Puerto Madryn by Baz

After an overnight bus and a stay in Rio Galegos, the most depressing and overpriced town in history, we arrived in Puerto Madryn. There, we had the intention of seeing some whales.We were shocked by the extreme weather conditions, a really strong wind intensified by the sand from the beach carried into your face and eyes. This wasnt the norm for the area and we enjoyed very warm conditions for the majority of our week-long stay.

We delayed our whale trip for a few days as Seonaid wasnt feeling very well, but in the meantime we relaxed at the comfortable hostel and made some friends, including Mark from Derry.Mark had been on the Whale trip a few days before us and had got a beautiful day and some terrific photos, really close to these spectacular animals.

When we left on the morning of our trip it was another blustery day. Reaching the beach an hour later we were shocked by how much the wind had picked up and we were unsure whether the trip would be on. But on it was, and we launched the boat, excited and a little nervous. As we got out further the sea got rougher.I was having a great time bouncing up and down in waves that seemed about 15 feet and getting splashed by the waves coming over the boat. My joy was shortlived as after about 15 minutes I was cold, wet and felt sick. These feelings were shared by all 30 of the boats passangers, as laughter and excitment turned to the sound of people wretching over the side of the boat and children crying.

Then...a light at the end of the tunnel...a big whale on the horizon. The boat moved closer and the people began to muster up a little entheusiasm for the persuit. We got quite close and got a rare glimpse of a mother and an uncommon white baby whale. The baby was copying everything the mother did and as she jumped out of the water, the baby followed behind, learning from her. It was a great sight, although we didnt get close enough to get any photographes of value.

We ended the tour by visiting a penguin colony and seal colony, neither of which blew me away.

The highlight of this part of the trip was the people we met, and we all had a great nights craic at the hostel barbeque where we enjoyed a lot of meat and a few glasses of red wine.