South American Adventure: Part 5 - Days 9 & 10
Day 9
– Sunday, February 5th – Aboard the Crown Princess – Puerto Madryn,
Argentina
To help us get
off the ship quicker this morning, we had breakfast delivered to the room at
7:30.
It was our standard in-room breakfast
before an early in-port day: lots of coffee, croissants, orange juice, and
breakfast sandwiches with egg, ham, and cheese. We met up with Mike and Chuck
(who are just down the hall from us toward the back of the ship in cabin D725)
and headed down to the mid-ship gangway. Traffic there was light and in moments
we were outside in the bright, warm sunshine. We walked the 700 meters to the
end of the pier and met with our tour guide for the day – Carina, who was
driving a light tan Chevy Trailblazer.
We exchanged hellos and piled into her
car (Steve in the very back as he has the shortest legs… but also the worst
problem with motion sickness in automobiles) and headed off to Punta Tombo, one
of the largest Magellan penguin rookeries in Argentina.
Puerto Madryn is situated on a natural
deep water harbor on the coast of Argentina, about 15 hours driving distance
south of Buenos Aires. The town and all the surrounding environs are on the
edge of a fairly large desert area with only one source of water to draw from –
the Chubut, a small river whose source is high in the Andes Mountains on the
western side of the country. - AFK
During our
two-hour drive to Punta Tombo, I was surprised by how much the landscape was
reminiscent of the high desert of Nevada or Utah. Forty million years ago, all
of this was under a vast sea. And if you squinted your eyes, you could imagine
this as a sea bed, with undulating hills. At the town of Trelew (founded by the
Welsh in 1856), the landscape flattened and the land was covered with mostly
low-scrub bushes. Certainly not someplace one would found a town. However, the
previously mentioned Chubut river enabled the settlers to start farms and now
it’s the only green area in a sea of brown scrub. – SW
As we drove deeper into the desert and
south I was reminded of the arid landscape between Phoenix and Yuma, Arizona in
the USA. The ground was uniformly covered with low scrub and sagebrush that
just went on for miles and miles; an empty, but beautiful place in its own way.
We did spot a few small groups of guanacos: similar to llama or alpaca, but
slightly smaller and with beautiful tan to light reddish brown short fur. Steve
pointed out that their heads looked a lot like a giraffe’s. There was also a
brief sighting of rheas: small wingless birds like ostriches about the size of
a small turkey but thinner.
We arrived at the reserve after about
ninety minutes of driving on the highway and then another twenty minutes or so
driving down a gravel road; fairly well maintained, but still pretty bumpy. We
were all quite happy to be out of the car and able to stretch our legs. The sun
was high and very bright, but not yet hot. Perfect weather for our romp with
the penguins!
Carina showed us where the restrooms were
and then we went through the small visitor center that explained the variety of
penguin populations, and their various locations around the world, their life
cycle, and what we could expect to see here at Punta Tombo – the Magellanic
variety.
We piled back into the car and drove a
short distance to the parking lot for the reserve proper and got out. There
were a few groups there ahead of us but we had beaten the large tour busses
that were coming from the ship, which was fortunate. Carina showed us where to
pay our entry fee (US $17) and we started walking the one and a half kilometer
trail to the overlook at the sea.
Carina explained to us before we started
our walk that during the peak of the season there would be as many as nine
hundred thousand penguins scattered throughout the area in their small burrows
(large enough for both parents and one, maybe two chicks). The further we got
along the path, the higher the penguin population density appeared to get,
until there were burrows only a few feet from each other scattered as far as
the eye could see, nearly all the way to the beach in one directions and for
hundreds of meters in the opposite direction as well.
As we walked, we could hear the cries of
the young keening in their burrows waiting for their parent(s) to return with
food. There were lone birds constantly crossing the path, paying very little
attention to us, as long as we kept our distance. We had been admonished to
stop and wait if a penguin wandered onto the footpath. This did happen many
times and the birds would generally go their way in fairly short order. Several
times we witnessed rude humans practically yelling at the birds and their
respective guides would then chastise them and ask them to be respectful and
quiet so as not to disturb them. I was sadly reminded of the wretched people in
various places around the world who feel compelled to drag poor creatures like
baby dolphins out of the sea to take “selfies” with them not caring that
they’re killing them in doing so…
When we finally made it to the end of the
trail you could see thousands of penguins gathered together on the beach, for
about a hundred yards at least, milling about. Some would go dive into the
water and look for food; others coming back out as the tide would allow. It
took them several tries usually to get out of the sea. They would come in with
a wave and try to stand quickly before the wave rushed back out. All of this
was a glorious sight to see and we were blessed to be able to witness it. - AFK
Watching the
penguins swim in the ocean was fun, as they are very fast, in contrast to their
very slow walking on land. While there are predators on land (pumas, being one
that was mentioned), at sea they can get gobbled up by sea lions or orcas.
