Puerto Madryn

Faced with the epic task of journeying the whole length of Argentina to get to Bolivia, we decided to break the trip into 3 legs. The first of which being a 26 hour bus ride from El Chalten to Puerto Madryn where we spent 4 nights.

Puerto Madryn, located on the South Atlantic coast of Argentina, is famous for its marine wildlife. It is widely regarded as one of best places in the world for whale watching with a 90% successful viewing rate during high season. Unfortunately for us it was off-season for the big whales which was a shame. We were, however, lucky enough to be there during the sea lion and seal breeding season. Why is that lucky? Well because baby sea lions and seals are really fluffy and cute.... or more importantly they are very tasty if you are a Killer Whale! In fact this time of year is the annual marine world equivalent of D-Day, where the Killer Whales storm the beach taking down as many sea-lion pups as they can!

Being massive fans of David Attenborough programmes and feeling blood thirsty after a long journey, we booked up a tour straight away. The tour took us on a 300km ride around Peninsula Valdes which is the nearby national park and world heritage site packed full off wildlife. The trip was amazing and we saw loads of great stuff; Alpacas (Llama), Grey Foxes, Macas (Giant Guinea Pigs), Armadillos, Penguins, Elephant Seals, Sea Lions and Killer Whales! Check out the pictures. Unfortunately we only saw the Killer Whales from a distance (so some of our pictures are dramatisations that may not have happened) and weren't lucky enough to see any D-Day action. Apparently only 15% of visitors are lucky enough to witness it.

The whole experience was really funny. Never before have I seen such a large group of people hoping to see baby animals get eaten! When you watch it on the telly you kind of always hope the animal being hunted gets away. When it's live all you want to see is a bloodbath! Every time a sea lion or seal pup went for its first ever swim, everyone there was licking there lips with excitement hoping it would be it's last. When a Killer Whale eventually did arrive to patrol the shore it disappointingly swam straight past what I considered to be a free lunch. So they aren't as clever as Attenborough makes out!

The city itself was a decent beach resort that had a beautiful coast line. We spent one of the days walking to the city limits around the coast. On route we caught a glimpse at the ruins of the original settlements left by Welsh explorers nearly 200 years ago.

We have now begun the second leg of our journey to Bolivia. A lovely 36 hour bus ride to Salta in Northwest Argentina. This journey actually spans over two nights! We intend to spend a few days in Salta before making our way into Bolivia to do the Salt Flats tour next week.

Harry's short Poem to sum up travelling:

In every meal, cheese and ham

In every room, a snoring man

On every bus, you get no sleep

On every mountain, the hills too steep

In the end, every few days

You get to a place that will simply amaze

The little things that you miss

Fade away and turn to bliss

(People will study that in years to come... cue Tommy's critique)

Harry & Nicola

Copa Del Sh*thead Scoreboard: NH 98 - 115 HF