Travelling in our rented motorhome Vdos, we were driving Ruta (Route) 3 through Argentinean Patagonia which runs between the Argentinean pampas (flatlands) and the Atlantic Ocean. Ruta 3 was proving to be a difficult drive due to the high velocity winds, dust storms, irregular road surface, lack of centre line, and absence of service stations.
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| Ruta 3 dust storm, Argentinean Patagonia |
The wind and dust reduced our speed considerably, so after leaving the city of Viedma, we stopped for a break in a wee village on the coast called Las Grutas.
After lunch and a quick look around, we topped up Vdos with diesel and moved on (in Patagonia, you top up whenever you see a service station as they are few and far between).
Our next stop was to be Puerto Madryn, a seaside town that was established in 1865 by Welsh immigrants, and is now a city with a population of around 93,000.
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| Puerto Madryn - view from our camping ground |
Arriving in Puerto Madryn, we found a camping ground which had a great view of the harbour, and settled in.
While there, we managed to get our growing mound of laundry washed and dried in the sun and very brisk wind. We also met a nice German couple and enjoyed sharing travel stories with them.
A few days later, we drove out of Puerto Madryn onto nearby Peninsula Valdés, which juts out into the South Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, we stopped at various clifftops searching for life on the waters surrounding the peninsula.
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| Leigh looking for marine life from a clifftop on Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
Peninsula Valdés is the largest marine reserve in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s known as a good place to spot whales, sea lions, elephant seals, and a variety of wildlife.
We were there mostly in search of whales.
From one clifftop, we saw some whales a long way out with our binoculars. But then suddenly, from the next clifftop they were clearly visible. Wow!
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| Clifftop view of Southern Right Whales around Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
These are Southern Right Whales that come into the waters of Peninsula Valdés to calve.
The Southern Right Whale is endangered, and the Peninsula is the most important breeding ground in the world for them. They can grow to between 15 and 18 metres and weigh between 47 and 90 tonnes – they are huge. The Southern Right can be distinguished from other whales because of the prominent 'callosities' (rough skin) on their heads, lack of a dorsal fin, and very long arching mouth.
We saw mothers and babies slowly swimming around the bay. We also saw some orcas cavorting around, which was pretty cool.
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| Map of Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
Driving on, we arrived at the official entrance to the Peninsula, a National Park, and paid a very steep entry fee. They have an excellent interpretive and information centre there which we enjoyed visiting.
When we asked about camping, we learned that the only camp ground was in the tiny commune of Puerto Pirámides (the only town on the Peninsula), and it was closed.
When we said that we had our own shower and toilet facilities, they decided we were ok, and gave us permission to free-camp there. All good.
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| Vdos in the commune of Puerto Pirámides, Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
Puerto Pirámides is a quaint ex-fishing, turned tourist village, where it seems that tourists outnumber the 500 people who live there. It is the only town around here where you can catch a whale watching trip.
We found the camp ground, got sorted, and walked around to find a boat so that we could go whale watching.
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| Monument to Whales, Puerto Pirámides, Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
Because of the high winds, the Port had closed for the day. However, we booked ourselves on a boat trip for the next day, hoping the weather would fine up.
The next day the sea was like a millpond compared to the day before, and we boarded our boat and headed out into the bay.
What an amazing trip. In a very short time, we saw this incredibly curious and massive female whale that came right up to our boat.
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| The head of a huge Southern Right Whale taken during our whale watching tour from Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
She was so close we could have reached out to touch her white callosities! She had her baby with her and it was also massive.
They swam around us for about 40 minutes - in front, behind, beside and (scarily) under the boat - and seemed to have no fear of being so close to us.
It was an absolutely amazing experience and one that will be hard to beat.
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| Peninsula Valdés whale and calf up close to our boat |
It was especially nice to see them in a calm bay; unlike our whale watching experience in the seas off Kaikoura in New Zealand where we had 3 metre swells.
We were on the peninsula for several days and did a few drives to see other sea life and wildlife in the area.
One delightful experience was getting up close and personal with a colony of Magellan penguins. They were nesting in the cliffs on the ocean side of the peninsula.
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| Magellan penguins - Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
Later we spotted a heard of llama-like wild guanaco grazing along the clifftop, and we also saw elephant seals lolling about on the beach below the cliffs. Boy they were huge!
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| Elephant seals - Peninsula Valdés (UNESCO) |
After a few days it was time to leave the peninsula. So, after filling up our water tank at the local fire station, we drove back to Puerto Madryn.
The next day we explored Puerto Madryn, finding it an attractive and vibrant tourist spot.
We left there after a few days of rest and relaxation, and drove back on to Ruta 3. Once again, we experienced very windy roads.
Eventually we reached the fishing town of Puerto Rawson.
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| Fishing boat out of Puerto Rawson, Patagonia |
We stopped at Puerto Rawson for lunch and saw some charming fishing boats there. They were attractively painted in bright oranges and yellows.
Then the sky became overcast and rain threatened, so we moved on. Soon after, we drove through an amazing rain and thunder storm. It was truly spectacular, but it slowed us down quite a bit.
Eventually we arrived in what we discovered was the large graffiti-ridden, and full-of-rubbish city of Comodoro Rivadavia. We stopped there briefly to buy diesel, but had no desire to linger.
Comodoro is a petrol town and is driven by petroleum related activity and industry. We saw so many drilling wells there and along Ruta 3.
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| One of the many petroleum wells near Comodoro Rivadavia, Patagonia |
After that, we moved on to the nearby and so much nicer, beach town of Rada Tilley.
We had the address for the municipal camping ground there, and were delighted to find it was open and clean.
Rada Tilly has a lovely long beachfront boulevard, fronted by some nice looking real estate. It was rather empty at this time of the year but we imagined it would be very buzzy in peak season.
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| The beachfront at Rada Tilly, Patagonia |
Driving on the next day, we encountered the worst potholes of the trip which caused us to just crawl along at around 30 km per hour.
A little further on, we passed many more petroleum well and rigs dotted across the countryside and along the Atlantic shoreline.
We eventually stopped at the nice little town of Puerto San Julian which has an attractive beach.
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| Vdos at Puerto San Julian campground |
There was also a campsite which was right on the waterfront, but sheltered from the wind.
Lovely.
Puerto San Julian is famous because it was where the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed in South America.
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| Marg with the replicas of Magellan's ship in Puerto San Julian, Patagonia |
They have a lovely replica of Magellan's boat on the foreshore. After a look around quaint Puerto San Julian the next day, we moved on.
Still travelling south, we encountered even worse crosswinds, which reduced our top speed to 60 km making it a long and tortuous drive. Again, the land was very flat, and the scenery monotonous.
The road had improved but it was narrow with no centre line, and more often than not, we were the only car on the road.
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| Typical road in Argentinean Patagonia |
Late in the day, we arrived in the city of Rio Gallegos.
The weather was overcast and it was incredibly windy and dusty, making the city seem unattractive.
There was no camp ground there so we ended up in a petrol station truck stop, squeezed in between two big trucks to shelter from the wind. This was fine and safe - but it was just so windy and dusty.
We were very happy to leave in the morning to cross the border into Chile to explore the Chilean side of Patagonia.
The above is part of our 4-months of independent travel in South America.
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