A Whale of a good time!

Nov. 18-20  Veidma to Puerto Madryn

Once again we are relegated to pavement along the coast past the city of San Antonio Oeste and then south to Puerto Madryn. The route is very similar to the last couple of days with only a slight change in elevation, up from 13m above sea level to almost 200m, and they even put a sign to indicate an upcoming hill. Like you could not see it for miles. We came across a group of bikers outside of La Grutas, which is a small ocean side spot just south of SA Oeste, they were on their way to Ushuaia and said they would be there on Friday, today is Tuesday. They seemed to know what they were talking about and figured that with a couple of hard riding days they could make it. This seems a bit aggressive but as they were riding mostly bigger street bikes it is possible to cover the 1500km in two days. In any case it was a nice chat and we parted ways, they were camping on the peninsula and we were heading to Puerto Madryn.

We knew that the distance to Madryn would be tight for gas and with only a couple of kilometers left Brenda informs me she is sputtering to a stop. We were hoping to avoid using the jerry can fuel reserve but that is why it is there, a quick roadside fuel up and we roll into town.

The town is very well developed for tourism as it has long been a popular spot for viewing marine life, and also has an active port. While I am in the tourist info office a guy hands Brenda a pamphlet for his hostel and says that it is very clean and quiet. We circle around a bit looking at other places then the same guy rides up on a bicycle and leads us to his place. He was accurate about clean and quiet and we end up staying for 3 nights, there is also a kitchen available so we cook our own breakfasts and even made some pasta for supper. 

Between all this eating we planned to take in a whale watching tour, the first time we tried it got cancelled due to strong winds and rough seas so we took the opportunity to ride out to Punta Ninfas and see the elephant seals. This is about 70km down a dirt road so a fun ride and then being able to walk within a couple meters of the seals is amazing. There was one energetic fella that was trying to eat his tail flippers by bending over backwards in some extreme gymnastic pose. The balance of the sea lions just laze around sleeping and grunting without a care that there are people so close, we must not pose a threat so they feel safe.

The next morning the winds are calm and from the West so that makes for good whale watching conditions. It is confirmed that we will be on the 2pm boat so we set about our day with the plan to ride up the coast road and into the Peninsula Valdez National Park, and we should be able to get there in time for the excursion. We see some whales along the way but they are very far out and with the aid of binoculars we can see them as they bob like corks in the water. We had been told by some Uruguay bikers we met at the gas station that the narrow part of the peninsula was the best for camping and simply beautiful. Aside from the ability to see water on the left and right, there did not seem to be much else attractive about this stretch of pavement. The vegetation is the typical short shrub trees and patchy grass, we did however see a nice herd of Guanacoe. They are a Patagonian animal that looks like a Llama but isn’t quite the same. The whale watching is fantastic and we do our best to get some good pics of the enormous creatures, of course there is only so much that a point-and-shoot camera can be expected to do. We are in a larger boat and it can only get so close without risk to the whales, but all the same we enjoy the experience and take as many pics as possible, I even took some video footage with the GoPro.

An Albino calf plays with its mother, laying cross-ways over top of her.

These are the Southern Right Whales which have a curved body and no dorsal fin. The males reach 12 meters of length, whereas adult females may measure from 13 to 16 meters. Adult specimens can weigh between 30 and 40 tons. The guide explained that their mouth, which is curved, contains some 260 plates or horn-like sheets originally called baleen, from where the Spanish name ballena derives.  Later on, we could watch a mother with its new-born calf. When they are born, they measure five and a half meters and the breastfeeding period lasts as much as their gestation: 12 months.

When these animals are ready to breed, they come back to the Valdés Peninsula area every three years, searching for safe and quiet waters to bear another calf. Likewise, the guide pointed out that in the upper part of their head, they have some callosities which represent their “identification mark”. They work just like fingerprints, as they are unique. We found this fact particularly interesting. Behind the callosities, we could see the blowholes, used by the animal to breathe and blow the air from its lungs. It is important to note that in order to avoid alterations during the mating and breeding periods, the Province of Chubut allows navigation only in the Nuevo Gulf and only to crafts owned by tourist agencies, which must in turn have the corresponding authorization provided by the Prefectura Naval Argentina.

Our guide explained about the Albino calves, they are born white then change to either grey or brown a couple of years later. These Albino calves have only been noted in the last 5-10yrs, so something must be changing with the whales in order for this to be occurring.

Before we know it the captain is heading back to port and our excursion is over, we chat for a while with our guide and he says that it has been a very good year for tourism, and that 99% of their customers have been Argentinians. He says it is contradictory to the news of lagging economy and lack of consumer confidence, this was also mentioned by the lady in Hermoso who said that Latin Americans are used to having their money taken away by the gov’t so they do not worry about savings, if they have it they spend it.

Once again there is something about the 3km mark that scares our bikes into stopping and this time it is me that runs out of gas. Almost made it...and the jerry cans are getting put to use once again, we can see the gas station this time. We chuckle about it, dump in some gas and carry on.