6. Puerto Madryn, Argentina

Puerto Madryn

We are almost half way now from Montevideo to Tierra del Fuego, the tip of South America. Puerto Madryn is a small port city at the northern end of Patagonia.

Argentine Sea

The Argentine Sea is one of the world's largest seas, stretching from Rio de la Plata to the Magellan Strait at the tip of South America. It is relatively moderate in temperature. I should know, I swam in it.

Flag of Argentina with the Sun of May

For those of you who are interested in vexillology (a new word for most readers: the study of maps), there is much information available about Argentina's flag. Centred, is the Sun of May: from the Inca sun god, or from the May Revolution in 1810 when Argentina gained its independence from the Spanish Empire?

How does it differ from the Uruguayan flag? They are  similar, yet different. This is all quite vexing. Sorry, I did not shoot the Uruguayan flag. You'll have to find it yourself.

At the Malvinas Heroes Monument
 we respectfully removed our hats.
This we learned to do at the San Martin Mausoleum in Buenos Aires

Playa Luis Piedrabuena (aka beach by the pier)

I don't think I got the name of the beach right but that's where I had a quick dip, rather than a swim, because I don't like to swim around ships, especially the older ones that do not have holding tanks for you-know-what ...
Anyway, the water was warm. This is summer in Argentina, after all. 

Today is Christmas Eve. 

From the Marina's daily newspaper we read:

Sunny

High 85F/29C

Sunrise 5:39 am. Sunset 8:54 pm

The latitude is about 42 degrees South. The California/Oregon border is approximately the equivalent latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. I usually do not  swim in the cold Pacific waters of Northern California. Even way south, the LA surfers wear shorty wetsuits. The warm Brazilian current warms these waters of the Argentine Sea. I did not expect to be able to swim in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of northern Patagonia, just 175 km north of the largest Magellan Penguin colony on the continent!

So what do we do on a hot Christmas Eve shore leave in Patagonia? 

Mas Amor Por Favor Dress Shop

Buy my wife a Christmas present. I had been procrastinating again. 

1. An open credit card at the Mas Amor Por Favor (More Love Please) dress shop for little local blonde girls?

or

2. Buy her a whole selection of local Argentinian craft beers?

Antiguas Costumbres 

Beagle Beer

Antares + Two

Antares + Four

Surprise Labels

or

3. Offer her carte blanche at the local wine store for the best Argentinean wine on the shelf?

Descorche Vinoteca

She chose the wine. It was a very special limited Malbec that is not exported. It was our Christmas dinner wine at the  Marina's  French restaurant - JACQUES.

Piattelli is exported, though not this 2017 Reserve, I believe. High elevation vineyards? Don't know much about that but we trust our taste for wine. She has the glass at home now for the pretenders and for the memories.

Me? I got fingerless wool gloves for Christmas. A perfect gift for the photographer guy when we got further south into the cold.

Headless photographer. See gloves.

(after 49.5 yrs of marriage who needs bigger gifts? Actually, the cruise was the gift - Christmas and Anniversary)





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the fingers of Punta del Este

Speaking of fingers, I forgot to place the fingers on the right in the Punta del Este blog posting.

What? Look them up. I'm not going back. Gotta move on.

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Little did we know that the waters around Puerto Madryn are the breeding grounds for the Southern Right Whale - the "Queen of the Patagonian Waters". We just missed them. They had left these waters in early December with their calves for the feeding grounds southeast of here - above the north coast of Antarctica. 

One of several information panels at the whale interpretation centre

Had we been here only a few weeks earlier we probably would have seen these very inquisitive mammals. We learned that all three species of the right whale are endangered. Here are their estimated numbers today:

1. Southern Right Whale - 10,000 - 12,000

2. Northern Right Whale - 450

3. Pacific Right Whale - less than 100 (near extinction)

These horrifying numbers are the result of more than a century of whaling, now almost completely shut down.

I was a little surprised, and happy, to learn that all shipping traffic along the coast of Argentina must stay at least 50 miles from the coast, and reduce their speeds. This, to minimize danger and trauma to whales. Such rules now apply in most coastal countries.

World reduction in the whaling industry has reduced the harvesting of whales, their mortalities continue to  with whale/ship collisions, noise pollution, fish nets, toxins, and more.

While on the subject of preservation of species, I must say that Argentina is certainly doing its bit. In fact, The government flexes its muscles on the Argentine Sea. 

A small military type ship was berthed near our cruise ship. It was the coast guard, the Prefacto GC-28.

Argentina's coast guard is called the Prefectura or Prefecto. As with all national coast guard services, one of its major responsibilities is to protect its national waters from human piscivores, namely, poachers of its fish. 

The images painted on cutter's upper starboard bulkhead really caught my eye. (zoom in please) What is that fleet of 20 ships? What's with the mad gun-toting shark?

Prefecto Derbes GC-28 - Coast Guard cutter

I asked these questions of the local wharfinger. He had little English and I, little Spanish. We engaged in   a sort of pantomime to extract information and meaning but alas, all the gesticulations, grunting, ahh-ing and umm-ing, mouth breathing, and dancing about came to nought, except perhaps, some unexpected  entertainment for passers-by. 

After the last shrugging of shoulders I took some photographs. I did sense that the Argentinian was proud that I did.

This is what I learned when we got home:

The scary anchor-riding shark with the automatic rifle  is the coat of arms of this cutter. The crown of stars probably represents successful engagements with the shark's prey.

The boats on the wall are fish boats, most of them  Chinese. What they all have in common is that they were caught fishing in Argentine waters by the Prefacto GC-28 - not a good thing. In some cases the interlopers were scared off, escaping into international waters. Some, however, were not so lucky.

