The atlantic ocean: penguins, sea lions, orkas and rain...

So today is very rainy, so it´s no waste to sit in an internet cafe. I`ve had enough wet sea breath for today...



The time in Esquel became a real party week, with much meat, beer and less sleep. The crown on it was the wedding of Welsh Heddus with Argentinian Luis, at which I was invited just the night before. Furtheron, we had a very nice time with Clare and Esyllt (from the language course) and the people from Wales. It was great to feel that much at home in a total strange place!
(Welsh grill meal with Esyllt and Clare on the left)

And of course, I visited the National Park Los Alerces with Clare. This was a very nice and huge NP, with great trees. The biggest Alerce tree had a diameter of more than 2,5m (or even 3?) and was very impressive. It was over 2000 years old and still going strong! Furtheron, it was a nice, but touristy boat trip over lakes, where you could see glaciers and nice mountain ranges.


On friday, I visited the CIEFAP, the research institute at the forest faculty of the Esquel University. This was a contact from Reiner Muehlsiegl from Freiburg. In Freiburg, he already told me that I really had to visit the university if I would go to Esquel, so this fitted great. And it was very interesting as well! I met with Alina Greslebin, who was doing research on (possible) spread of Phytophthora in Cypress trees. I worked at the same topic (on alder trees in Southwest Germany) for my Masterthesis, so this was great. We talked a long time and she showed me the university.
On saturday, I met friends of Reiner: Francisco and Celina invited me for dinner. This was very nice, we had a nice talk in German (which was quite relaxing after hearing much Spanish and Welsh) and after that, they brought me to the bus.


The bus drove me in one night through 800km of pampa with great sandy mountains that I couldn´t see because it was dark, to the east of Argentina, to the Atlantic coast. There you have Peninsula Valdez, a National Park, World Heritage Site and that of obvious, because there is such a great amount and variety of wildlife! Guanaco´s (llamas), sea lions (they were just changing their skin and laying quiet on the beach), see elephants, orkas, penguins and sometimes you can even see whales (but I was off the season for that). This was a great experience.

I also met some really nice people, had a camping sit in with French Frederic and I had a very nice day with Georg and Irme from Austria. We started with coffee while waiting for the tour bus to the wildlife sites and we ended with a nice meal. We had a lot in common and they had great tips for my travel (Georg is a wood technician who worked in the north of Argentina for half a year to set up a sawmill with sustainable wood harvest).
I also found it great to be out of the Andean dust and heat. Here it rains, is about 15 degrees and is very windy. But great, yesterday I rented a bike to experience the great wind. It`s a very special island, without ANY tree (this really hurts for a forester). It`s just plain with shrubs, sheep and guanaco`s, anywhere you look, so I`d like to call it "great Noordoostpolder".

Although my tent is not really suitable for longer rainy camping adventures: it does not resist wind very well and after a night of breathing, it rains as hard inside as outside. But well, what can you expect from an "emergy-refugio", as they call it. Therefor, I went again into a hostel in Puerto Madryn today, to dry and wash a bit.

Haha here`s a joke that I wanted to make all the time since I`ve been in Argentina. Now I finally found the right sight: you see that they didn´t forget our Dutch crown princess (who originally is from Arg.) and that they are preparing the celebrations for her 40th birthday already...


In an hour, I will drive to the ancient Welsh village Gaiman then, to meet some people of the Welsh community again. This will be a nice reunion! After that, I will fly to more or less the most southern city of the world: Ushuaia at Tierra del Fuego! I hope I can tell you more then!

Jeroen

P.S. Anamaria and Gabriella from Mendoza: I met your Irish friends on the beach of the P.Valdez (I recognised them on the footballshirt you`ve exchanged)!