.jpg)
I call this “sheepish” but it is really “llama-ish” or, to be more zoologically correct “Guanaco-ish”! But I did spend much of my day with sheep – so I thought the title appropriate…
Last night Margaret’s pesky post-bronchitis cough came back so she ended up having to use the codeine cough syrup. It worked so well that she was conked out this morning and decided to stay in bed and rest. I got up and got on the bus for the 8 am Puerto Madryn Sea Lion, Sheep Shearing and Eco-museum tour. It was a beautiful morning with a bit of a brisk breeze blowing but the day ended at about 64 degrees. Gorgeous blue skies and spectacular white puffy clouds gave me the best photo day since our first arrival in Cusco. It is amazing to see what the D700 does with conditions like that!
Puerto Madryn was originally founded by a group of Welsh settlers in the late 1800’s. They tried out the US, then Canada but they felt strongly that they needed somewhere that was unpopulated so they could build their community while maintaining the Welsh language and traditions. They came here and stayed because it turns out this part of the Pantagonia is a desert with only 8 inches of rain a year. Because of this, no one had ever built a true settlement here. They found a river South of the city (Chubut) and started their settlement in that area. They ended up moving closer to the ocean (near where the ship is docked), and pipe their water in from the river (about 60 miles away). The city is quite modern with no signs of 3rd-worldness here. Only one building under construction had rebar sticking out the top! In fact, property is rather expensive and the cost of living high. Modern hotels, nice paved streets with curbs, very clean neighborhoods and decent retail stores abound.
First we went to see the sea lions at a rocky cove. We got there by heading to the South end of town, turning off onto a dirt but quite wide and well maintained road and drove about 15 minutes. Not a bad ride and the buses, although advertised as being 3rd-world style were very nice, modern buses with perfectly clean windows (I love to clean windows!). The water at the cove was a beautiful shade of blue and sure enough, there were about 100 sea lions swimming or perched on brownish rocks. Some cormorant (birds indigenous to this area) were perched on the steep sides of what looked like sandstone cliffs. It was high tide so there was virtually no rocky beach for the sea lions. There was a fenced off viewing area well above the cove and we all took turns taking pictures.
Next we drove another 15 minutes to a remote sheep ranch. The terrain was very similar to Southern California deserts with scrub brush and very little grass. The ranches are limited to one sheep for every 4 acres or something like that. Otherwise the desert would be even more arid. In dry seasons the ranchers have to thin their sheep to meet this requirement. This ranch, which is on the order of 10,000 acres and currently home to 500 sheep was nothing fancy but it was well maintained with a nice dining area, a room with stands for viewing the shearing demonstration, a small retail store and decent restrooms. There were a number of llama-like animals called Guanacos (the photo at the top of this page shows how friendly they are…or maybe they are just sentimental…it is Valentine’s Day after all! Come over here and give me a kiss!). They behave much like a family dog here and are seemingly housebroken, quite tame and very curious.
An Argentinian cowboy (or are they sheepboys?) called a gaucho arrived to drive the sheep into a pen and then he posed for pictures and endured several jokes about their behavior as Argentine playboys. They had a few sheep ready to shear so we headed into the viewing area, took our seats and got a very thorough and enjoyable show that told us about the ranch, the sheep, the wool and some miscellaneous related subjects. Even the ranches owner came out and participated in the event. Following the discussion, their shearer, a stout guy, hauled in four sheep, sometimes on his head, and proceeded to shear two of them. He managed to get all the wool of the sheep in one piece. The pile of wool, when thrown on a table covered the entire table which was about 4 feet by 8 feet. We got an education on wool quality, how they test it, etc. Pretty interesting. These sheep produce Merino wool, which is very high quality. However, they get very little for wool these days, something on the order of $3/kilo. The sheep shearers get only $1/sheep and it is very hard work. However, that cost alone is 30% of the total sales price!
We then went into the dining area and had nice time drinking tea and eating three different types of appetizers. Very well done as well! At the end, they let two of the baby llama dogs into the dining room where we were able to feed them with baby bottles. Fun!
We took some more pictures with dog llamas and a few horses outside, loaded into the buses for our next stop at the EcoMuseum. This is a very modern and quite new building that has many professional displays about marine related subjects. Many include audio visual presentations. There is an outlook cupola on the third floor that had a glorious (really, not Ray’s glorious…the real thing) view of the ocean on a dazzling day. You could even see the Mariner in the distance (see pictures I took in the Gallery). After an hour we loaded back on the buses and went back to the pier.
In the end, I think we would all agree that it was a very well done tour that we enjoyed. And, Puerto Madryn is a modern city that has a lot to offer tourists. Their main industry besides tourism is processing bauxite ore that they import from Brazil and process into aluminum. They also do quite a bit of fishing. The city is growing quickly and currently has about 85,000 people.
It’s Valentine’s Day and nearly kissing a Gaunaco isn’t my idea of an ideal romantic day… I’d much rather take my honey out to dinner at Prime 7. So, that’s what we did. We both had bought Valentine’s Day cards BEFORE we left on the trip! After another beautiful sunset (see the upcoming Sunset Gallery) at Horizon Lounge with a Grey Goose Martini, we passed by a fantastic ice sculpture (creatively edited above), had a great filet and king crab dinner with 2004 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages. You really can’t beat having dinner with the Patagonian sunset right outside the window! Happy Valentine’s Day!
There are two Picture Galleries for Puerto Madryn. They are:
Puerto Madryn Gallery 1: http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/South-America/Puerto-Madryn-Feb-14-2010/25172393_QfxgBr#!i=2064475726&k=DZhhvVT
Margaret - What do you mean — Uruguary — it’s more than OK?
Margaret - I mean it is good!