We were cordoned off on the pier and had 6 security/tourist personnel guarding us for our entire stay. If not for this the ships hub caps may have been stolen.
Tourist vessels have never been known to come here. It was such a big deal that the Mayor had an official greeting ceremony and it was filmed by local TV. We later found out that this is an election year.
Were did not have to venture from the pier. Two buses from the local tourist company whisked us directly out of town. The road quickly became indistinguishable from the gravel countryside. My nose was running, it was very dusty inside the bus until they turned on the aircon. This blasted a full on tsunami of grey dust on everyone. Some of this dust is apparently explained by the Chilean volcano that erupted 20 years ago. Our guide told us that she was 6 at the time and it deposited ash knee deep all over this area. All wildlife died. Apparently the aircon hadn’t been turned on since then.
We turned off the gravel highway onto a gravel road towards a canyon. The canyon was 150 metres deep and was worth a couple of quick snaps, but no, we faced a 3 hour excursion here. The valley floor was odd. A few more snaps.
Back on the bus we assumed we would be sped directly back to the ship. No way. There were even more things to see. A rusty ranch. We stopped and were directed to a corral. I was wondering how much ransom they were going to seek. They brought out something resembling sandwiches. Others had taken bites and not dropped dead on the spot so I tried it. Seems OK. The coke was OK too.
After an hour or two we were eventually released. We no longer cared that the bus driver wouldn’t stop for us to photograph armadillos. Get us to the ship fast. But no, there was more to see. This time the grooto de Lourdes. A tiny canyon that the poorly translated guide told us was built in 1947. It was rock that was clearly millions of years old so we guessed they started to use it as memorial to the dead in 1947. Twice per year the entire town of Puerto Deseado walks most of the way to this site and then crawls on knees the last 12Km. I don’t think we’ll find any budding soccer players here.
Get us to the ship now. But no, a quick tour of the highlights of the town. They have two sets of traffic lights and both were red when we got to them. We were not harmed. Perhaps they have seen so few tourists that crime hasn’t yet even occurred to them?
Safely back on ship. The announcement was that we would have another half day to sight see in town without armed guards. I decided to suffer with my cold and bad back in bed until I could feel the ship moving again.
We were also told that Deseado means Desire. My stomach muscles started involuntary spasms which caused teary eyes and the snorting up of a considerable amount of gue until the next sentence which said it was named after the ship that found it. The captain must have had a sense of humour.
Next day, most of the passengers did venture around town. As far as I know there were no deaths, stabbings, thefts, muggings, bashings, not even any beggars. It was apparently very safe and cheap very fast broadband was found. Damn it. But there really wasn’t anything to see.
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