ARRIVAL IN CHATBUT
I found an accommodation through one of the online platforms and the house seemed quite hospitable and the reviews showed a certain cordiality on the part of the host, Marian. And above all I had a single room and there were no other people in the house. Perfect situation when you carry important photographic equipment and if you have to work on the computer. It was early afternoon when I arrived by bus in Puerto Madryn after a journey of about 7 hours from Rio Negro and there was a small problem: the rain. And the roads in that region are almost all gravel and dirt and when it rains they are closed. Then there was another problem: I didn’t have a means of transport, but wait, because this is where what I call “go with the flow, make things happen” happens. A few days before, after I posted some photos about Argentina, a girl I had in my contacts and she was also Argentinian had written to me and had told me that if I needed anything, she would be available. In the end she had left me the contact of a girl from Puerto Madryn called Nani. Nani was involved in astro-photography and worked in tourism. I had contacted her shortly after and we had arranged to meet for the same day at 6 pm for a coffee to get to know each other.
Nani was exactly the kind of person who helps you get in touch with everyone. She had contacted several people for me, hotel owners, a car rental company. She had provided me with maps of the area to show me the best spots to meet wildlife, always keeping in mind the fact of rain and in fact she had also reiterated that in the last three days there had been the amount of water that usually rains in a year. In short, after half an hour of talking to her, I had a very clear picture for my next week. I had the car, which I would pick up the following morning. I had the contact of the business that organized boat safaris for whales and dolphins and much more extremely useful.
The following morning, I went to pick up my car from Mr. Martyn, a very kind gentleman, after all like all the people I had met up to that point in Patagonia. That same afternoon it was still raining so I took advantage of it to do some shopping and work on the photos of the sea lions on the computer and prepare some posts for social media. The following morning I woke up at dawn to head south, to visit one of the largest colonies of Magellanic penguins that from mid-September go up the coast to reproduce. There were thousands of them, I was able to observe them with binoculars and the peculiar thing was the fact of seeing them walk on the ground, digging burrows in the greenery (I have always seen penguins on ice or on the shore, while these walked for kilometers up the coast).
Punta Tombo penguins.
It was sunny, but also very windy, which is always a constant in Patagonia. While I was returning, I also encountered the first guanacos grazing in the steppe along the gravel roads, taking my pictures.
Guanacos in the steppe.
To end the day in style, I had made the decision to tackle the muddy road that led down to the coast, risking getting stuck. But the desire for adventure was too much to decide to stop and postpone the opportunity to who knows what other day (if there would have been one). The objective this time was the elephant seals and Nani had recommended a place right on the road back from Punta Tombo. After about forty kilometers of muddy road I managed to get down to the beach. There was no one there. And there was no connection either so if something had happened to me I don’t know how I could have asked for help.
Elephant Beach after the long stretch of muddy road.
But there were elephants and there was a large reddish male that was impressive for its size. Then there were many mothers with their cubs that had been born recently, perhaps weeks ago since they had a black coat and not gray as it becomes after only a month. I couldn’t stop watching them. With the binoculars I saw incredible details, I felt like I was close to them, and I could hear them breathing. I took beautiful photographs. Close-ups, ambient, videos where the mothers cuddle their cubs. I felt truly immersed in the soul of true wildlife photography.
Sea Elephants, Mum and baby chilling on the shore.
The following morning the southern spring had decided to debut with a sun like it hadn’t been seen for a long time and in the small fishing port my day had begun with the courtship calls of sea lions that now seemed to have their residence in the village and along the mouth of the river the eternal fight for fresh fish between seals and seagulls seemed to never cease. It was ten o’clock when we left the port behind us to throw ourselves into the open sea in search of Commerson’s Duikers and after a mile from the mouth of the port channel a southern right whale was celebrating the start of the new season by highlighting its majesty, with tail strokes and fins on the surface of the water. The ocean paths became accessible and the coasts teemed with life. A female elephant seal was trying in every way to ruin the only landscape photograph I wanted to take, the oystercatchers were sneaking into the frame, and the snakes were emerging from their long hibernation, stunned by the months of inactivity, oblivious to my crossing.
It wasn’t a dream, it was Patagonia. It was my journey. It was my work. It was Adelante.
I spent the next few days in that area where in the meantime I had become friends with the photographer on board the Commerson dolphin boat and she, being from the area, had shown me all the most hidden places, unknown to casual visitors. Now, this is exactly how I love to travel.
THE LONG TRANSFER TO RIO GALLEGOS, HEADING SOUTH
The trip had started off great and seemed to want to go on that path and once again, the interesting things always turned out to be the unexpected ones. I needed and needed to take some days off and I absolutely wanted to rest so I could face the cold that awaited me in the Andes in a few days. But then things, on trips like this, had gone differently. I was heading to Rio Gallegos, on a 19-hour bus ride. In the 50s/60s a sister of my maternal great-grandfather had moved to Argentina and through other relatives I met a great-nephew of hers (so a cousin of mine of I don’t know what degree) who was my age, a nature photographer too and was a wildlife ranger, a bit like the forest ranger in Italy. He lived right in Rio Gallegos, in the South, and we were not far from Chile and Tierra del Fuego, the extreme tip. The bus arrived at lunchtime, and Emanuele had picked me up at the station to take me to his house where I had met my relatives. Emanuele was a forest ranger and photographer and knew exactly where to take me. Not even a few hours after arriving, I had taken bursts of close-ups of a short-eared owl in broad daylight, a Patagonian fox, a pair of cauquèn and many other animals and right there, in that moment, I had the certainty that the trip was having the outcome I wanted. It was all so unexpected but at the same time perfect, as if there was an invisible guide who was quietly showing me the way.
Photo’s by Daniele Dell’Osa