Puerto Madryn

It was an ordeal to get to Puerto Madryn. We had decided to take a LADE flight (Commercial Airline of the Argentinian Air Force) from Ushuaia. We got a phone call just a few hours before taking the flight to tell us that the plane would not fly all the way because the wind was blowing an ash cloud from the Puyehue Volcano in Chile our way. We would have to get off at Rio Gallegos and from there get an 18-hour bus to Puerto Madryn.

We diligently went to the LADE office to get refunded the leg that was cancelled and took the flight to Rio Gallegos. We then got on the bus to Purto Madryn and arrived in early afternoon. Our hostel “La Casa de Tounens” was only a stone's throw from the bus station . Vincent (from French Ardennes) welcomed us with a big "Bonjour!". He came to Argentina 4 years ago and started this hostel about 2 years later.

Incredible: orcas hunting sea lions on the beach

One of the reasons we came here is whale watching. Puerto Madryn is one of the best places in the world to observe these big mammals. They come here from May to mid-December and at the height of the season from July to November up to forty whales may be swimming in the gulf of Peninsula Valdes. They may be seen from the shore and orcas even beach themselves to hunt for sea lions only a few meters away.

But we were at the very end of the season, and we knew it. So we rushed to the car rental companies and drove to the Peninsula Valdes. The port had been closed the day before because of strong winds but we were hopeful. We arrived at the port and that morning it was still closed. As the weather forecast stated that it would only get worse we continued our visit of the peninsula in another direction.

Magellanic Penguins up close

Sea lions taking in the sun

We saw hundreds of sea lions and Magellanic penguins. We drove about 200 km on dirt roads and all in all spent a good day. Roxana checked again with a park ranger who confirmed that the port was still closed. It was 1.30pm. When we were about to leave we drove by the port again and saw boats coming in. We rushed to the tour agencies who told us that they got a green light at 2.30pm and boats who had gone out saw the last two whales, a mother and it’s calf. We were bitterly disappointed!

We phoned the car rental company to hire the car for a second day. Ruth and Paul, both from Scotland also agreed that we should come the following day to try our luck. The following morning we phoned at 8am and received confirmation that the boats were going out at 9.30am. We needed to move fast as there was about 120km to the Peninsula Valdes. We sped and gave that 1.4L, 85HP Fiat Uno the impression it was a Ferrari. We got there on time and boarded.

Is that a whale I see in the background? 
NO, not this time!

We went out 1 mile or so and started looking. But very shortly after, the crew informed us that according to them the whales had gone and that we needed to turn around. There was always one time in the season when they had to announce that the last whale was gone and it was with us that morning. We could not believe it, were heartbroken. No one could believe that we were on the first boat of the season to be unsuccessful.

The last day spent in Puerto Madryn almost felt as one of mourning. It even hurt to see posters or 2012 calendars of orcas beaching themselves or humpback whales jumping out of the water. This is the first big disappointment in our South American trip. 

A few more pics on Puerto Madryn

And as we like to torture ourselves a bit more, this is what we DID NOT see: