Más de Los Pengüinos

Erin writing (Steve did the last 2 postings)...I am sorry, I needed to find the ascii code for the U with the diereses (it is ALT 0252 for those of you looking). The penguin sanctuary was amazing. The road was hilarious. I was overjoyed when Fernando at the Hertz counter told me that the road was mostly paved now. But still it was about 30KM of gravel and the car showed it. Steve was worried, but I wasn't! The only thing is that I wished we had stopped for gas one last time. But that will have to come later.

So we are making our way (I was driving) down this hilarious road. I thought we were almost there several times, but then would look at the odometer and realize we had kilometers to go. At one point we passed through someone's estancia, with a grumpy looking rancher prepping for the day, and I saw the battered, red and white penguin sign of "Punto Tombo 15KM". Ugh another 15 km! Anyway, I was starting to think we were the first ones out there when pop! behind us, hauling up in dust was a Fiat! (We were in a very sad Chevy Corsa. So I sped up. No! I did not drag my poor child out of bed at 6:45 on vacation to have someone beat us to it! OK, not that dramatic, but I did feel a certain obligation to stay ahead.

When we arrived, a nice rancher waved me to the parking spot and as Steve said, we paid and headed on along the path. But both Steve and I were thinking we would suddenly arrive on a huge colony having a chat and singing their songs. In fact, I pretty much ditched the boys and walked at a decisive pace to find the almost 400,000 pengüinos before the Fiat people. Then, as we were walking along, poof, there was a penguin, then poof, there was another. Then we saw them sleeping in their little nests, lying in the sun in the middle of the path. All the signs say, give right of way to the penguin, so you are kind of standing there, waiting for them to cross the road.

As I was hauling, Steve and Paco were on Paco tiempo, and moving at a slower rate. We never found the penguin chorus, because this time of year, as Steve was the first to discover, the penguins are in their nests, hatching their eggs. And, if we were quiet, we could hear the “pio, pio, pio” and find the furry gray ball underneath its Mama or Dada, (we were never sure).

We hung out on the rock that Steve mentioned for about 20 minutes, and I think could have stayed there all day, hanging out in the sun with the penguins. But then, the first of the tour buses came in, and suddenly the park had about 50 people in it. It was still plenty of space (the Fiat people left quickly, but were, in the end, nice and Argentine) but the silence was broken And also, Paco started to whine about being hungry, so we needed to make our way back to the small café and then hit the road.

We had a snack and a chat with the folks running the tiny snack place at Punto Tombo. And then we decided to leave before the tour buses did. We timed it relatively well, as the parking lot had about 7 tour buses (Some only hold 9 people) and several private cars in the lot. Steve drove on the return and Paco quickly passed out. The road seems shorter on the return. We saw a sign for Camarones, a town about 150 miles to the south, and I was sad we could not just take off and head down there for the night.

We had seen one gas station on the way out of Trelew and had not stopped in order to beat the tour buses. But by the time I woke up from my nap, a panicked Steve was pulling into the same gas station, as we were completely on fumes. Paco woke up at that point and we decided to head to Gaiman, the settled Welsh town.

Gamain is supposed to have a British sense to it, and to some extent, it did. But really we were both disappointed and thought it would have more of a lush green feel to the town. We did stop in for a Welsh tea, after which Steve was sure he would be in diabetic shock from all the sweets! After that we went to a park where Paco ran about and we spoke to the mother of a girl Paco’s age, who was impressed that Paco spoke Spanish, her daughter is learning Welsh!

We headed back into the depressing world of Trelew, and aimed to find an early dinner and early to bed for all. None of the places we had heard of were open at 7:30 for dinner, so we returned to Mi Ciudad, My City and recommended to a British couple with a girl Paco’s age, that they do the same. Mi Ciudad was packed full of all the people who want a drink and snack before dinner time. We ordered and sure enough, who should arrive but our British friends (whose names, of course I never got). Steve and I at this point are officially tired of ham and cheese. Paco seemed to still enjoy his ham and cheese omelet, but it seems that all sandwiches, all pizzas and all eggs some with ham and cheese.

