down to the beach to rinse her hair out in the absolutely pristine water. We spotted what we believe was an Orca, chasing the penguins. The signposts around the reserve said that nothing really preys on adult penguins so I thought it might just be natural playfulness on the part of the Orca. Rats. Time to go again.
We didn't do much of anything but drive and sleep for the next few days. We spent the night in a campground near Comodoro Rivadavia and stopped in the city in the morning. My power steering had developed a leak and one of Tyler's belts had developed a persistent screech. While the VW dealership was lubricating Tyler's belt (free of charge, I might add), Guillermo went with me to a shop down the street to have my problem checked out. It turned out that the German owner of the shop had been a neighbor of Guillermo's in Buenos Aires and that they had belonged to the same German club! The hose in the van was removed and a new fitting welded on in about half an hour. It cost me all of $10! He said it would normally be $20 but it was a favor to Guillermo! I felt ashamed to pay so little! Certainly in the US, a mechanic would not have welded the parts but would have replaced it with VW parts and it would have cost me hundreds of dollars. We were quickly on our way again.
In Puerto San Julian, we stopped for gas and were approached by a young hitchhiker. Christian has been hitchhiking around South America for 3 years and was on his way home to Ushuaia for Christmas. Tyler took him in. As always seems to be the case for us, when we do a favor for someone, the favor is returned a hundredfold. One of the things that Christian does is to guide tourists in Ushuaia and he said that his mom has a guesthouse where she rents rooms to backpackers. We didn't think too much about this because we expected to be camping. He pointed out many interesting things for us along the road and, when we arrived in Ushuaia, in cold, rainy weather, his mom welcomed us into her house, where I am writing to you now. We found a gas station that night with showers and spent the night there. The wind blew so hard that night that we were afraid it would blow the poptop right off the van. It was getting progressively colder each night and we had finally broken down and pulled out the long underwear and heavy jackets.
The next day of driving, still on asphalt, we fought against gale force winds all day. Usually, on good asphalt, Tyler and I will drive 70 mph all day. We were lucky to do 45 mph. Along the road, we spotted swans, geese, many birds I had never seen before and can't identify and many more guanacos. At one point, as we were driving along, a flock of absolutely astonishing birds, with golden necks and very long, downward curved beaks, lifted into the air alongside us. I was oooing and ahhhing over them when it became apparent to me that they were actually following me, the way dolphins do ships at sea. They kept us company for at least 2 miles. There were at least 10 at the beginning and, every so often, one would peel off from the group, like a display of the Blue Angels, and disappear. Finally, the last 3 peeled away from us in a group. I felt sad to see them go, like so many previous partings with new friends. Later, at the border crossing into Chile, I saw a picture of one of them. They are called bandurrias and I think I'm in love. I haven't seen any more of them but hope to when we get back on the road. The border crossing into Chile was very simple and uneventful, as they always have been to this point. This is the strangest division of land I have ever seen. One has to cross into Chile, take the ferry, then cross back into Argentina. Immediately after the border, we were back on ripio. This ripio was a whole new thing with lots of bone-crushing washboard and not so nice drivers. We all were repeatedly sprayed with showers of rock. Guillermo had fitted his van with a shield of policarbonato. I'm not sure what this is in English but it's apparently a thin layer of flexible plastic. We changed our minds about the windshield protection since both of us now have new dings on the windshields. We will try to have the policarbonato fitted in Ushuaia as we still have hundreds of kilometers of ripio ahead. Days end found us at Punta Delgada.
Punta Delgada is the first ferry crossing of the Straights of Magellan from mainland South America into Tierra del Fuego. We drove directly to the ferry landing, had a light dinner at the restaurant and bedded down for the night. I felt quite overwhelmed, really, by the historical aspect of the place. As children, we all learn about Magellan and the passage through the Straights that permitted Magellan to do the first circumnavigation of the globe. Christian spent the night in his little tent, as he has for 3 years, and he and I were the first up in the morning. (He was definitely colder than I was. The Westy is really a very cozy little house.) I made a little coffee for us and we chatted a bit. I walked down to the water and could see across to Tierra del Fuego. I felt a little haunted and it took very little imagination to see sailing ships going by. I imagined how bizarre the Europeans must have seemed to the indigenous people who could not have helped but notice the ships. Within an hour, we were driving the vans onto the ferry.
We climbed the stairs to a very breezy, open-air deck where we could look out at the water. An albatross circled the boat as we pulled away. Look! someone cried out. Black and white dolphins called toninas appeared, doing their dolphin thing, following the boat, diving and surfacing, leaping and playing. Absolutely beautiful and unlike any dolphins I've ever seen before. Christian says they are only in 2 places, the Straights of Magellan and Puerto Deseado. They followed us for most of the trip across, which took less than an hour, a short trip into another world.
More ripio across the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego brought us once again to the Argentine border. We were immediately back on perfect asphalt which continued all the way to Ushuaia. To our surprise, the terrain changed drastically. We had become accustomed to the stark open desert of Patagonia. We were not expecting a sudden lurch up into steep mountains, a dirt road through a very steep pass with a hairy dropoff on one side. A light, very wet, snow was falling.
We were trying to hurry to get in before dark so we hurried on. It turned out not to be a problem! It gets dark in Ushuaia at 11:30 pm and (I have it on the authority of Tyler and Shay) the sun comes up at 3 am. So, at last, we arrived in Ushuaia, surrounded by snowcapped peaks and astonishingly beautiful.
Jeanne
