Back again :-) It's time again for an other travel report.
First I would like to thank all of you who wrote e-mails. I think I managed to reply to about all
of them eventually.
Ok, lets start with the trip from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn. But first I need to tell a story
which happened in Buenos Aires while still with Edith. Edith and I were walking slowly and happily along Florida Street when
I suddenly saw a familiar face. I followed the face and touched on the man's shoulder. And oh my god was he surprised! And
so was I! It was the teacher I had for the Proficiency course in 2001 in England! Unbeliveble! We chatted for a while and
could still not belive it and then we went our ways, still being absolutely estonished. Very, very nice that was!
So lets get back to the trip to Puerto Madryn. The busjourney was about 17 hours in a very nice,
very comfortable bus. I slept fine and my neighbour was a cute young policeman from Puerto Madryn who offered me his sweater
to ley my head on and chatted with me while we were not sleeping. In Puerto Madryn I quickly organized all the tours for the
next days and then went to the hostal I stayed in the following days. Actually, Kristof (the Belge who would prefer to be
Argentinian) and Silvia (the Canarian bird) were my mates for these days and all three of us thought that this hostel was
a veeeeeeerrrrryyyyy strange one. It was quite a new one and had not much atmospere. We all slept in the same dorm (8 people,
mixed, always full). There was also a Spaniard who was snoring all night long. You would not belive it! But after a few nights
and with ear plugs you get even used to this. Actually, talking about sleeping. Mostly I sleep in dormitories for 4-8 people,
sometimes they are packed and sometimes I am even alone. Sometimes it can be quite nice, sometimes it can be nerve wrecking.
Like last night for example. I went to bed at about half past midnight (after a few very nice card games with an Englishman
and an Australian who are on the road from Alaska down to Ushuaia, which is actually the end of the world :-)
and wanted to sleep. About half an hour later my Israelian room mate walkes in, turning on the bright light, slamming the
door and making a lot of noise and getting out again leaving the light on. I, furiously, got up, turned off the light and
got back to bed. A little later she comes back in, turnes on the light again and I, nicely, hm km, ask her to turn off the
light again. She lets me know that she needs to pack her bags because she will leave very early in the morning. She promises
to hurry. Ok. Out the door, light off, door slamming, inside again, turn on the light and this at least about 4 times. Bloody
hell! And she took actually ages to pack her bags. Eventually I could get some sleep. This morning her alarm clock rang about
at least 4 times before she turned it off and I started bitching at her if she finally turned it off now and that she is not
alone and that I want to sleep. I guess she was quite shocked, apologized and said that she had not heard the alarm.
:-)))) She left and will most likely not come back :-))))
Now lets go back to Puerto Madryn. Puerto Madryn itself is a little town right at the sea but actually
only important because it is the base for all the tours to Peninsula Valdes and down South. What is special about the
Peninsula Valdes is that there are whales to see and they are actually absolutely incredible. There is so much peace around
them and everyone on the boat was deeply touched by those 40tons amazing creatures.
There were actually always a mother and her baby and they swim close to the boat, underneath the
boat and sometimes, in a bit further distance, jump. It's been an absolutely precious and awsome ocasion seeing them.
There were also sea elephants on this island and little pinguins but the seaelephants were quite
far away and pinguins there were only a few.
The special place to see the little black and white pinguins was to go further south. At this time
of the year they have nest and little ones, always two per couple. There were thousands of nests and pinguins and it was possible
to go for a walk amongst their nests and them, which was a fascination by itself. The female pinguins aparantly always go
back to the same nest every year. It is amazing that they can find it again amongst those thousands of the same ones.
One day I also went out on the boat with Kristof. He went wreckdiving and aparantly enjoyed it.
On Saturday evening I had booked the bus for Bariloche. On the busstation as a surprise I met Stephan
(a French guy) who I had already met at the hostal. I was happy and felt very safe putting my little rucksack inbetween my
legs while sleeping and his presence next to me.
What a terrible shock when I woke up the next morning after sleeping like an angel and realizing
that the internal life of my little rucksack was all upside down and quite a few things were missing. A lot of money (in the
future I will always wear my money in a belt on me), the mobile phone, my lipstick (?) the sunglasses, the locker and lots
of other little things I would not remember because they were not very important, were gone. Thank god he/or she, had left
my passport, some money which I had in the passport and the camera (very important).
I was quite shocked really but happy that I still had these important things and that nothing had
happened to me.
During the rest of the trip I sat on a chewing gum and eventually decided that this was definitely
not my day.
I was then actually quite happy arriving at a nice and quiet hostal after a few hours of wonderful,
scenic journey. There were nice people to meet and it was a good opportunity to relax. With Thomas, the German guy who has
a job here with a scolar ship (I guess that's how you would call it?) I always go for dinner. We then chat and tell eachother
what had happened in our lives during the day. He has found a room now and is happy. The people in the hostal come and
go and it is mostly very pleasant to meet them (with very, very few exceptions :-). The relations are not very deep
but always nice, exciting, suppòrting and enjoyable.
I did not do very much the past few days. Tried to relax, had a very bad storm inside myself while
it was raining outside but then outside the cloudes cleared up and the storm inside has calmed down aswell. And now I am again
the same old happy person who is up to new adventures.
So I am looking forward to leaving Bariloche on Sunday to go to Puerto Montt where I will catch the
boat along the Chilean coast down to Puerto Natales.
I wonder how that will be because aparantly there will be about 200 people on the boat and I will
sleep in a dorm of 8 people. Maybe not much sleeping.......
Well, this was it again for this time. Hope that you enjoyed traveling with me and of course I am
looking forward to meeting you here again whenever you wish.
Take care!
Oh, I just realized that I forgot to write a bit more about Bariloche. I missed that. Well, Bariloche
is a little town surrounded by real mountains with snowy tops and located at a wonderful lake. There are Chalets and aparantly
they try to imitate Switzerland a little. There is Chocolate also and a lot of wood and walking along the roads you can find
stores called "Zermatt" and hotels called " Crans Montana.
In wintertime Bariloche is a frequently visited holiday area for snowsports.
Actually, I find the argentinian food still nice so far and it is good living without meat. No problem
:-)