Being fast is necessary to escape becoming dinner.
At this point in
the year, the chicks are about 75 days old. Many are molting their original
soft, downy feathers for their adult coats. They also have a gland that lets
them oil themselves to better swim in the sea. And except for the squawking
chicks, the penguins are very quiet. We did see a couple either
necking/fighting by banging their beaks against each other (we weren’t sure
which it was). The males are larger than the females, and have a pouch in their
bellies to keep the eggs warm. Like marsupials.
We got to enjoy
about an hour-and-a-half of walking among the penguins before meeting up again
with Carina. A much needed bio-break was followed by a grilled ham and cheese
sandwich lunch accompanied by cold drinks. The jacket I wore at the beginning
of the day was now just carried.
Our drive back
was much quieter. I think Mike and Allan had cat naps, and Chuck and I were
watching the scenery. Carina did take a side-trip through the town of Trelew so
that we could see the greenery that stood out in that bleak valley. Obviously,
most of it was near the Chubut River. The town itself had some charm, but its
outskirts were bland industria. There’s even an airport, where the flight to
Buenos Aires takes an hour and forty-five minutes.
As we came back
into Puerto Madryn, we went past the large aluminum factory, ALEAR. Yes, it was
that exciting of a town. Carina dropped us off at the pier around 4PM, and we
said our goodbyes. She was quite a good guide: very easygoing and
well-informed. It was a long walk down that long pier, and once back on the
ship, we had some sustenance at the International Café (I just love those tuna
sandwiches that are grilled like paninis!). And then a long nap.
Dinner this
evening was back in the Michelangelo Dining Room with our waiter Alex and his
assistant Allan. This time I ordered the right main course, and the meal was enjoyable.
There seems to be some odd service issues on this cruise, such as assistant
waiters spilling water or wine on the table. It’s possible that they picked up
a new crew on this voyage, and therefore they haven’t got the rhythm down pat
yet.
After a brief
walk on the promenade, it was off to bed. - SW
Day 10
– Monday, February 6th – Aboard the Crown Princess – At Sea
Following
yesterday’s flurry of activity, today was about relaxing. And we did plenty of
it.
After breakfast
in the dining room (Chuck didn’t join us), we went to a main theater for a
presentation on the Falkland Islands (our port for tomorrow). The guest
lecturer was a delightful Spanish-born Brit named Julio Delgado. He told us of
the discovery of the islands by Magellan, and then the visit by Charles Darwin
in the 19th century aboard the Beagle. The islands (technically, an
archipelago) had gone back and forth between the Spanish, French, Argentines, and
British for many years, but it officially became a territory of England in the
mid 19th century. The main town of Stanley, where we anchor
tomorrow, has about 3,600 permanent residents.
Julio’s talk had
plenty of photos (including one warning of uncleared minefields from the 1982
Falklands War with Argentina) and amusing details about the small town (you can
traverse the whole thing in 45 minutes). The big attraction is the various
colonies of Rockhopper, Gentoo, and King penguins.
After the talk,
we hung out in the cabin, reading and enjoying the mild seas and partial
sunshine.
In the
afternoon, Julio gave a talk on Ushuaia, Argentina, our stop on Thursday.
Again, it was punctuated with many fun photos, and brought back memories of our
visit there on the ill-fated 2010 South America trip.
We had lunch at
the trough, which was chaotic. It seems everyone eats at once, and either there
are no tables available, or it’s deserted. This is a challenge on almost every large
ship’s buffet area. Celebrity does the food area much better, dividing the
space with islands for different types of food. Princess is more like a high
school cafeteria, albeit with a wider and better variety of food. We managed to
find a table and enjoy our lunch.
And then it was
nap time. I think Allan slept for about two, and I was deeply engrossed in my
Neil Simon autobiography (talk about a bundle of neuroses!).
For dinner, we
chose to go to one of the two specialty restaurants aboard this ship, the Crown
Grill. It’s a dark-paneled chophouse style restaurant, with more personal
service and a more upscale menu than the main dining room. Our waiter,
Christian, was someone that Mike and Chuck knew from a previous cruise on
Princess, and he gave us excellent service. It was a nice two-hour dinner,
featuring bisques, lobster tails (not for me), and filet mignons (Chuck had a
large bone-in steak). Dessert was a glorified lemon meringue pie for three of
us, with Allan defaulting to a chocolate/peanut butter concoction.
After all this
napping and dining, we were exhausted. So it was off to bed we went… - SW
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