The pictures of the boats on the GC-28's bragging  wall represent engagements, or "kills" (by the nasty shark?), just like we used to see on the fuselage of WWll fighter planes.

The name of each ship and the date on interception is indicated.

Of particular note is the  LU YAN YUAN YU 010.

From Wikipedia: It was sunk on 15 March 2016 off the coast of Argentina by the Argentine Coast Guard during a territorial fishing dispute. There were no fatalities. According to trade sources, the ship had been involved in disputes over fishing rights before.
(There is more juicy information about the incident than this).

Don't mess with the Argentine Prefectura!

...ooo0ooo...

next blog post is: Ushuaia, Argentina

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing 

5. Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo

Montevideo is much more than these opening shots, but this building is such a signature of this great old city that I wanted to lead with it.

Palacio Salvo

Puerto de la Ciudadela
and Palacio Salvo 

TIP for viewing photos: There is more in the photos than can be displayed in this format. Click 

on a photo to enlarge it then return to the page by clicking on the left arrow of your browser. 

The Palacio Salvo, almost 100 metres high, was designed by Italian architect, Mario Palanti in 1928. It was intended to be a lighthouse but apparently that did not fly. Now it's home to offices and residences. I will take any one of the rooms on any of the top floors, or all of them, but especially with the view to the Atlantic Ocean - that would be about a 200 degree panorama from northwest to southeast.

Palacio Salvo Arcade

Should you visit this city, try to find time to explore this monumental pile of architecture. There are surprises everywhere.

Seafood capital sculpting on Palacio Salvo

Umm, sea life is seafood to me, so I am 

probably erring in my labeling of this picture. 

Anyway, there are many more such bronze castings at the tops of the marble pillars that support the vaulted ceilings of this amazing old building. It's one of my favourite anywhere.

In some ways, for some people, it is kind of an ugly building, over-designed, top heavy, militaristic phallic, castle-like ...

Progress and industry from fish boats to
container ships, from block buildings
to knife blade erections that touch the clouds.

This is the first building we saw when our ship pulled into the harbour. Montevideo has not been left behind in world class urban architecture.

London - Paris 1908 that is below the clock,

that is below the widow's walk ... the circular

dentil trim below the dome ... the world

balancing on the figure's head ???  

There is lots of green space in and around the city, and, of course, lots of waterfront, but the buildings in the old city really drew my attention. 

What is the story behind this particular building? I am sure that research would answer a lot of questions. An architectural-historical tour of some of the large South American cities would be most interesting.

This old residence  needs a major restoration. Click on the photo to zoom in on the sad decay. We have not seen this extent of deterioration in Europe, the birthplace of these designs.

Post-imperial Latin America really seems to be struggling to maintain this kind of legacy architecture.

Our guide in Santiago was describing how indebted his country is to Spain who has Chile on a very long-term payback schedule for financing the much needed national highways projects.

I guess maintaining infrastructure is a higher priority than urban heritage.

needs some refinishing

well looked after

Close up of well preserved craftsmanship

Back to the dock now where there is always a WIFI centre at the terminal. Why? Because the wifi on the ship is sketchy, crippled, unreliable.

We were told that poor network services in the Southern Hemisphere is because of  the dependence on satellite communication - simply because we are below the equator. What am I not understanding about this? 

I learned from an IT crew member on the ship that the crew really suffers from not being able to communicate well with family at home. In the port terminals we see more off-duty crew with their thumbs on their devices than any one else.

So strange to see these "shipwrecks".
Not an uncommon sight in South American and Caribbean ports. Why is this?

Leaving now for the south Atlantic. Notice the brownish water. This is still the outflow of the silt-laden Rio de la Plata emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The water is like this for a long way out.

Good-bye Montevideo 

Uruguay Coast Sunset


...ooo0ooo...

next blog post is: Puerto Madryn, Argentina

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing 

4. Punta del Este, Uruguay

Punta del Este, Uruguay

M/V Marina where we hung our hat for 20 days 

I took this photo from our tender to the wharf at Punta del Este. In post-processing I applied an effect called "surrealistic".

Why? Because it was.

Our tender (just kidding)

Our ship-to-shore tender

For some unknown reason, the ship sailed past Uruguay for our day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The  next day we pointed north across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay: Punta del Este, then on to Montevideo.

Punta del Este is Uruguay's seaside resort city. It attracts money, therefore, high-rise condominiums and pricey shoreside homes, marinas with expensive  yachts, good shopping and great restaurants. The year-round population of about 10,000 climbs to around 1/2 million during the summer season - end of Dec to early March.

Women's fashion store 
with an interesting name

We walked around, did some shopping, had a great seafood lunch, and of course, swam in the mild surf before catching the last tender back to the ship.

The bag I am carrying holds some really good local wine

This tiramisu was lighter than air!

The tannat grape was new to us. 

Originating in southwest France, this grape is now more common in Uruguay. It is their national grape.

This vino tinto was a very nice inexpensive tannat/merlot blend. It paired well with the osso bucco dinner that night at the Marina's Toscana Restaurant. The last glass was saved for a shared tiramisu. Wow!

Here is a map of our cruise showing the route from Rio de Janeiro to Santiago.

Large scale map of the voyage

This map jumps way ahead to when we sail through the Chilean fjords. The arrow designates our position on Day 17; the thin blue line marks the track taken; the red is the route to our destination. We are not there yet.

...ooo0ooo...

next post Montevideo

Montevideo. Plaza Independencia

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing