The weekend was a long one because of celebrations of 200 years of Argentinean independence on Tuesday the 25th of May, 2010. Monday was also declared a public holiday by presidential decree, so it was the perfect opportunity to get away from the city for four days. We headed down on Friday afternoon at about 3pm, and arrived early on Saturday morning at about 6.30am. Adrian was there to collect us, and we discovered that there were two other first-time divers who had been on the bus with us. He told us that we were going to be diving immediately that morning, which came as a slight shock to us. We didn't expect to be diving so soon. But the weather was good, and forecasts weren't hopeful, so we were taking advantage of the weather while we could.
He dropped us at our weekend apartment, which was a very pleasant one bedroom place with a joint kitchen and lounge room, a big patio, and roof top terrace. Adrian let us know that we could watch the sunrise from the roof with a view of the ocean and that he'd return in about an hour to collect us. We did exactly that, and afterwards had a simple breakfast of media-lunas, bread rolls, jam, dulce de leche, and coffee provided as part of the cost.
Sunrise from the apartment
The dive centre was only a short two minute drive from the apartment and we arrived there at about 8am. The temperature of the water was about 11 degrees centigrade so we started getting changed into our dry suits, and met our instructor extraordinaire for the weekend, Argentinean Martin 'Kiwi' Taylor (like the fruit, due to his very short hair cut), who spoke perfect English thanks to clever parents. He is an extremely experienced diver and runs his own diving school with his partner Ana in Cordoba. I have to recommend him. He was excellent. Find their website here. What i found especially impressive about Kiwi was his willingness to share with us moments when things hadn't gone entirely to plan. He's a humble fellow and insights like those help new divers like us realise that they should never get complacent about the dangers of the sport. I think it's extremely admirable that an instructor of his experience can admit he's made mistakes.
Em gets changed into her dry suit as Adrian provides encouragement
Brennan with his suit on
After Kiwi's briefing we headed down to the beach with the rest of the gear and boarded a motor boat. We were heading to a site known as the plataforma, but the plataforma was being repaired, so we had to enter the water from the boat, and did our first backward roll with gear on.
You know those movies where the motley crew of misfits has to save the world by blowing up some natural phenomenon because the properly trained people aren't available? This photo reminds Em of that. Kiwi on the right. Photo: Ana Zivkovic
All of us on the boat about to dive. I'm having trouble turning my head because of the seal around the neck. Photo: Ana Zivkovic
From the 'plataforma' we did our first three dives at around 5 metres depth. Most of it was just drills so that Kiwi could make sure we'd learnt something in the practical sessions, but we did manage to get a chance to have a little bit of a wander for one of them, following behind Kiwi as he kept an eye on us. That was incredibly awesome, just floating around, flying over rock ledges and looking at fish and other things.
After we surfaced for the third time, we all headed to lunch together. The day had gone incredibly quickly and i was surprised to find that we were already well into the afternoon. Some of us siesta'd when we got back to the apartment, and then we went to dinner at a restaurant called Aladin (Spanish spelling), which served nice seafood and was suitable because, upon our first open water dive you could say that we had just entered 'a whole new world'. But apart from the name and some unusual decor, the restaurant really had nothing to do with Aladdin.
Em and I chatted (or tried to, with no thanks to a very loud guitarist/singer) with Rodrigo (of Argentinean Survivor fame), and his gorgeous wife and little boy Alejandro at dinner. I discovered that Alejandro was playing Super Mario Bros (the original), on a portable something, so i showed him the free life on level one, and how to get to the warp zone in level 1-2. Needless to say, he was impressed. We later learnt that due to the weather, we weren't going to be diving the following morning, so Rodrigo very kindly offered to drive us to Puerto Madryn (some 300kms away) for some wildlife watching in his new car. We exchanged numbers and headed home via the Las Grutas Casino. I didn't play, but Brennan won $250 pesos, and was the talk of the group the rest of the trip.
Rodrigo called the following morning at around 11am and told us to come to his hotel, because he didn't know where we were staying. We left Las Grutas at around 11.15am, and the drive was long. But fast. I think he averaged about 150km/h on the way there. It took us about 2.5hrs to reach Puerto Madryn, including a stop for petrol which Rodrigo insisted on paying for. There was a lot of Spanish spoken in the car, which we appreciated, because it wouldn't have been much fun trying to talk to us.
Puerto Madryn is a very pretty little town on the sea in the province of Chubut. It has a population of about 60,000 and makes its money out of industry and fishing. It also does OK out of tourism. We walked down the beach for a bit, before visiting a tourist office, and buying Rod and his family lunch at a fast food place. Then we headed to Playa El Doradillo which the tourist office had suggested. It's about 10 kms north of the town and it's possible to view whales from the shore, if the season is right.
Looking down the beach at Puerto Madryn
The season was right, and there were about eight mating pairs of Southern Right Whales in the bay. We drove to one section of the beach where there was a pair about 100m from the shore. The sound was incredible when they exhaled. We took a bunch of photos and even saw a penguin paddle past.
A mating pair of Southern Right Whales
A lone penguin paddling past
A whale sticks his/her head out of the sea
Exhale
We then made our way to a little lookout where Lobos Marinos (sea lions) hang out on the cliffs. They were very smelly, and almost as noisy. I actually thought that there were some sheep stuck down there with them because that's exactly what some of them sounded like. It was getting dark by this time, and a little difficult to take photos so we decided to leave after a quick photo of the stunning sunset.
