To celebrate the almost end of finals, I went with a friend to Puerto Madryn this past weekend. It´s on the Atlantic shore of Patagonia, a (mere) nineteen-hour bus ride south from Buenos Aires. We had the best seats on the bus, but that (sadly, oh so sadly,) did not stop us from enduring a baby that cried for a remarkable many hours, in a remarkably high pitched voice. Even so, we made it alive to the small port town that stays on the map only through tourism and its massive aluminum plant. After dumping our packs at the hostel, we stopped at a beachside snackbar for lunch. After choosing stools at the bar looking out over te ocean, we noticed some floating mass drifting parallel to shore, maybe 50 feet out. Suddenly, like 20 feet behind this hovering body (I swear it was dead,) a Southern Right Whale jumped clear out of the water, flaunting its enormous self to all of us land-dwelling species, just for a moment. This little demonstration went on all through lunch, with what I can only assume were many different groups of whales. Our waiter was far from phased. I can´t believe someone could actually become anesthetized to this. It´s pretty far from seeing a show at Sea World over and over again.
The next day we booked an all day tour, which involved a trip to Península Valdez. We saw ostrich-type guys, llama-types, wild flamingos (!? so random,) sheep, elephant seals, birds, and, my personal favorite, a possible relative of ManBearPig, the , but who I prefer to call DeerRabbitSquirrel.
Most spectacular of this tour was definitly the whale-watching boat, whose captain needn´t bother trying to spot whales, there were groups of them, literally, in every direction. Since it was the right season, we were able to see many mothers with their calves, helping them breathe and play and so on.
For dinner, Josh and I got to eat some really delicious fresh fish, a definite rarity in the city. Our last day was spent in the Welsh towns of Trelew and Gaiman. This was kind of a silly day - we had traditional Welsh tea and cakes - but it was nice to see such small historical pueblos, a welcome change from the Capital.
Another little outing I took was to the feria de Mataderos. This is another weekend artisan fair (there are various ones throughout the city´s different neighborhoods, each with its own special flavor,) but this one takes the cake in all respects. After an hour long public bus ride to the southeast corner of the city, you arrive at a feria crammed between narrow residential streets full of venders, roughly organized by wares. In addition to the regular Buenos Aires feria goods, Mataderos boasts specialty items from the Interior: workshops for tango, folkloric guitar playing, lassoing, gaucho (Argentine cowboy) horsemanship expositions, live music, and delicious food traditional of the Interior. My favorite is chipá, a bread whose dough involves finely grated cheese so that its crumb is very dense and, needless to say, delicious. Mmm...maybe I´ll go back this weekend...[here is a photo of one of the tango workshops]
After finally fishing The Source, I burned my way through Barbara Kingsolver´s Homeland. It was a huge improvement from her The Bean Trees, but, as I think we would expect, not nearly as beautiful as her Posionwood Bible. I just started Wallace Stegner´s Angle of Repose, and I am already floored by what a pleasure it is to read. It is filled with really wonderful insightful passages by its protagonist and I can´t wait to make my way further into the story. I have a good feeling about this one.
I´m actually only here for two and a half more weeks! I made a list of things I have yet to do, both inside the city and out. I plan to take one last trip to a ski mountain in Western Patagonia, so that should be a fun way to say goodbye to the country. I also made a list of foods I need to eat when I get home. It´s clearly going to be a bittersweet goodbye. More about that a little later on.
Until the next!
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