After leaving Ventana I travelled via collectivo (small public bus full of locals and no tourists) to Bahia Blanco where I managed to get an overnight bus to Pt. Madryn. This has got to be the worst bus trip I have taken yet as I seemed to endure the greatest extremes of temperature I have yet experienced on this trip. After freezing at the front of the bus I realised that the bck was heated but unfortuntely fell asleep with my coat on a awoke boiling hot. As a result I now have a cold.....

Anyway, spent 2 days in Pt Madryn seeing some of the amazing wildlife here. On the first day I met some Americans who were hiring a car and joined them on their trip 100 km south to see Punta Tombo where there is a Magallenic Penguine (Penguinos! en español) colony with half a million inhabitants. The Penguinos were very tame and allowed people to get so close that they could almost touch them. They almost seemed curious to see us and have an odd humanity in the way they walk upright.

Also ont he first day we visited Gaiman which is an old town (down 100 km of dirt track!) founded by Welsh settlers how came over to look after the sheep i suppose (what else do welsh people do....?) Here we had Welsh tea (very expensive but ´tenedor libre´ - eat all you can) and I was albe to say good morning in welsh (despite it being the afternoon) and ask for a cup of tea, thus depleting my reserve of Welsh vocabulary.

The next day we took the car to Peninsula Valdes where we took a boat trip to see the right whales who are currently looking after their calves in the bay. We were able to get really close, probably 2 metres from the boat, which even silenced the usually loud Argies. We also saw them jumping but only from a great distance. We also saw seals and more penguines and I was desperate to see an Orca eat a seal but it is rare even in the season which begins in a few months.

My final day was spent relaxing and charging ipod and gameboy (and wishing I´d leftt he night before). Hopefully it will help me get over this cold.....