La empieza de todo

Hey Everyone,

A brief (and pictureless for now) recap since we left Buenos Aires, Capital Federal. Saturday, November 1st, marked the beginning of our adventure, leaving from Retiro Bus Terminal, headed to the capital of the Rio Negro region, better known as Viedma. We took the Pinguino Bus Line 12 hours south, and were greeted with a sign on the bus that said,

Señor Pasajero, es su "obligacion" usar su "cinturon de seguridad"

Mr. Passenger, it´s your ¨obligation" to use your "seat belt"

A step up in the land of bus travel in South America. So with our "seat belts" fastened we began....

Viedma is a cute and quiet little town, located alongside the banks of the Rio Negro. We stayed there for one night and then took the "ferry" (more like a dinky little boat that went about 100 meters) to the other side of the river to Carmen del Patagones, a colonial throwback that looked like something taken out of 1800s Spain. Oh, and to settle any doubts, Patagones is indeed the southern most province of Gran Buenos Aires.

After Ariel, the cool owner of the Patagones hostel, gave us a ride to the bus station (everyone is so nice down here!) we made our way further south to Puerto Madryn, an Argentine vacationer´s hotspot and the jumping off point to Peninsula Valdez, an UNESCO World Biosphere. Translation...nature reserve with cool animals and other shit.

Top Highlights of Peninsula Valdez:

1. Whale watching boat trip where Southern Right Whales come so close you can see the whites of their eyes. By the end of our two day stay we had seen at least 15 whales!, from the boat and just from walking along the beach.

2. Watching three Orcas (Killer Whales) hunting a Right whale and chasing it into a bay and forcing it to flee up a river. Incredible! And also extremely rare, our guide said that he had worked there for three years and never seen anything like that before. Que suerte!

3. Penguins! They were nesting two feet from us. And we got to see them waddle to the water and swim around, how cute!

4. Elephant seals lounging and sunbathing on the beach, 100´s of them!


After camping on the beach, (yet somehow managing to sleep on top of something very hard that felt like concrete) we woke up, went on a quick hike, and hitched a ride with some cool locals back to town.

Tonight we take the night bus, Camaaa!!!! (for all those who don´t speak the spanish, cama means bed, and that´s just what it will be, first class bus style), east across the country to Esquel, where we plan to do some backpacking. Updates and pics soon to come.

Paz, amor y felicidad,

Catí y Meels