After what I would like to call a posh bus journey minus a night of screaming kids we arrived in Puerto Madryn in the dark at 6am where we checked in to Posada del Catalejo. It was time for dorm number two but the accommodation located in an old-fashioned building had a lovely relaxed home stay feel with great staff and the heating was on. This was needed as we had just entered Patagonia and it was freezing. Not equipped for the winter weather it was time to buy footwear, gloves and a thermal vest as the flip flops and t- shirts just wouldn’t cut it.
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| Our arrival terminal in the daylight hours |
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| Our converted old-fashioned hostel |
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| Inside the cute Posada del Catalejo |
Puerto Madryn was founded by Welsh settlers in 1886 and takes its name from Love Parry, Barron of Madryn. It is a quaint town set on the coast or in a sheltered port facing Golfo Nuevo. Even with the tourism boom the small town retains just that with the local radio still announcing lost dogs. Puerto Madryn holds its own as a beach town but come June to mid-December whale season starts. Good timing on our part and it didn’t take long to see the whales as we headed down to the beach and caught our first glimpse of the magnificent creatures breaching out at sea. We even saw some seals chilling on the pier and one random lone flamingo. It looked like our trip south was going to be worth it.
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| Madryn's gorgeous beach but way too cold for a dip! |
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| The towns 500m pier makes a great whale spotting platform |
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| A Sea-Lion snuggle |
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| Our first whale sighting from the beach. We had only been in town an hour... |
Thinking about the pennies we took full advantage of being able to use the hostels kitchen facilities as we decided it was time to cook in after visiting the local supermarket. Being able to take your own beer into the hostel was also a bonus and we sampled Quilmes Red and Imperial Lager. We were back on the beer trail with our first taste of the Argentine brews after getting carried away with the red wine in BA.
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| Back to student cooking. Pasta with hotdog sausages! |
QUILMES RED, VIENNA STYLE, ARGENTINA, 4.6%ABV
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| Quilmes Red Lager |
Quilmes Red is brewed in Buenos Aires by Cerveceria Malteria Quilmes SAICAY (InBev).
The beer poured a light red copper colour. It had a creamy off white head with decent cling that didn’t hold for too long.
The aroma was of toasted malt, with caramel and a hint of toffee plus slight floral hops. Its taste was of very sweet malt with the caramel and toffee notes coming through on the palette. It was a shame that the floral hops vanished and that the hoppy bitterness was way too low for my liking.
In my opinion it needed a more sweet bitter balance get those hops in there, come on don’t be shy! To finish the body was nice and creamy with low carbonation but overall it wasn’t a bad beer just OK.
I think that I just expected too much after seeing that Quilmes had a range that diversified from Blonde. Maybe the Bock and Stout when I get there will excite.
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| My first beer in Argentina |
http://www.cerveceriaymalteriaquilmes.com/index.php?page=nota&id=44
IMPERIAL, PALE LAGER, ARGENTINA, 5.5%ABV
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| Imperial Lager |
Imperial Lager is again brewed by Quilmes in Buenos Aires.
The beer pours a dark yellow colour with a small frothy white head and a fair lacing. The aroma is of malt, moderate hops and maybe a slice of white bread. The taste is fairly bland with hints of malty sweetness and floral hops. It has a light body and is somewhat watery with an overexcited carbonation and dry metallic finish.
Not great pretty much forgot about the lager as soon as I had finished the small bottle. Sampling tick but won’t be going back for round two. I suppose Quilmes won’t want to brew another blonde better than the big brother. Quilmes Cristal that we will get to very shortly wins this contest for me.
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| Argentine beer number 2. We are officially on a roll... |
http://www.cerveceriaymalteriaquilmes.com/
The region is famous as a gateway for the UNESCO World Heritage site Peninsular Valdes one of South America’s finest wildlife reserves. We headed out on day trip with a great local guide who introduced us to Mate and we enjoyed the day with two Kiwis, Brooke & Chris.
