We're getting close to wrapping up our trip (lots of back-log posts to come from Bariloche and Mendoza) but I just have to say, before closing the book on Puerto Madryn, that it was my least favorite stop of the trip, and I only begrudgingly recommend it because it is a place to see animals.
While I love animals as much as the next person, I'm not sure if they were enough of a payoff for overpriced 3 hour tours, long desert drives, and sketchiest vibe of the trip. Fodor (who has incidentally proved to be a terrible South American guide . . . more on that later) described Puerto Madryn as "non-descript," but he didn't say just how much of a bummer the town is.
Puerto Madryn's got a sketchy vibe
I thought Puerto Madryn was sketchy from the moment we got ripped off on our cab ride into town (our first non-friendly, non-ethical cabbie of the trip). My impression didn't improve once we got into town. Ugly buildings, non-artistic graffiti, teenagers with babies, bored youths causing trouble, hot, tired, stray dogs, closed businesses, broken windows, and lots of other signs that say, “This isn’t an awesome place to be.”
And then, just in the 4 days we were there, a guy got his shoes stolen while we were on the seal tour, and one of the guys who worked at our hostel got mugged at the bars. So . . . not only does it look sketchy, it is sketchy.
One Sunday morning, I came out for breakfast, and our host Gaston was sitting by his computer, and I asked him how the night went. He shrugged, and said, “I think Isaac will not be at work today. I think his head is much too big."
I looked at him confusedly, and he swirled his head in loopy circles in response. Initially, I thought he was saying that Isaac was hungover, but he clarified that Isaac had actually gotten beat up. I asked how it happened, and Gaston said, “That’s what happens when you know everyone in town, and then people come for the summer, and they don’t know you. Those rock and roll bars, they are rock and roll. They rock, and then they roll.” He laughed and brushed it off, but I made a mental note to not visit the bars while in town.
Later that night, I saw Isaac preparing the shrimp BBQ, and sure enough, he had a black eye and a split lip. I asked for the story, and he said that he had gotten mugged outside of a bar. Some guys insisted on taking his wallet, he refused, so they beat him up and took it. And it was “all for 80 pesos!” (7-10 US dollars depending on the exchange rate.)
The interesting thing, is that the locals blame it on the out-of-towners, but we'd been all over Argentina at this point, and this was the first place I legitimately kept one eye open at all times.
The drivers in Puerto Madryn will run you down without a second thought
Puerto Madryn was the worst place to be a pedestrian that we visited. The drivers here make New York or Boston drivers seem overly polite. Everyone goes a million miles an hour, cuts in front of you, cuts you off, assumes the right of way, and refuses to stop--or even look--for pedestrians.
There are also no stop signs at a lot of 4 way stops, so it’s one big game of chicken, every single time you go through an intersection. When we rented a car, it was definitely a little hairy trying to get out of town.
Funnily enough, in this case too, the locals have said, “It’s not us, it’s the visitors that come from Buenos Aires.” I have no reason to doubt this is true, but I felt like, even though the drivers were crazy in Buenos Aires, they weren’t out to kill you.
Puerto Madryn: A spot of beach in the middle of a desert
Finally, what I hated most of all about Puerto Madryn was it’s location.
I had assumed that because we were on the beach, Puerto Madryn would be more like the coastal cities I know and love. In reality, Puerto Madryn is a big gulf, surrounded by hot, dry desert, and not much else.
To get to any of the tourist points is a several hour drive, through the middle of nowhere in the blazing heat, and many of the roads are gravel. So, to get anywhere, you spend a lot of your time in the dust of some bus or truck.
When Dan and I made the drive to Punta Tumbo I found myself thinking, “this would be a great place to bury someone you had killed.” It was that vast, and desolate.
Driving down the road to visit the Penguinos.
So, in conclusion, Puerto Madryn was a necessary evil on the way to see penguins, llamas, whales, dolphins, sea lions, elephant seals, etc. etc. I don’t want to over dramatize it, but it wasn’t an enjoyable place to be.
I would say it's a reminder that when you go somewhere with a certain expectation, but have no frame of reference, you're bound to be surprised by what you get. I think if I hadn't had Monterey pictured in my head, I might have enjoyed my time here much more.