Feb 13th, Peninsula Valdes, car trouble

We wake early with the dawn. Julio is already outside, coaxing the fire back to life so we can make coffee.

It is really windy. This is a problem with kayaking. It becomes a great deal less fun when you have to fight that much.

After breakfast, we break up camp and go back to the beach to say hello to the pinguins. In my hurry to do so, I believe I dropped a bag where we had all of our dried fruit, chocolate (gasp!), coffee, tang, my little army knife, a beloved present from my sister, marmalade, and other food. We can't be sure, but it seems the most likely possibility, as we both definitely saw that bag that very morning, but could not find it later. Oh well. Add that to the long list of things I've already lost on this trip. Playing with the pinguins a bit was a lot of fun, though!




Then we drove to the only town in this place, Puerto Piramides, where Julio has a friend, Pablo. Pablo informs us that the weather will be bad for kayaking all day, and Julio decides that maybe we can go to different points on the Peninsula by car instead. So we leave our kayaks with Pablo (he owns a few himself, and rents them out to tourists) so the car is lighter and head off to Punta Norte, where we will arrive after about an hour and a quarter, at about the same time as high tide.

After going through desert landscapes and seeing lots of guanacos, an animal related to the lama, we get there. It is really really hot, and we are covered in dust. As we got our hair salty with the sea the day before, the dust sticks to it, and we have a good laugh at how old we look! This reminds me of a photo of Claire and David I have, while they were doing construction work on their home, and they ended up in a similar state.

This part of the Peninsula is the wide sea, and there are orcas living here at this time of the year. As well as a huge (over 1000) colony of noisy sea lions with their pups. Everyone seems to be waiting for something, lots of questions about when, exactly is high tide, along with ooohs and aaahs whenever we see, at a distance, the orcas' fins come up. Until then I had thought that the high tide business was because, from the lookout point from where we are allowed to watch the seals, they are much more visible at high tide. But when Julio mumbles how morbid this all is, I find out that no, it's that the orcas beach themselves at high tide to eat the pups, and then manage to get back to sea with the next wave. Everyone is waiting to see an orca play with a pup live. I feel my heart sink, but of course, this is normal. Except that orcas like to play with their food before eating it, and this part I am not looking forward to.


We wait and wait and wait and wait, high tide comes and goes, and we are hungry. Julio gives me the keys to the car so I can get us some fruit, teasing that I will manage to miss everything. I secretly hope I do.

His car is pretty old and beat up, and none of the keys work that well. I always have a hard time opening the trunk, because you have to be a little forceful with the lock. Which is why I am not surprised when I am unable to turn it right once the key is wedged in. I try to turn with more force.

And the key breaks in the lock! My jaw drops, I look at the key stub I now hold in my head, think of everything in the trunk (all our camping and snorkeling gear, including wet suits, as well as most of our food) and run back to Julio.

When he sees me arrive with a panicked look on my face, and I tell him what I've done and that we can't get into the trunk, he has one look at the bunch of keys, starts to laugh that really heart-felt laugh of his, the one where his eyes get all crinkly, and says the trunk is the least of our problems, that's the ignition's key I've broken, and now we can't start the car. He keeps on laughing as my panic changes to horror.

That's one thing I love about Julio. Nothing is ever cause to panic, or worry, or get angry about. It calms me. When he is done laughing he says well, sit down, we might still see a pup being eaten. I sit without a word. Hungry? he asks. No, I've lost my appetite!

Well, I guess the orcas were not hungry that day, but Julio is happy, he hadn't seen orcas here before.


A "peludo" (hairy one), related to the armadillo.

And now we have a problem to deal with. He starts taking the front of the car apart while I go hunt down someone who looks foreign, because I am sure they will have a swiss army knife. I lost my big one after Aconcagua, and my little one is, I still believe, in the trunk.

I find a group of very cool Tcheks, and they have every knife and tool imaginable! But they don't manage to retrieve the key, and leave apologizing for not being able to help, although they gave us so much of their time. Meanwhile, Julio has more success. After taking apart the whole wheel it seems to me, he finds someone who teaches him to start the car with a screwdriver. It starts. Wow! Julio laughs. I guess he never doubted it would work.

We drive back to Puerto Piramides, to the gas station. He finds a hammer, destroys the trunk's lock, and now we have access to everything. Can't lock it though, but the expedition can go on... I am feeling very sheepish, but Julio just says this is what's great about these old cars. Everything can be fixed by banging on it.



We go to another beach that night. It's a beautiful, wonderful spot, completely isolated, we are the only ones there. We get the wet suits on (the water is too cold to swim without them) and get in. Julio is planning on hunting our meal tonight. He looks pretty impressive all decked out in his black suit and harpoon.

Julio Bond

I have one his friend Christian lent me, it is a camouflage suit. The fish can't see you approach because you look like a bunch of algae. Out of water, of course, you look ridiculous.



To get in the water, we have to climb down these walls, get through some rocks, and then bypass a dead baby seal. That was disgusting. It was completely white, albino. I guess its mother must have abandoned it.

Julio hunts while I take pictures and film. We get back up as the sun is going down and the wind up, and the ground is so hard that we can't set up the tents properly. Originally I was doing that but he ends up having to help me as I am unable to prevent the tents from flying in every direction. We end up using the lead weights that we use to be able to sink while wearing neoprene suits to hold the tents down.



Pretty cool camping spot. Very windy though.

Until the moon comes up it is so dark that we need the carlights to be able to see.

Julio makes a tasty ceviche with lots of lemon with the fish he just caught, and we make pasta, with another bottle of wine. It is beyond delicious and I find it incredible to be eating fish that was just hunted. It doesn't get any fresher than that! I could soooooo get used to this!