Argentina
November 6-29, 2009
November 9: Buenos Aires To Puerto Madryn
Today we headed off from Buenos Aires to drive to Puerto Madryn which even with some rerouting, was estimated to be a 16 hour drive. Of course, since we were too tired to do much the night before, we ended up packing up in the morning and getting a later start than we had planned.
Leaving Buenos Aires we purportedly travelled on the widest avenue in the world: Avenida 9 de Julio. From there most of the day was spent on highway 3 driving south through the Pampas. The Pampas is a region almost synonymous with Argentina itself. This is the birthplace of the gaucho and source of much of Argentina's wealth - the grain and beef produced by this incredibly fertile farmland constitute the bulk of the country's exports.
And that's about as exciting as it gets. Think Prairies, only bigger and flatter. For hours we drove past fields of cattle. Sparse clumps of trees would indicate the buildings of the estancia that the surrounding land belonged to. Every now and then there would be a warning sign showing a ridiculously steep incline which in the end was barely a dip in the road (the speed bumps on Booth Street in Ottawa are bigger hills than what you find in the pampas!). And the joke of the day was "Just keep going straight!"
Although the #3 highway started off as a nice divided highway, this soon came to an end and our pace was slowed down considerably as we'd end up stuck behind transport trucks with too much traffic to pass. The pace picked up again once we passed the turn-off for Olavarria and there was considerably less traffic. I won't say how fast we were going since Rubby's mom will most likely read this. ;-)
Despite the relative monotony of the drive, it did afford us the opportunity to notice things we might otherwise have missed. Things like the extraordinary number of dead animals we saw... apparently when a cow dies in the field, they don't bother to remove it and leave it to rot instead. We also saw quite a lot of cows and dogs as road kill and there were lots of warning signs about "animales sueltos"... which translate to "wild animals" but refers more to free-roaming domestic animals rather than actual wildlife. Then there was the customs of the road... such as the tendency to signal left but pull off to the side of the road on the right, wait for the traffic to pass and *then* make the left hand turn. Or the flashing of lights which kept us guessing our entire trip as to what we could possibly be doing wrong, only to finally conclude that this was just a friendly hello.
The kids were fabulous. Mostly they napped, read books, looked out the window, or played with their toy cars. Samantha had a little seed pod thing that she had picked up in Buenos Aires and for about half an hour she would continuously point it at her brother and say "Pick a banana!" prompting gales of laughter from Christopher. We had our first stop for a late lunch in a town called Benito Juárez. It was 1pm and the town was like a ghost town... all the shops were closed for the noon siesta and the streets were empty. It was quite windy as we found a bench in the city centre square and fiested on empanadas, sweets and fanta that Christine had packed for us. After eating we decided to walk around a bit to let the kids stretch their legs and before leaving town we stopped off at a little grocery store to grab a few snack items.
As we headed further south the winds got stronger and we could often see sand storms blowing across the fields. And all of a sudden we were at the border of Patagonia. And our first roadblock. Literally. An agricultural food inspection station. The guy in the uniform didn't speak any english but what we could gather was that he was asking us if we had any fruits or meats. Eager to move on we just played dumb and said no but he insisted on Rubby opening the trunk. oops! There was the bag of fruit that Christine had given us along! Apparently no fruits or meats are allowed to pass the border into the Patagonia province for pest control. So we had the option of having the food confiscated or eating it. Not wanting to waste all that fruit, we took the 'eat' option. The guards actually opened up another lane so we could park there and for the next 10 minutes we sat in the car chomping away at our fruit, watching the guards occasionally casting glances at us and laughing. *grin* As we finally left, our undercarriage was squirted with some kind of insecticide spray.
The rest of the drive was quite uneventful . We had contemplated stopping en route somewhere but it became obvious that even the "coastal" roads don't get a view of the ocean so we kept going. It was well past midnight when we arrived in Puerto Madryn after 1435 km driving. The trip took us 17.5 hours in total and we spent the rest of the night trying to get some shut eye in a freezing car at the side of the road (don't worry, the kids had blankets... it was only the grown-ups who were freezing!).
our route.
Christopher must have been zonked last night cause despite ending up on the hard floor,
he did not seem to want to wake up!
Zucaritas... they don't even try and pretend there's much other than sugar in these! ;-)
Sammy and Christopher chill while we pack up the car.
Leaving Argentina on Avenida 9 de Julio (named after Argentina's Independence Day on July 9, 1816). It's as wide as two full city blocks and has 12 traffic lanes - fortunately, there's a large central reserve, because you can't do the pedestrian crossing in a single traffic light rotation.
A bird of paradise flower along the street.
Standing 67 metres high at the junction of the 9 Julio and Avenida Corrientes, the white spear of El Obelisco is an unmistakable Buenos Aires landmark and an iconic symbol of the city. It was placed here in 1936 in celebration of some major events in the city's life - the founding of the city, raising the flag of Independence in 1812 and Buenos Aires becoming the nation's capital in 1880.
Another monument along 9 Julio.
And we're off...!!! A nice empty multi lane highway to start our trip.
Of course you can't get much speed going when there's a toll every other minute,
but I guess they have to pay for the road somehow!
Along the way we saw lots of places that looked like they were settlements from the distance
but turned out to be giant walled cemeteries instead.
The pampas... windswept and flat.
The kids are being good... Sam is playing with her cat Silver and Christopher is napping.
Another town turns out to be a cemetery.
A short detour takes us to Benito Juárez. It's siesta time and the place looks like a ghost town.
After lunch, Christopher and Samantha enjoy a game of tag (aka "run around like crazy") in the park.
The fountain and the parish church (1878) in the background.
We take a quick peek inside the church.
Lots of beautiful trees in the park.
Palacio Municipal (1904)
Christopher at the fountain.
Samantha trying to lift a palm frond which had fallen...
...from this palm tree.
Christopher enjoying being out of the car.
Really? Is there even any point?
Back on the road we see more fields of cattle and we start to wonder if the haziness up ahead means rain.
Nope, not rain. Dust!
A rather gruesome 'statue' and reminder of the dangers of "animales sueltos".
These treed areas next to the road are the closest thing to rest stops in Argentina.
Note the sky keeps darkening from more dust in the air.
We were surprised to not see more of these windmills around... there certainly is lots of wind to get power from!
Between the smog and the dust, visibility just kept getting worse!
Stopped at the fruit inspection station. Time to eat all our fruit so we don't have to toss it!
Can you see the "hills" in the distance? Accordingly the speed limit is reduced to 60 km/h up ahead. ???!!!!
Pit stop!
It's too windy outside so Samantha and Christopher enjoy their supper in the back seat while watching the birds.
The trees are full of birds such as pigeons and these super long tailed swallow-like birds.
Bird on a wire.
Watch out! A huge incline!
Another one! Are we in the Andes yet?!
There's our shadow!
Giant onion.
We saw lots of these huge signs indicating the town names but often we couldn't see any sign of the town itself.
The sun sets as we continue our drive into the night.
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