Estamos en Puerto Deseado

Go Cooperativa Sportsman… you rock! This bus company saved us by allowing us to arrive in Puerto Deseado on the right day πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

It’s not what you’re thinking though… it is not because we were badly planned and there were no seats left on the buses apart from with this company… it was because the route to Puerto Deseado was blocked between Comodoro Rivadavia (our starting point) and Caleta Olivia…Β This blockage – a bunch of YPF trucks across the road with the workers protesting not being paid – did not deter Cooperativa Sportsman… while other bus companies dutifully stayed on the highway in the line behind the trucks, cars and other buses – hoping that the talks would be successful and the YPF workers would move on… we instead moved onto the gravel road and carried on past the line of vehicles to get as close to the blockage as possible… once there, we awaited instructions!

We then all got off the bus, got our luggage out of the hold and proceeded on foot (with the police carefully looking on) past the blockage to another Cooperativa Sportsman bus that was waiting for us on the other side… it felt a bit like a prisoner swap as passengers from the bus on the other side were also walking across the blocked part of the road to where we’d just come from… A surreal experience, but we were very happy as it meant we didn’t have to delay our arrival in Puerto Deseado πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Puerto Deseado was an awesome place – it’s small and friendly and has heaps of birds as it’s located on the estuary of the River Deseado… the only downside was the Patagonian wind and rain!!! But hey – with days built in to our schedule for bad weather – we were excited to be there πŸ™‚

There wasn’t much to do in town, but there was a cool lighthouse church…

The lighthouse church… looks like a normal church until you take a closer look… it’s also used as a lighthouse!
Check out the lighthouse aspect of the church… makes sense to me… this way everyone benefits from the church’s presence πŸ™‚

Hanging out by the river in town was nice too (even nicer when we managed to find a sheltered area out of the wind, but this didn’t happen often!?!) – there are not many places that you can sit on a park bench and watch penguins swim by πŸ™‚

PB hangs out by the river.
Tower Rock – a natural (and pretty impressive)Β  landmark – on the other side of the river πŸ™‚

There was also a great walk straight out ofΒ Puerto Deseado – the camino costero – this walk (well a walk for us – most people seemed to be driving it to be honest!) follows the river, past several canyons, a small lake with flamingos, cliffs with rock cormorants and islands in the river which are inhabited by penguins and other birds… it was awesome, but somewhat tiring as we had to battle the Patagonian elements along the trail. Here are some pictures of some of the best bits of the walk πŸ™‚

River Deseado from the coastal walk.
We were promised flamingos by the tourist office… there were 2 in the lake… we wanted more, but 2 is better than none!
CC strolls through one of the canyons
It’s pretty empty here in Puerto Deseado… when you’re not looking at the river this is what you get!
It’s lunch time and PB has found us the perfect spot πŸ™‚
A beach of sorts… and on the other side of these cliffs…. birds!!! πŸ™‚
A crested duck in river deseado
Dolphin Gull heading back to his nest after a hard day out!?!
Red-legged cormorant family hanging out on the cliffs
Another picture of a beautiful red-legged cormorant – as I have no self-control when it comes to picking bird pictures for blog posts πŸ˜‰

On the way home (all our hotels/airbnbs/hostels tend to get referred to as home these days..) we heard a strange ‘ tuc tuc’ noise… it was a tuco-tuco… wonder how he got his name πŸ˜‰

Mr Tuco-tuco pops his head out of his burrow to wish us a good afternoon.

We loved Puerto Deseado… and the wildlife tours we went on there were amazing too… but more on that in a different post!

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