After dinner Paco and Robin, the English 3-year old had become fast friends and we went to the park to let them run off steam. After about an hour, the kids were exhausted. So we returned to the hotel for our last night in Trelew. I had planned to stay up after Paco went to sleep, charge the camera, the phones, the iPods and write about the day, but in snuggling Paco at about 10PM, I fell asleep in my clothes and woke up about 3 AM, still fully dressed.

This morning, Steve took Paco out for a ham and cheese media luna and I packed up. Then we threw everything in the car and drove to Puerto Madryn, which is supposed to be nicer and more touristy than Trelew. (not harder to be nicer or more tourist-centered than Trelew!) Puerto Madryn was a bit nicer, but really, compared to Mendoza or Bariloche there is no comparison. There are whale and sea lion excursions, but mostly Paco was interested in the huge play structure (there is not one in Trelew that we found and he wanted us to drive back to Gaiman to day to go back to the park). We ate and a restaurant on the main beach street that was awful. Everything tasted bad. Steve’s hamburger, (ham and cheese) Paco’s omelet (ham and cheese) and the orange soda. My fish, a merluza, was the best of the 3, but even that had a fishy taste when it really should have been caught that day or the day before. However, my fish was less than $6.00 USD, so how can I complain!

We walked a bit and tried the Havanna, which was not up to usual Havanna standards. At that point Steve announced, “I am done with the province of Chubut”. I had to agree. We let Paco play at the park for another 30 minutes and then left to get to the airport early. Paco passed out in the car. And we were both surprised when he transferred easily to the stroller at the airport.

Early for us, is way too early for the Argentine, and the airport was practically empty. We were able to check or luggage and pay the airport tax. But a lightening storm had begun while we were on the road and we both thinking we would be stuck in Trelew. The Hertz desk had no one there and German, the tax guy said they would not be there for another hour. Paco slept and the tax guy gave us his WiFi key. I snuck in some ice cream, so we were happy enough. Paco then woke up, pointed at me and snuggled back to sleepiness. However, it was clear he needed to use the bathroom, so I carried him to the bathroom, he did his business, half asleep, then fell asleep again on me and I was able to transfer him back into the stroller. Crazy.

Finally, my Hertz buddy, Fernando, came and we returned the car while Steve loaded the penguin photos. They called our gate and we were headed to security with the dread of pulling a still sleeping Paco out of his stroller. You gotta love Argentina, they pushed Paco around the security gate without waking him up! I guess they no better than to mess with a sleeping toddler.

Paco finally woke up just as we were boarding and I carried him onto the plane where he snacked a bit (ham and cheese sandwich), cried a bit and watched a bit of iPod. But all in all he had slept 3 hrs in the car, in the stroller and on the toilet. Poor kid, we have been wearing him out.

We are so excited to leave Trelew. I am glad we stayed there, it was an education. But truly there is something so sad about it. It is still the closest place to stay for the penguins, so for the extra hour it buys you, it is worth it.

Both Steve and I are very excited for Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego. We are on the plane now and I am so relieved that the weather cleared so we could take off! We land at 8 PM. I am not sure we will have a chance to book the boat tours when we get there. But I don’t care; we are still going to Tierra del Fuego. I doubt we will make it to the Chilean southern most town (Ushuaia is considered the southern most city, but Puerto Williams is further south but supposedly is very tiny). The rumor ahs it the passage from the Argentine side is $300.00 USD to get there from Ushuaia. It is about an hour boat ride!
There is also mini-trekking for the glacier, so I may ask if Steve can go. But if not, we are still on a pretty amazing adventure.

Love, Erin

PS: Shan, will try to get the chick photos uploaded. They kind of just look like fuzzy gray blobs, so you will have to use your imagination.