Pampa, beaches and sealife of Argentinian Patagonia

 El Chalten - La Esperanza - Rio Gallegos - Piedrabuena - Caleta Olivia - Trelew - Puerto Madryn - Viedma - El Condor - Buenos Aires

 12.01. - 31.01.2012

From El Chalten we travelled to Rio Gallegos, to visit Raul whom we had got to know during our year in Strasbourg. There, we stayed at his friends Daniel and Brenda, who are also from Northern Argentina, but came here for the well-payed workin Patagonia. From Rio Gallegos, which is situated almost at the end of the continent, next to the strait of Magallanes, we had 2700 km left for Buenos Aires. But hitchhiking was no problem, and we got to know many interesting people transporting us northwards, from non-stop-mate-drinking  or partying truck drivers to a Frensh-Armenian doing the tour of the world by motorcycle and car.
And all Argentina seems pampa: wide spaces of nothing than yellow grass and some Guanacos and Ñandus. The region of Santa Cruz has 270 000 inhabitants (most of them in Rio Gallegos and Caleta Olivia), and the same number of square kilometers!

this is southern Argentina: an enourmous surface of pampa

The Argentinian Patagonia seems empty, but there are natural ressources to explore. And more people are coming here from all over the country, for work, as income is twice as high as in the rest of the country (and certainly high for european standards).
We travelled in a truck transporting PET plastic to Ushuaia, and in another transporting plastic bottles for orange juice, made of the same material, back to Buenos Aires. So why is there a bottle factory in Ushuaia, at 3400 km from Argentina' s capital, at the most isolated point possible? To entertain the transport companies, maybe. Apart from that, in the Argentinian Patagonia, petrol, petroleum gas, gold and other minerals are exploited, not to speek of elctronics fabrication ( one truck driver transported computers from Ushuaia, with a value of 2 million argentinian pesos, as he told us).

Argentinia has some practical problems, which a traveller remarks immediately:
1. the money: Apart from the fact that the banknotes are not very nice, there' s no small change. Even the 2 pesos is a banknote ( less than 50 euro-cents), and the 1 Peso-coin is so rare that the supermarkets prefer giving you 2 pesos, or some chicken soup or bonbons instead of losing a 1 peso-coin.
So you'll certainly have your purse bursting of banknotes.

2. plastic bags ( or rather absenceof plastic bags): it seems that the Argentinian Patagonia (exactly the opposite of Chile, where even for a pack of chewing gums they ive you 2 plastic bags; in case of rupture of one) has been declared a plastic-bag-free zone, as no shop or supermarket has plastic bags. Consequently, you see tourists leaving the supermarket, balancing fruits and other buyings. As plastic bags are prohibited, the Argentinians come to the supermarket well prepared with their big blue cotton bags.

with Raul in rio Gallegos, me with the typical Argentinian "Fernet-Cola"

 What is really typical of Argentina, is the mate: it is tea, drunk out of tiny, nice cup with a long, hollow spoon. The "mate master" (which can be every one) fills the cup of mate leaves with hot water and drinks himself the first cup. Afterwards he refills it, and gives it to the next person who drinks of the same cup (and never hand the cup back, if you haven' t emptied it!), the mater master refills, gives it to the next etc etc.


picking cherries on the camping Insula Pavon, Piedrabuena

 And everybody drinks mate here: with the family at the beach at 30 degrees, the truck drivers incountable times a day, joung people in the streets...

the typical Argentinian truck driver, Osmar, with his mate

lobos marinos de un pelo: a sea lion colony south of Caleta Olivia

Carmen de Patagones at the Rio Negro, the only not ugly town we found in Argentina

Carmen de Patagones is kind of the twin sister of the bigger Viedma, as they are only separated by the Rio Negro.

the cliffs at El Condor : here the world biggest parrot colony lives in the holes in the rocks

El Condor is a seaside resort at 30km of Viedma, where we spent some days. The only disadvantages here are the wind ("if there is wind there, you' ll eat sand") and that it is located at the river mouth of Rio Negro - ergo the water is brown of the sediments the river has emported.

a burrowing parrot (Loro barranquero/ Felsensittich/ Cyanoliseus patagonus) at our camping in El Condor

Juan at the wide beach of El Condor: depending on ebb and flow the beach can be 100 or 300m wide

From El Condor, we directly took the bus towards Buenos Aires, and ther we saw the first interesting (but not breath-taking) city of this country. As we got stolen the camera there, we have no photos proving our presence there at 34 degrees, searching for cold water, shadow and ice cream.

So, this was our trip through Southamerica: 7400 km by bike (green) and 

2700km hitch-hiking (red)

From all the countries we visited, each had its unforgettable sides:

In Peru the great and always changing landscapes, the climates, the Andes, Cusco (an incredible city) the indigenous culture, the friendly people, the scissors dancers.

From Bolivia, the breath-taking Salar de Uyuni and the South-west with volcanoes, lakes, flamencos and lots of difficulties by bike, and the more reserved people.

Chile, this long country, where we spent most time and kilometres, from it´s desert north to the green Carretera Austral in Patagonia, with its upright and reliable people, the Queca dance and, of course, the Mote con Huesillos (by the way, why hasn´t anyone exported this drink yet?).

Argentinia, "where everybody wants to be boss, but no one wants to work", this country obsessed by the lost Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). 
Its endless and empty pampa with colourless towns, fabulous mountains and glaciars at El Chalten, the sea lions, the campings and beaches, the mate tea and the uncountable pizzas, bife de chorizo (giant steak) and ice creams we ate.