Sea Lions on the cliffs near Puerto Madryn.
Sunset from la Loberia near Puerto Madryn
We headed back to Las Grutas from there in darkness, and at a slower pace. We stopped briefly when Rodrigo asked for something, and i took a photo of the Patagonian landscape. It reminded me a lot of the inland regions of Australia i saw on an excursion for university - huge expansive areas of flat nothing, and incredibly beautiful.
Patagonian nothingness
When we got back that night, Emmo was so tired she decided to skip dinner, while Brennan and I headed to a parilla. There was no one there who spoke English, or at least who were willing to speak it with us. Kiwi and his wife were with Adrian and his girlfriend having a couples dinner somewhere else. And they were pretty much the only English speakers on the trip, so Brennan and I were forced to stumble our way through Spanish conversation. Brennan did a lot better than I, but i think i held my own.
The next morning we had to be at the dive centre by 8am, so we were up early and out the door. We were excited about this day because we had heard we were heading to a shipwreck called the Don Felix which turned out to be the truth. Again, we geared up and got ready, and boarded two smaller zodiac type speed boats. The drivers had a little bit of trouble finding the buoy that marked the wreck, because the tide was coming in, and the buoy was half submerged thanks to the short length of its rope. But we did eventually. For this dive we had to put our gear on in the water, which was a little tricky thanks to a current. But soon it was all good and we were heading under to about 16 metres for two separate dives.
Em and I under the water at the Don Felix shipwreck. Photo: Ana Zivkovic
It's a very strange feeling being that far underwater. You really can't hear anything except yourself breathing and the bubbles rising. Things look different too. Reds and yellows are filtered out by the water, which gives everyone a sickly ghost-like appearance. We followed a rope down from the buoy which i'm glad about because the current was strong and although visibility was OK, it was still hard to see where we were going. I remember seeing the bottom of the ocean coming towards me slowly, and concentrating on my next rope hold, and then turning around to see a huge sunken ship covered in sea life and fish. It was a little bit of a surprise.
A diver at the Don Felix. Photo: Ana Zivkovic
A curious little fish amongst the wreckage of the Don Felix. Photo: Ana Zivkovic
Sea anemones growing on the wreckage of the Don Felix. Photo: Ana Zivkovic
We did some drills down there including navigating using a compass and trying to hover in a dry-suit, which isn't all that easy. If you rise just a little bit too much, the air in the suit expands, increasing your buoyancy and sending you rocketing to the surface. When this happens you have to immediately get yourself upright and tap the valve on your shoulder to release the air and send you back down. It can be a little frustrating, but I guess it's something you get used to with time and the reason the dry-suit has a separate PADI certification.
There were two separate groups that day, and we went in the morning. We managed to see a penguin swimming under the water but the afternoon group was treated to a visit by some sea lions. I was jealous. Marcelo took this incredible video of them:
Lobos Marinos (sea lions) near the Don Felix shipwreck in Las Grutas. Video by Marcelo Valentino
After this dive, we headed back to shore and had a delicious lunch of Locro, which is considered Argentina's national dish, and is often served on, or around May 25 (independence day). We filled out our new dive logs with info from Kiwi's wrist monitor and received a round of applause from the group, along with the ubiquitous diving-fist-bumps we've come to know.
Em and Brennan went back for a sleep, while i headed out to the beach to go for a wander and take some photos of the Las Grutas beach. The sun was close to setting and it was very beautiful. I was lucky to spot some dolphins making their way past, and plenty of the very noisy Burrowing Parrots.
Two young women enjoy a sunset walk along the beach at Las Grutas
Drawing in the sand at Las Grutas.
Dolphins making their way north
Burrowing Parrots in flight
I left the beach just as the sun was going down, and headed up to the street where i took this photo of some boys playing football. I really like it. It's probably my favorite of the trip:
We had dinner at Aladin again that night, but without the noisy singer this time and afterwards we headed to the Casino to lose some money.
In the morning, we went for a quick walk up the beach to 'Las Grutas' which are small caves in the sea wall, and the reason Las Grutas is called Las Grutas. We were followed by three stray dogs the whole way there and back.
One of the stray dogs which followed us on our beach walk.
A view of Las Grutas looking south down the beach.
After the walk we had lunch with everyone again. I learnt some more about what people did, and one the most interesting jobs was that of a legal hacker who is employed by major companies around the world to find holes in their online security. I don't think anyone who came on the trip was lacking money. Others were accountants, lawyers, and university employees. We then went to take a photo of the whole group with a baby whale skeleton that has been set up outdoors. On the way there we walked past the casino and saw the scene below. Argentinean casinos aren't allowed to contain ATMs, so the solution is making the ATM portable and parking it outside the Casino. As one the Argentinean divers said - 'make the law, make the cheat'.
The casino with portable ATM.
Most of the diving group at the whale skeleton
That was pretty much it for the trip. We headed back the apartment, and i passed out until we had to leave for the bus at 6.15pm. Slept all the way back to Buenos Aires. It's the best weekend I've had in Argentina so far.
Wanna dive? Do it Argentina:
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http://scubaranch.com.ar/
http://www.cotacerobuceo.com.ar/
