Argentinian Taxi Ride

In Puerto Madryn, the biggest thing to do is to tour the Valdes Peninsula, about forty minutes to the north. The national park there is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Typical tours ran a little expensive, and the roads made a car rental a bit sketchy. After talking to one of the tour operators in town, I asked the young lady what she would do if it were her. The suggestion to just take a taxi there seemed a bit odd, but we had seen things like this in more than one port. The main areas of interest were visited by taking a taxi, and then they would wait while you checked them out.

We continued to walk away from the dock and along the broad walkway that fronted the dark sand beach, which was being enjoyed by many of the locals.  Along the way, we came across a car from the 1920s, a pair of bronze penguins, and a bride on her wedding day.  There were cabana tents like those seen over a hundred years ago and windsurfers skimming the surface near the shoreline.  After about 5,000-6,000 steps, it was time to turn around to get to the ship for lunch.

Andy and I stopped by the taxi stand near the dock on our way back to the ship to look into the options available. We met with a young lady sitting on a stool there. We told her what we were thinking about, and she started to talk about the times, places, and prices that were standard for all the drivers there. When she got out a map to explain, I recognized it. The map that we got from the tour operators was the same map that the taxi group used when talking about the visit to the peninsula. I wanted to make sure that there was no miscommunication based on either language or the locations that we would visit.      

Andy and Alicia were going to join Dusty and me on a seven-hour tour of the Valdes Peninsula. My Spanish is pretty good, and Alicia does okay herself, so communicating with a driver that did not speak English would still be all right. We took this information back to the ship to see if the wives would be interested in doing the taxi tour the next day.

Before we got back to the ship, we noticed that the terns and sea lions had taken up spots on the mooring lines and stairs as we approached the Odyssey.  The wildlife seemed to have come to us today.  We could do them the courtesy of visiting them tomorrow.

Our early start ran a little late, and we noticed a group of triathletes swimming toward shore as we were nearing the gates to leave the pier.  When we got to the taxi stand, there were no taxis, and the woman who swore she would be there was not.  Andy started walking, searching for the group of taxis that were not where they were supposed to be, while Dusty started to give me that look.  After a couple of minutes, I waved down a passing taxi and talked to him about what we had heard the day before about tours.  After he made a quick check on his phone for the rates and routes, he said it was just as we had been told. I said that we wanted to make sure that we all fit in his cab before making any commitments and yelled for Andy to come back, and the four of us did a test sitting in the vehicle.  It worked, and we tossed our stuff into the trunk and headed out of town.

Before we had gone too far, we saw bicycles in front of us on the road with the riders wearing numbers on their backs.  It was the swimmers that we had seen before transitioning to the bike ride part of their triathlon.

Soon we were seeing guanaco crossing signs the same way you would see deer crossing signs in the USA.  Sure enough, the driver, Victor, spotted a group of them just this side of the fence where we were driving and pulled over.  After a few photos, he started to tap the horn and they were bounding over the fence to put some space between themselves and our noisy car.  I mentioned that he didn’t need to scare the wildlife in the future.  He smiled and shrugged. No problema.

When we got to the entrance of the national park, Victor said that we could pay him directly the $30 US each for entrance, and he would pay in one payment on his credit card.  I understood that the exchange rate for dollars to Argentine Pesos was about 20% higher on the secondary market that locals used versus the official rate for banks.  With our cash, he would be pocketing the difference, but we had no problem with that. At the welcome center we stretched our legs and looked at the museum displays that were in the process of being updated.

A short conversation with Victor made it clear that the Island of Birds was not on the regular route, and I was sure that Dusty would like to go there.  The other issue with the planned stops was that our best chance to see orcas dining on sea lions would be at high tide on the other side of the peninsula. High tide would be at the end of our day, and we would be there long before high tide.  With a few minor adjustments, he agreed that we could go to the Island of Birds first and save the best place to see orcas until our last stop.  It was kind of nice to have our own private driver.  Paying half the price of a big group tour did not hurt either.