MATE
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| Looking into the depths of Mate |
Mate is a popular traditional Argentinean infusion made with the leaves of the Yerba Plant.
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| Advertisements for the dried pressed Yerba plant |
Once dried and pressed, the leaves are put into a gourd called Mate (made of wood or other materials) and hot water is poured over it. The infusion is sipped through a Bombilla (a filtered metal straw).
Enjoying Mate is a very social event where one is shared amongst friends. You see people constantly topping up there Mate everywhere from the street to long bus journeys. You never touch the Bombilla and always use one hand. The taste is very bitter but sugar is sometimes added so the original format can be an acquired taste for some.
If offered it can be considered rude not to accept but it you do decline just say ‘Gracias’ with a smile of course. When accepting no words are needed. You just give a tuff game face and away you go. I love the stuff but friends don’t worry. The whole apparatus will be coming home with me for you all to try.
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| Mate Game Face!!! |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)
We learnt a lot about the Southern Right Whales (Bellena Franca Austral) and other local wildlife including guanacos, rheas, magellanic penguins and numerous seabirds, but we decided not to go on the whale watching boat as we had other whale watching plans.
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| Our guide explaining the whales diet & other interesting facts |
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| A skeleton of a Southern Right Whale inside the Peninsular Valdes visitors centre |
Instead we explored Punta Piramides a sleepy old salt port set amongst sandy cliffs and blue sea.
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| Sleepy fishing town of Punta Piramides |
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| Whale watching boat being pushed out to sea by a tractor |
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| The towns sandy cliffs |
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| Time for Kate to check out the gee gee's... |
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| ...indulge in more of our favourite Argentine pasties... |
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| ...& me to dream about tasting these badboys... |
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| ...never did but would have been memorable I'm sure |
http://www.memorablegourmet.com/en/productos_cervezas.php
http://listado.mercadolibre.com.ar/CERVEZA-EN-PORRON-ARTESANAL-MEMORABLE
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| Time for a couple of crazy armadillos in the car park before the return journey |
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| The beautiful but dry, harsh, barron landscape |
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| San Jose Gulf |
One thing about the world adventure has been to make sure that we see and do everything we want to. Seeing the whales in Argentina was well up there on our list so we hired bicycles for the 50 km round trip to El Doradillo Beach.
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| Heading out of Puerto Madryn on the 50km round trip |
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| El Doradillo Beach |
This was one day we will never forget as at high tide the giant Southern Right Whales come to within 10m of the beach. It was quite unbelievable being able to just sit on the beach and watch these amazing creatures play with their young and relax right in front of you. We could also see the whales breaching a little further out to sea. It was something else, they were so close and it was like nothing we had ever seen. We always say that if it’s difficult to get somewhere then it’s usually worth it and this was the case.
You may ask why these whales are here at this time of year. The answer to that question is that the warmer, safer, more enclosed waters along the Golfo Nuevo and Golfo San Jose offer a perfect breeding ground as they make their way north from Antarctica to breed and give birth to their young.
The scenery and views on the ride there were amazing but the bike ride itself was difficult to say the least. The Chilean Volcano was somewhat to blame as the dirt roads were covered in ash and it was like trying to cycle on a beach. Saddle sore and exhausted it was going to be a while before we climbed on another bicycle but it has made the list of best days on the trip!
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| It would be a long way back to base for the two cyclists |
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| Great scenary and an amazing day. One of the best... |
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| ...even when we had to battle the volcanic ash |
Puerto Madryn is definitely a place worth visiting and at different times of year there are always amazing things to see from the Southern Right Whales to Killer Whales and Penguins. It is a wildlife oasis.
The town allowed us to feed our empanada addictions and we dined out one night at Lizard Cafe for a cheese overloaded Roquefort Pizza. To be honest some other toppings might have helped as were struggling to breathe but at least we were able to wash it down with a Quilmes Cerveza Cristal. I know it’s a little rude that it took a week before I tried the Original Quilmes in Argentina.
