Puerto Madryn is in Patagonia and is the start of the Argentine area for wildlife watching, so most people head here to see Penguins, Whales and Sea Lions. The town is wonderfully reminiscent of a coastal town in somewhere like New England or Maine. The town was settled by Welsh migrants in 1865 and we're told that the nearby town of Trelew still has a few native Welsh speakers. It was great to be able to walk along the promenade and breath in the fresh sea air after so long in the interior of the continent. However, wrapping up in fleeces and hats was pretty much a necessity on the first day (well for Carol anyway, who is cold in 30 degrees!) as the wind whipped in off the cold South Atlantic Ocean. Yesterday we took a power boat to tour the high seas of the South Atlantic, in search of the elusive Right Whales and Killer (Orca) Whales. The seas were choppy to say the least and the spray that coated the boat with each lunge into the oncoming waves reached every crevice, despite the sartorially elegant orange waterproof ponchos and life jackets! Despite the lurching of the boat we managed to hold on to breakfast though others turned a nice shade of green. The Right whale lives in the Sub Antarctic area for the majority of the year and comes to this part of the Argentinian coast in September time to reproduce. They are big mammals with the females on average 13m in length and around 5-6 tonnes (who ate all the fish!) and the males 1m shorter. They have a curious blue skin that is covered in hard, white raised callcifications, something like a fingerprint. Whilst they are born like this they eventually become quite rough with wear and tear and often small marine life lives on them like barnacles. The gestation period of the whale is one year (could you imagine) and when they are born the babies are 1m in length and 1 tonne in weight. They suckle for 1 year and drink 250 litres of milk everyday which is 70% fat - to keep that 40cm thick layer of blubber in tip top condition! With all that milk they grow about an inch a day. Unfortunately we didn't see any Killer whales. These whales will swim into shallow water only a couple of feet deep and grab penguins or seals off the beach. They will also attack and kill other whales for food. Alas we didn't see any of this but it would be a million to one shot to be in the right place at the right time. Now is the end of the season and many of the whales are returning back to the Antarctic to feed (as there is no food in this area for them here) so we were fortunate to see a mother Right whale and her baby whilst we were on the boat. They move really slowly almost like they are just floating along and they break the surface for only a second or two before descending to the depths again. We managed to get one photo but it's really difficult to predict where they will surface. We hope to get lots more in the Antarctic where they are more common. We also visited a part of the Valdes Peninsula that is famous for its colonies of Elephant Seals. They also come onto the beaches to breed and one male will keep a harem of up to 100 females for this purpose (Chris thinks we have a lot of good things to learn from the animal world!). A fully grown male is around 3m long and about 4 tonnes in weight. They will live on the beach for up to 4 months before returning to the sea which is their normal home. They are perfectly adapted to the sea and can dive upto 1500m (yes, that is nearly a mile down) before having to return to the surface to take their next breath which they can hold for upto 2 hours. We arrived at the beach on the beautiful South Atlantic coastline to find several large Seals basking in the crisp November sunshine with the occasional scratch, from the paw like fins, almost too much effort - this really is the life! They make no bones about lying all over each other though one or two did make a tremendous effort to "belly wobble" across the sands for a more exclusive spot. A couple of males also faced up to each other, in the distance, though it looked more like a drunken friday night pretend fight than a serious punchup! We also spotted some Magellan penguins which nest in this area. They are really curious animals and would wander up to the boundaries of the park and stand just 4 feet away having a good look at the curious animals taking photos. There will be much more of them when we reach the Antarctic. We have really enjoyed the quiet sophistication of this seaside town but are now heading back in land to Barriloche, on the border with Chile for a bit of hiking and if we are lucky a bit of skiing!