We were now leaving the pavement and moving onto gravel and then dirt roads.  Driving down toward the shore, we could see the little island about three hundred meters across the water from the peninsula. To the right down the shore was a little white building.  It turned out that this little building with a cross on top was the San Jose Fort, established in 1779.

I was soon distracted from the lonely sight of this historic edifice by a pair of flamingos flying by.  Soon there were other birds, including more flamingos. We went out to the lookout toward the island nearby and saw hundreds of pink birds about half a mile down the shoreline in the direction the last birds had flown.

Victor, being an amiable guy, said that we could, of course, get closer to them by driving down a few more dirt roads, trails, and paths. We wound our way to where a dozen or more derelict motor homes, buses, and trailers were set up near the water. Walking through the scrub pines to the sand, we saw over a kilometer of the birds wading in the shallow water lapped by waves as they scooped up whatever nourishment they could find in the sand.

Another group from the ship had rented a car and followed our lead out to visit the multitude of pink birds dotting the shoreline.  The group of about eight people crossed through the trees and onto the wide beach where the flotsam and seaweed had created a line where high tide reached.  The birds were to our right and the sun was behind them, so we moved that way to see more of them and to put ourselves in a position to get better photographs.  Some of us went farther up the beach, myself included.  Others stayed nearer the taxi.  After about a half hour of amazement at our good fortune, we headed back to our ride while the rental car group crept closer and closer to the birds.  I held on for a while hoping that the flamingos would take flight, but finally gave in to the need to keep moving and see the rest of what there was to see.  I found out later that they did get spooked after we left, resulting in a pink cloud that was a sight to see.

Down the dusty road where the signs said that in this small area there was cell coverage, we traveled for about a half hour to the place we were all but guaranteed to see penguins. We were not disappointed when we arrived and saw the head of one of these flightless birds peeking over the rise before the car had even come to a stop.

A boardwalk with signage about the area led to the edge of a steep drop-off where small holes in the ground were fronted by dozens of penguins. Some were very young, and some were in pairs. Others were just lying around while couples were preening each other. After several false starts on penguin viewing, we finally had them right in front of us with time to get a few close-ups. While we were there, one of the bus tours arrived with some others from the ship joining us on the boardwalk and getting their crack at the perfect penguin picture.

Down the road to the restaurant on the cliff overlooking the sea elephant beach, we traveled.  There was a series of overlooks to see the giant beasts lounging in the sun below and a trail that took you further down the cliff face.  Andy and I ended up taking that long walk and were soon introduced to one of the local armadillos.  Amazing how much wiry hair they have sticking out on their bodies.

A bench at the end of the trail provided a place to pause and just look out at the ocean and the sand below.  In the distance, I could see a pair of sea elephants slapping against each other in a display of dominance.  In the end, the bigger one held the higher ground, and the smaller one retreated toward the sea.

Eventually, we bid farewell to the windy spot at the edge of the world.  Back to the little restaurant and the cab to make our way to the final stop of the day.  The tide was coming in, and all the little ponds in the flats near the sea were filling again with water, and the possibility of seeing an orca was worth waiting for.  Dusty and Alicia made use of the seats in the car while Andy and I talked on the overlook and waited for the tall dorsal fin of an orca to break the surface in the distance.  The mundane beauty of seagulls riding the updrafts in front of us gave a show to watch and practice for my photographing birds in flight.  In the end, it was about forty-five minutes spent watching and waiting for the orcas that did not come.  It’s not Disney.  It’s not on a set schedule.  You get what you get and hope to enjoy it.  I enjoyed it. But it still would have been cool to see an orca in action!

I called it quits, and we piled back into the cab to head back to Puerto Madryn and our ship.  On the long and dusty way back, rheas came to visit us along the road, and guanacos paid a final farewell as we left the park.

Our seven-hour taxi ride lasted nine and a half hours. We got to go to places we didn’t know existed and see wonderful wildlife. It was a good day traveling with friends in the far-flung wilderness of Argentina.