TRAVEL AND TOURS

The traveller heading for Puerto Madryn should be ready to follow dream-like trails, experience the supreme silence of the plateau, delight him/herself with the fantastic shapes of the clouds overhanging the immensity of the open sea and enjoy the musical beat of the endless breakers.

He/she should also look forward to admiring the refined combination of beaches, sea, rocky slopes, flora, fauna and deserts that extend beyond the horizon in every direction, as well as bearing witness to the remains of an era when the ocean was much higher and the only land in the area swarmed with dinosaurs.

Puerto Madryn is an area with a population of about inhabitants 1,000, offering the scenarios we have described above for sporting activities or thoughtful relaxation. It has 30 km of beaches that surround a modern city with a well-organized tourism facility infrastructure.

It is in the northeastern area of Chubut province, at the foot of the rocky slopes of a plateau that rises to 120 masl, facing the blue waters of Golfo Nuevo, where the rising and falling hum of the wind provides a musical complement to the chirping of the city birds.

The first time a Europeans walked on this land was in January 1779, when the expedition commanded by Juan de la Piedra discovered the Golfo de San José. He disembarked on the current Villarino beach, initiating a flux of immigration which has continued to the present day, with some interruptions.

The city of Puerto Madryn was founded in 1865, and named after Love Jones Parry, who was Baron of Madryn in Wales. In late July of that year, 150 immigrants from Wales arrived in Chubut on the sailing ship Mimosa.

This process was made faster a year later, when construction was started on the leg of the railway joining Puerto Madryn to the city of Trelew, with the work of Welsh, Spanish and Italian immigrants.

From then onwards, Puerto Madryn became the gate door to the colony. The city grew slowly but steadily, thanks to the activities of the railway and port, and the local trade and storage services.

This structure was only kept going, however, until the first years of the nineteen sixties. That is, when customs franchises were abolished and the last trading firms disappeared, as did the "Compañía Mercantil de Chubut" (Chubut Trading Company).

Finally, the end of it all was the closure of the Patagonian Railway.

This series of events leads to the expansion of the tourism wealth in the southeast part of the province, and new expectations are born thanks to the installation of some new industries, such as the aluminum production plant in the mid-seventies.

As from then, Puerto Madryn has grown rapidly thanks to tourism and the new industrial facilities, doubling its population and making it the region's service hub.

If you want to feel the mysterious beauty that defines this city, just take an easy stroll along its streets to discover the secret corners of its past and the soft sands of its beaches, where you will entertain yourself watching the antics of curious sea lions and beady-eyed Magellan penguins.

Here we have more than 30 km of smoothly sloping beaches of sand and gravel, gradually sliding into the cobalt blue ocean that Puerto Madryn offers its visitors. On top of the many white cliffs that frame the encircling landscape, tourists will find a whole range of striking options that will make their stay a memorable turning-point in their lives.