Patagonia: A Whale (and a penguin and a seal) of a Time!

Seals and sealions basking in the sun

We caught the overnight bus down to Puerto Madryn from Buenos Aires – ultimate luxury in “cama suite” seats.  There were just six seats in our class, and we filled four of them; the last two were porteños going down to their holiday house. I spent some of the 19 hour bus ride practicing my Spanish with them. We spoke about the town (sleepy, quiet, perfect) and what we should eat (picadas marinas – a tapas style seafood meal) and what we should see (whales, penguins and seals).

Puerto Madryn is an excellent base from which to visit the trinity of Punta Tombo (penguins), Peninsula Valdes (seals) and Puerto Pyramides (whales). We rented a self-contained apartment near the beach, a short walk from the main shops. The apartment, called Playa del Gales was spacious, with a laundrette, a well-equipped kitchen, a living area and comfortable rooms. For the price (USD90 per night, rates valid as at December 2010), and shared amongst four (though the apartment can fit up to six), the place was a bargain! The owner lived just 100m down the road, and her first comment, when we met her was “but you are all so young!” which put her in our good books immediately.

The anatomy of a splash - a southern right whale shows us how it's done.

Our first stop was Peninsula Valdes and Puerto Pyramides, to see the southern right whales on their annual migration route. The season runs from June to December, and there are plenty of tours to choose from. Tours run for a few hours and on most days, sightings are guaranteed. The southern right whale has no dorsal fin, and are distinguished by their calloused skins – a fungus that is transmitted to newborns at birth and form a kind of fingerprint used to identify individuals.

Southern fur seal

Estancia La Cina Cina, San Antonio de Areco, Argentina

Only 2 hours by bus from Buenos Aires, Estancia La Cina Cina is located in the sleepy little town of San Antonio. We’d booked a full day with the ranch, with a full complement of activities – a traditional asado, or Argentinean barbecue, a dance performance, horse riding on the property, a tour of the working estancia and a demonstration of horse skills. There was also a swimming pool on the property – a welcome addition during the hot summer day we were visiting.

We first visited the pulperia, or bar, where Juan, our host, regaled us with the history and tales of the gaucho culture, the cowboys of Argentina’s vast pampas. Fiercely independent and self reliant, gauchos were either military deserters, Spanish emigres or vagabonds who prefer to answer to no one, living on the edges of civilisation. The hardships of their nomadic life, lived amongst the wilderness, shaped the distinctive gaucho culture.

Juan also gave us a quick once-over of the distinctive gaucho costume. Nowadays, the traditional loose pants, shirt and black riding boots have been replaced with more modern, and practical jeans and workshoes, but on special occasions, gauchos will still don their splendid traditional outfits. Their weapon was the facón, a large dagger worn in the belt at the back. This was often also a gaucho’s most valuable and prized possession, aside from his horse. Both practical and decorative, this dagger was used for utilitarian purposes like cutting food as well as for fighting.

The Infinite Whatever

It can be hard to explain to others why I always seek to be in motion, why travel is such a fundamental part of me, and my life. I do other things. I run. I write. I go for lunch with friends. I have a 9 to 5 job that has  no other purpose than to pay the rent. I spend weekends diving, kayaking, cycling, moving, always moving, always planning. I travel.

I travel not just to places, but also backwards and forwards in time. The ancient pyramids of Giza and the modernity of New York City are two extremes between which, somehow, somewhere, somewhen, I find enough space and time to make me for a moment, or a breath, just stop. Stop moving, stop motion, and be in the present, in the place.

For all intents and purposes, I travel, so I can stop moving so fast through life.

This NYT article encapsulates it beautifully.

Travel isn’t ticking countries, or landmarks off the to-do list. It’s not just working through the UNESCO World Heritage sites, snapping a cursory picture and then moving on. Travel is about getting to know a place, taking time, having local experiences, immersion in sights, sounds, and smells, learning a language, losing your way, making new connections, finding a rhythm, fostering understanding, returning again, slipping into new lives – if only for awhile.

Travel, at its highest evolution, “does disorient. It confuses. We lose our bearings, and find new ones. Or not. Either way, we are jolted out of old ways of seeing the world, and therein lies the transformative power of travel.”

In a way, we travel, in order to see again, and to live properly in the moment, engaged in the present. We seek the new and the unknown, the sacred and the profane, the highest windswept peaks and the darkest, most secret caves, to feel alive again. We travel to wild, untamed spaces, where the wind is the only thing that breaks the silence, or to sacred, quiet, glorious buildings that echo the faithful’s chants, in order to find places that transform us, that “unmasks us”, in order to be.

I have brushed against the Infinite Whatever on my travels, and each time I have come across it with no expectations. Some times it has been a landmark, a building, a site, like the Chapel St Chapelle in Paris, filled to the brim with glittering light, that has brought me to a shuddering halt in my feverish dash to live more, see more, do more. Other times it has been in the solitary darkness of a boat, anchored in a sheltered bay near the Great Barrier Reef, the sound of waves lapping, the stars a splash of jewels against the velvet sky.