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| Feed the addiction and a little pun for my mate Ash who works for Heineken out in Dubai |
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| Way way way way too much cheese, the beer saved the day with the pilsner cutting through the oily cheese |
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| Finally Quilmes Cristal |
QUILMES CRISTAL, PALE LAGER, ARGENTINA, 4.9%ABV
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| Quilmes Cristal |
The Argentine Brewery, Cerveceria y Malteria Quilmes was founded in 1888 in Quilmes a Buenos Aires Province by Otto Bemberg who was a German immigrant.
The brewery quickly grew and was the most popular beer in BA by the 1920’s. Quilmes beer is now a national symbol with over 75% of the Argentinean beer market and it is definitely what the locals drink. The company’s colours are Argentina’s light blue and white and it is the sponsor of the country’s football team where the people are fanatical.
Since 2005 the brewery has six plants and exports to a large proportion of Central and South America as well as the USA and Europe including the UK.
The world’s largest brewing company InBev now holds 91% of Quilmes and has full control over the Quilmes name. The brewery has an ever increasing portfolio that includes Quilmes Cristal, Bock, Stout, Red and Light just to name a few. Oops nearly forgot the new member to the family Quilmes Lieber (non-alcoholic).
Right let’s get back to the beer that we associate Argentina with, Quilmes Cristal. Having drank this many times before in the UK I knew what I was going to get, and I do remember the time when it was first launched in the UK and hit the bar scene in Leeds. It quickly became the beer of choice for the cool bartenders which quickly filters through to the consumer as a must have.
A lot I think has to do with being a new beer seen as different and quite exotic coming from a far away land but sampling as I do now, and trying to put it into the beer world makes it more difficult but honesty is the way forward. You have to think as well that apart from Sol and Corona the UK market in general has been flooded with South American brews, but let’s face it this part of the world is cool with great spirits, wine, music and food. I have also heard on the grapevine that craft breweries are popping up everywhere in Argentina with huge growth and popularity. Let’s hope so.
Quimes Cristal doesn’t really hold many thrills and definitely doesn’t stand out from the pale lager crowd but from a major beer producer that should not shock. Cristal pours a light gold colour with a frothy white head with little cling. The aroma is of sweet malt with some floral hops and this runs through into the taste profile. It is very light with high carbonation and a watery feel. Pale malt is what you taste with some hop bitterness. Saying this it is non-offensive, refreshing, easy drinking and does not have that metallic element that a lot of macro brews do have. It’s OK and one that I will drink in the future, great for a session with friends.
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| The Cristal poured well, good frothy head in the Lizard Cafe |
www.quilmes.com.ar
Before we go I can’t believe I nearly forgot to mention the dogs, and I don’t mean the unbelievably cute dog at the hostel but more the street dogs. They are not particularly frightening but they are crazy. Every time we left the hostel we had a new friend and it was quite remarkable how they seemed to try and protect you, barking at moving vehicles and people couldn’t get within five feet of you. They were very loyal and would wait outside shops and cafes until we were ready to carry on the walk.
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| Cute hostel dog was like a mini-sheep |
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| At least our personal bodyguard/guide loved beer... |
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| ...& Empanadas! |
So far Argentina is going well, BA was great, Puerto Madryn topped it and next we were heading into the deep south of Patagonia to El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier.
Bus journey one was with Andes Mar and our second posh journey would be on board an El Pinguino. This would take us twenty hours south to Rio Gallegos before we boarded another bus for a further four hours to El Calafate. Again we opted for the cheapest class which is Semi Cama but ouch it still set us back £100 each.
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| Heading out deeper into Patagonia |
We had now ventured deep into Patagonia where it felt like the end of the earth and the temperatures were turning arctic.
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| The end of the earth was coming... |
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| ...& so was the snow and arctic temperatures |
