Peninsula Valdez. For some reason we thought it a rather clever idea to travel south, and that in South America terms means coldness, extreme coldness!

Nevertheless we caught our bus all the way from Buenos Aires which is the equivalent of 17 hours and 1,250 Km. so a very long way! For money saving strategies we caught a night bus, so no hostel was needed. Turns out a better time to travel anyway, no traffic and dark means an attempt at sleeping, which we both failed at apart from heavy snoozing, but we survived, of course. We arrived in Puerto madryn around 3pm and headed for a hostel we had read up on. We found it after a quick stroll and set up camp. That day was spent exploring the area, just a little town but a bit too touristified also. AS we walked along the bay front to our surprise we could see whales splashing around, probabily as little as 500m off. The sea was full of them, easy to spot, but no detail for obvious reasons. This made us all the more excited at the prospect of going out on a boat to see them close up.

The following day, we had slept in to get over the bus trip so whale watching was off the cards as it meant an early start. so we decided to make the most of the day and do something active, oh what a mistake. We set about hiring bikes for the day and started our 16km distance to a beach known for its ability to see whales at very close proximity. The way there was bearable, the wind was behind us, and although my bike was far to little for me and had an extremely uncomfortable seat, we made it ,albeit very sand whipped. We reached or destination and set about looking for whales, we spotted a few but no such luck in terms of closeness promised. so we set off back to our hostel, it seems our bikes were as tired as ourselves and quickly gave up the ghost, approx 1km in, oh dear, we still had 15km left! My bike kept loosing its chain and nearly threw me off on numerous occasions, and rhi´s just died, her front tyre popped and that was that, it seemed a long walk was on the cards. after a while it dawned it was simply impossible to walk this distance in ferocious winds and with two broken bikes, the only choice was to hitch-hike, sorry ma n pa, it was inevitable! After a few attempts we flagged a saloon down which held ma n pa, two baby twins and a young child, but he found room for us and tied our bikes half in and half out of his boot and put us in the back. The kindness of strangers, they went out of thier way to drop us outside of our hostel, for nothing at all in return. a lucky escape me thinks.

The next day we set off early for the bus the actual reserve of penisula valdez, where we checked into a hostel on the coast and 2 mins away from boats to go and see the whales, our ultimate plan! that afternoon we booked our place on a boat and set sail. The whole experience was magical and worth the long bus ride, we were out on the boat for 2 hours and saw atleast 15-20 whales. We even managed the chance encounter with a mother and child, the mum bobbed toward us with baby in tow and threw her head out of the water just a meter or so away from me, amazing, could have reached out and touched her. The whales seemed to play with the boat, seeming extremly gentle and playful, swimming directly under the boat and turning on there side to show off thier finn. The size was humoungous and they hung in groups. we definately got our moneys worth, mum n dad, you will enjoy your experience i can put ,money on it. the pics will be on shortly so you will see what we mean in terms of proximity and size!

So with the day done we had one night in the hostel and got our next bus to the destination of Bariloche, in hope of some snow to do a bit of ski-ing. Another 14 hour bus journey ahead.

We will update soon enough with our exploits, you are now fully up to date,

R and C xxx