We just returned from a 6-day, 5-night trip to the Argentine Patagonia. It ended up being approximately 1,500 miles roundtrip from our house in Buenos Aires to Puerto Piramides on the Peninsula Valdes in Chubut Province. The drive was so far that Claire asked us (before we got there) if we had driven so far that the people were going to speak English. Unfortunately for her, the answer was no.
Day 1
We decided to leave late morning on Tuesday in order to get on the freeway (where they go about 50 mph) after the morning rush. We left at 10:00 am and were excited to be on our way on our first legitimate Argentine family road trip. We started out lucky as the first two tolls we came to were unmanned due to an ongoing tollbooth workers' strike (SWEET - saved us about $.60 between the two tolls). After making our way out of the city, and getting our kids settled into movies (we love our car), we made great time to the city of Azul, where we filled up with gas. Then we made it the rest of the way to Bahia Blanca to spend the night. Upon arrival in Bahia Blanca, there were long lines at the gas stations (a common and frustrating theme -- see below), but luckily I found a Petrobras (GO BRAZIL) station that had plenty of gas for me. We piled into the Land Plaza Hotel in Bahia Blanca and spent the night.
Day 2
After a relatively good night (with 5 people in the room), we hit the road early. Just south of Bahia Blanca, you cross from Buenos Aires Province into Rio Negro Province, the beginning of Patagonia. To mark its entrance, there are produce/meat controls where they inspect your car to goods that they don't want you bringing into the region. Well, just like California, they don't let you bring fruit. So we lost our apples and pears -- and Candace was really mad. About 100 miles later, they inspected our car for meat, but let's just say that the inspection was very cursory and I was not about to volunteer anything... it was our lunch and dinner we were talking about. As you enter Patagonia, towns (or what pass for towns) are few and far between and you really have to be aware of your fuel levels. Every time we got to 1/2 tank, we filled up at the next station. At one "town" of two gas stations (a Shell and a YPF), NEITHER had gas. The Shell said it hoped to have some in the next hour or so, but there was a town about 5 miles out of our way off the freeway with an Esso station. We tried our luck and were able to fill up.
We were able to then make our way to Peninsula Valdes and Puerto Piramides where we were going to stay for 3 nights. The Peninsula is a World Heritage Site and is described as being "mostly barren"... ain't that the truth.
The big draw is that the gulf is the largest breeding grounds for the Southern Right Whales. So we hopped on a boat with two other families we knew who went, and went whale watching. We had done this before--unsuccessfully-in Southern California and so we were hoping to see something. Well, we saw about a dozen different whales, and we saw one and her calf for about 1/2 hour right next to the boat. Not 100 feet next to the boat... like 5 feet from the boat. They were jumping, blowing air, showing off their tails, and just plain hanging out. It was a blast.
After the whales and exploring around the beach, we hit the sack.
Day 3
Having knocked out the big draw to the area, we set out to see some Penguins, and to get gas since the only gas station on the peninsula (a YPF) had been without gas for 5 days when we got there, and the nearest gas station was 55 miles away towards Puerto Madryn. So off we went. After filling up, we thought we would cruise down past Trelew to Punto Tomba to see one of the largest concentration of Magellanic Penguins in the world. It is a desert-like area where the penguins come ashore, dig nests under bushes to lay and incubate their eggs.
While it was really neat to see, the drive was about 90 minutes LONGER than we thought it would be and we likely would have rethought our day had we known. At one of the many Argentine Police checkpoints, we were not only asked for our documents, but also what our gas situation was for going further south into Patagonia. In the end, we saw the penguins, we spent the last 1.5 km of the walk alternating between carrying a crying Caroline, a crying Sam, or a complaining tired Claire. It was AWESOME!!!! We had enough gas to get back to the Peninsula and were pleased that our friends had texted us that the YPF on the peninsula had been restocked with fuel.
Day 4
This was the day set aside to explore the Peninsula. We hooked up with another family and drove to Punta Norte to see a sea lion colony. Then we drove along the beautiful--and I mean beautiful--eastern coast to an elephant seal colony where we went for a nice hike along the cliffs. Afterwards, we went off road to a hidden lookout point that came recommended from some friends who had gone the year before. The point overlooked the whale watching area and we just let the kids dig for shells while we watched the whales from the shore.
We spent about 2 hours there, got a family picture, and finished the trip on a high note. Can you see our car on the cliff?
Day 5
We got up and got on our way. Full of gas. We arrived in Bahia Blanca, found a sidewalk cafe near the main square in the city for some dinner, went back to the hotel pool to get out some energy and went to bed.
Day 6
While expecting most churches to being their meetings at 9am, in Bahia Blanca they all started at 9:30. Not wanting to just sit there waiting for church, I found a ward about 50 miles away (on the way) in Coronel Dorrego. So we went to Sacrament Meeting there, filled up again in the town of Azul, and made it home about 5:30 pm.
It was an excellent trip. It is a popular destination for expats over Thanksgiving because the Argentines don't get the same days off. I think I have mentioned before that when there is a holiday, it seems like every Argentina goes on vacation, so it pays to sneak away on American holidays. Last year it was the beach, this year it was whale watching. Who knows where next year will be?!!??
Our kids were troopers in the car. Sam was a zombie for the last three days... Going to bed late, waking up early, not really knowing which way was up or down, but he had a blast. Caroline was the toughest to please. Our lodging did not have a large living area so there were frequent "No, Caroline"'s being sent her way.
We are glad to get out and see more of what Argentina has to offer. At Punta Tombo we were farther south than all of Australia, including Tasmania. It was a great adventure. On another note, I have made previous mention about the Chilean ash cloud from the Puyehue volcano that erupted in June of this year. It is still spewing ash and still affecting flights in Argentina. Well, for 2 of our 3 days on the peninsula, the ash cloud was very present. It made for gray days. The barren landscape was noticeably prettier with a blue sky. The below picture was taken from a boat about 7pm (still daylight in the southern hemisphere's late spring) straight at the sun. The ash is real.
And I won't even go in to how happy Candace was to return to a clean house. We left in a flurry with things everywhere.... and we came home (thanks to our awesome maid) to a spotless house.
