My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Author: marionvermazen
I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.
Today was a rest day, but we still saw some very interesting things.
We went for a walk up to the headland east of our hotel. The first Welsh settlers landed here in 1865. There is a monument and a small park where they landed.
These are the remains of the cave homes they lived in until they became established.The flags on the headland. The Welsh flag is on the right.
On the way back to the hotel we were lucky enough to see Orcas feeding in the bay. They were quite far out but it was wonderful fun to watch them. Orcas are the one animal we didn’t get to see when we visited Puerto Valdés yesterday. So we were very excited to see them today. I took about a million pictures, mainly of tails. But Duke got one really good picture of one out of the water.
For dinner we went to a bar across from the hotel and had empanadas.
Today we drove out to Valdes Peninsula. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and Argentine nature reserve. We saw so much wildlife.
Lots and lots of Guanacos Sea lions at Punta PiramidesElephant seals at Punta Delgada Elephant seals at Punta Cantor. Elephant seals can be over 16 feet long and weigh more than 8,000 pondsToday was another very windy day but the temperature was pleasantWe had coffee before going on to our next stop.Just a bit farther up the road we saw lots of penguins in a penguin colony
After waiting to see a Rhea for more than a month today we saw several
A pair of rheas crossing the road. We saw several of this cool bird. A Elegant Crested Tinamou. I love using Merlin to identify birds.
The restaurant we had planned to go to for dinner didn’t have any tables available, so we went to a nearby bar and had pizza.
Today was a wildlife day. We drove south to Punta Tombo to see the Penguin Colony. On the way we saw a Rhea. I’ve really been wanting to see one and finally we did.
I didn’t get a very good picture of him. You can see how well camouflaged he is.
At Punta Tombo we saw hundreds of penguins, several guanaco, and lots of seals. The seals were all in the water so I didn’t get any good pictures of them.
One of the many penguins we saw.Penguins at the waters edgeSome of the guanacosThe view from Punta Tombo
From Punta Tombo we drove back north to Puerto Madryn on the coast north and a bit east of Gaiman.
Today was a very windy day. The sand was blowing over the road as we pulled into our hotel in Puerto Madryn .
The view from our room at the Rayentray Grand Hotel
Today we drove almost all the way across Argentina, From Trevelin, in the Andes not far from the border with Chile to Gaiman in the east, not far from the coast. The drive was 400 miles and it took us about 9 hours. We only saw one or two small towns. The road was paved, had two lanes and there was almost no traffic. There were sections of the road with lots of big potholes but it was not as bad as our pothole drive earlier in the trip.
The scenery looked like we were driving across Utah and NevadaA stop to stretch
Gaiman is like Trevelin in that it was also originally settled by the Welsh. We are staying in a Welsh Tea House. For dinner we walked to a restaurant, Gwalia Lân Resto and had pizza and beer for dinner. The decor felt very pub like.
Waiting for our pizza. On the way back to our inn we walked through the square and admired the dragon.
The weather today was absolutely perfect. The people at Challhuaquen Fishing Lodge, where we are staying, told us that the normal weather here is rainy and overcast. So we were very lucky to have a beautiful sunny day to explore
We explored a bit of Los Alerces National Park. We did 3 short hikes. The first hike was to a view point and to see some rock art.
The start of our first hikeThe view from the lookout.
The second hike was a short hike to Cascada Irigoyem.
Irigoyen Waterfsll hike
Our final hike in the park was through the Forest to the Rivadavia River.
Some of the trail was a bit overgrown but it was a great hikeThere were almost no other people on the trails.
Finally, we drove to a more southern part of the park to see the dam and hydroelectric plant.
Duke being DukeA Pipe with a diameter of 9 meter carries water from the dam through a rock tunnel and over this bridge to the hydroelectric plant.
We have really enjoyed our stay at Challhuaquen Fishing Lodge. It is in a beautiful place but what has made it really great is the people. The Chef, Bruno and the hostess and waitress, Camilia have been fantastic.
Our steak main course last night.
In addition we have talked to some fascinating guests. An Argentine family of about 10 people was having a reunion here. The two men we talked to the most were a farmer with a big farm south of Buenos Aires and a Lawyer who is retired from a senior position at a big agribusiness company. They have both travelled a lot. They spoke perfect English and we discussed everything from politics to travel adventures.
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