SOoooo here began our adventure in Patagonia, a Welsh Colonial city on the eastern coast of Argentina (YES that’s Welsh from Wales!!!)…Our taxi driver from the airport was a lovely old man who incidentally had the surname Jones, and who´s grandparents had migrated from Wales to Argentina…seemed to be a common story amongst some of the people we met during our stay.

The city itself was very small, all the roads were laid out in a grid-like formation and it was easy to get around walking. It was full of nice restaurants and bars and a nice change from the usual food and drink we were used to in Brazil.

Puerto Madryn is a town used to explore the Peninsula Valdes, a bay renowned for its marine wildlife such as seals, sealions, penguins and orcas.
We joined a full day tour of the peninsula, but seemed to be stuck in the minibus for a long time whilst it went from bay to bay. At each stop we saw some penguins and elephant seals...we had however missed the last orca sightings by a few days and were quite disappointed at the small numbers of animals we were seeing (we were told after that we were in the wrong season to see lots of animals!!!). As you can tell by the photos, it was bloody freezing and we looked like michelin men walking along the coast with 5 layers and funny hats. The bus ride was bearable as we met a few irish girls and a couple from BA who were on vacation... We arranged to meet that evening for drinks at a bar near the sea front where the waiter tried to scam us out of more money than we owed due to our GRINGO status!

Patagonia ended up being cheaper for us, not just due to the currency, but also as each hostel we went to had a big kitchen with great cooking facilities. We enjoyed being able to cook dinner every night and experimented with different types of food- it was a nice change once again from the food in Brazil and curry even ended up being on the menu a few times! The supermarkets were stocked with everthing imaginable,making it easy to cook variety, and we fell in love with a chocolate called HAMLET- if you are ever in S.A. you have to try it!

Puerto Madryn prides itself on its marine wildlife, so we spent an afternoon in the Ecocentro, a museum/wildlife centre full of information on the animals and the habitat surrounding the area. It was a great walk back along the beach to the hostel where we grabbed our things and headed to the next Welsh town...