The Infinite Whatever comes to travelers in many guises – walking with quiet footfalls on snowy paths along an ice-locked canal while the sun slowly rose over the Thames illuminating a tallship with unfurled sail;  eating fresh cornettos from hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Venice as we made our way to San Marco;  peering up into the grand space of the Sagrada Familia, the pillars like great branches of trees stretching far away;  watching Machu Pichu appear out of the dawn mists from the Sun Gate; listening to the crack and groan of the Perito Moreno glacier – blue beyond all reckoning; chasing away sleep with quiet conversations while watching over baby turtles on the black sand beaches of Cahuita, with swaying palm trees silhouetted by moonlight, and the constant roar of the surf.

Whether alone, or in company, the Infinite Whatever – the reason why we travel – is a glimpse of “the divine, the transcendent”, that makes us feel…more alive.

Patagonia, the end of the world

Mount Fitz Roy

The day we arrived at El Chalten, the skies were grey and wet. Our bus stopped us in the new terminal and dropped us off. Rainwater dripped off our hoods as we consulted our (very damp) map. El Chalten is a small town, in fact, the newest town in Argentina, and there are only a few main streets. We locate our bed and breakfast easily, then trudging up the road, finally find respite from the cold and rain as the misty, windswept mountains around us appear and disappear like a magic act. There are stony, sharp faced ridges bordering El Chalten, and the proprietress of our cute little B&B, Nothofagus proudly informs us that there is a new, just-built ATM in town.

The town of El Chalten

The next day, however, dawns bright, blue and beautiful. The steeply sloped roofs of the houses in El Chalten, brightly coloured in primary reds, yellows and blues, are reminiscent of the houses I saw in Reykjavik, only with a more frontier-town-like feeling, under brighter skies. Foxgloves in shades of scarlet and lilac adds an alpine touch. The town feels like it is poised on the edge of wilderness, which, being the Hiking Capital of the World, it is.

A quick discussion with my magic travel friend, and we decide on the trail to Laguna Torre, which meanders past a lookout point where we should be able to see Cerro Solo, then onwards to the Mirador Miastre, at the foot of the Cerro Torre and Glacier Grande. The trek starts promisingly, though Cerro Torre, notoriously fickle, is hidden in cloud as we set out.

Peaks of Cerro Torre, glimpsed behind a cloud

Top 5 Spanish Phrases to Learn before Visiting South America

Part of the fun of traveling is trying out the local language. I’d already had some basic Spanish from the classes I took while in London before I went to South America, but the Spanish I learnt back then was pure Spain Spanish – South American Spanish, and Argentine Spanish in particular, are slightly different. So before I embarked on three months in Sudamerica, I brushed up on some key phrases unique to the region.

Bolivian lady making yarn from wool

Can I take your photo?

Puedo tomar su foto?

It’s always polite to ask before you snap portraits of people. In some parts of South America, especially in the Andes, the local women dress up for the occasion – for a fee of course! So ask before you click that shutter, and negotiate prices if needed. Taking photos of people without their permission can be offensive.

Can you help me? I have altitude sickness.

Puedes ayudarme? Tengo el mal de altura.

If you are in Cusco, almost any part of Bolivia or crossing the Andes, you might get altitude sickness. The best way to prevent this is to acclimatise slowly, stay hydrated (and away from the booze) and be prepared with some medication like Diamox. This phrase will be a helpful one to remember in case you need to find medicines, or if you want to tell your Inca trail guide you need to descend to a lower level.

Machu Picchu

What time does the bus to [...] leave and what platform does it go from?

A que hora sale el autobus a [ ...] y cual es su plataforma?

You will most likely be taking lots of buses through South America, and this is one of the questions you will be repeating throughout your journey there. Keep in mind that while in some countries the buses may not be on time, it is far better for you to be waiting for it, because it won’t wait for you!

Is there a good restaurant nearby you recommend?

Puedes recommendar un restaurante cocina tradicional cerca aqui por favor?

If you are looking for somewhere to eat that’s not listed in your guidebook, this phrase will come in handy. Food is the uniting factor across South America, and the locals will be more than happy to share their favourite restaurants with you. This phrase helped me find a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Cordoba which served a great value, unstoppable quantity buffet dinner, that wasn’t in my Lonely Planet.

Picada Marina, a local specialty in Puerto Madryn

Cheers!

Arriba! (Above, and raise your glass high) 
Abajo! (Below, lower your glass)
Al centro! (Forward, move your glass in front of you)
Adentro! (Inside, bottoms up!)

Trust the South Americans to make a simple toast more fun. This is also a ritual in Central America, I think, but this was one of the first things I learnt when I was in Peru and eating ceviche in the dusty, frontier-like town of Ica. A lot more complicated than just “salud!” but it does give gravitas to the pisco shots we imbibed!

South American Spanish is a little different in pronunciation from Spain Spanish, but most of the basic phrases are common between the two. Slang will vary from one country to the next, as will the speed of speech. Practice your Spanish at every chance you get and soon you’ll feel right at home.

Feliz viaje y suerte!