What a place, famous for its whales and Wales (we will explain later!) it doesnt disappoint! Another long coach journey later and we arrived, racking up about 65hours on coaches over the last few weeks!! The coaches are luxury, but reality hit when speaking with a group of Germans at the hostel explained why our coach from Brazil: Sao Paulo to Iguazu got stopped and searched by armed police 4 times; apparently only a week earlier a coach on the same route was hijacked and all passenger robbed and placed half naked in the luggage compartment.... makes you realise where you are!!

So Puerto Madryn, we strolled down to the beach and the first thing we saw were two whales playing in the bay!! We hadnt even started the whale watching trip yet!! Like true tourist we literally ran to the pier to get a closer look. The whales love Puerto Madryn for its warm and save bays, they are born here then set off around the world always returning home to chill and have babies! That night was spent in the hostel, we met a cool aussie called Andrew and a dutch guy, we decided to rent a car for two days as the excursions are stupidly expensive. The hostel was full of cool people, some crazy guys from Israel with an equally crazy card game called TAKI!?! A group of germans girls and guy and some drunk french girls, safe to say it was an amusing night with no thought of the long drive we had in front of us the next morning!!

We awoke on National Whale day, conveniently!! Threw ourselves in our little Fiat hire car and drove the 150 Km to jump on the first boat out for whale watching. The closest I had really come to seeing a whale was ´Free Willy´, so I expected it to be a little emotional! Our little boat would stop and cut its engines, the ´captain´ would shout loudly in spanish as if he had been shot in the foot, waving his arms around.... then a monster of a whale raised its head... swimming straight for us it dived under the boat just in time!! I thought I was filming the next Jaws film!! But these creatures were amazing, so peaceful, we saw a mother with its baby and even interupted two trying to have sex.... apparently they need 4-7 males for one female, its almost porn like but Il describe it as innocently as possible: 1 male on each side to keep the female in the right direction, 1 male in charge of rolling her back over should she flip and the 1 that pulled the long straw gets to do the job... as such! The whales certainly celebrate National Whales day! Still in shock we drove on the very dodgy gravel roads (theres an insurance excess for the hire car if you ´roll it´.. with good reason!!) to another point where we saw huge seals and elephant seals (seals with noses like elephants trunks... very ugly but hugely funny!). Petra and me slept most the drive there so it was my turn to drive back, the Argentinians are the best drivers but it was only a local dog that ran out infront of the car then froze on the spot that caused locking of the brakes, flying bags and closed eyes (luckily not mine!)!! It survived, hopefully a little wiser!!

Petra and me have taken to cooking (Petra a little more than me to be honest!) in the hostels, fresh Argentinian steak and different types of pasta followed by wine.... oh how the wine is so so cheap here and really nice, a tasty 2006 bottle of red costs.... wait for it... 1 POUND!!! So after another drunken night of TAKI cards and other games we all got in the car and drove down to Punta Tombo where 600,000 penguins come every Septmber to have babies. On the road trip this time we were joined by d´germans in their volkswagen rental car (im sure they asked for a VW!), two hours later we were walking amoung 600,000 penguins!! Since then Petra has adopted a great impression of their walk (you can´t adopt a penguin)!! Just standing and watching them is a hobby you can take on for hours, they even have a special path down to the beach where they go swimming!!

Our final day in this surreal town with whales bathing in the bay (maybe similar to Bognor Regis?!!) we walked along the beach to a museum, Puerto Madryn use to be a Welsh town, back in 1865 about 160 bored welsh people took a 3month boat trip across to set up a colony. The is even a town that still exists where they speak welsh, the buildings are exact matches to those in wales and there naturally are thousands of sheep!! You can even have tea and cake in a coffee shop where Princess Diana visited... strange! The next day we head west across Argentina to Bariloche.......

Zdravime z Patagonie! Mestecko Puerto Madryn je proslule velrybami a jak se ukazuje po prvnich krocich smer plaz se nestacime divit. Hned se nam podari zpozorovat 2, a jako spravni turisti se vydavame na molo kouknout z blizka. Tvare nam mrznou uz po 5 min (prece jen teprve zacina jaro) a tak se vracime zpet do hostelu. Tam se davame do reci s Andym (austral.) a jeho holandskym kamaradem, a nakonec jdeme spolecne pronajmout auto na 2 dny. Atmosfera v hostelu je super! Poprve poradne ponocujeme a bavime se ve spolecnosti slozene z temer 10 narodnosti. Jak se pozdeji ukazuje tento hostel je zatim nejlepsi pro zabavu a party za nas prvni mesic cestovani - uzivame si to! Druhy den se tedy nevyspali vydavame na 500km okruzni cesty. Prvni zastavka je Puerto Piramide a my jdeme na vylet lodi pozorovat velryby!! Nestacime se divit kdyz se vynoruji hned vedle nas, dosahuji az 14 metru! Vidime ruzne druhy velryb, mladata s matkou a taky se nam podari zachytit "momentku rozmnozovani" ( na 1 samici je 4-7 samcu, kdy nekolik z nich ji drzi v pozici, dalsi otaci na zada, a jen jeden z nich je ten stastny). Uzivame si tento nezapomenutelny zazitek a pote nasedame do auta a prejizdime do oblasti Punta Norte. Pozorujeme nadherne more a obrovske lenive tulene - skoda ze neni sezona jinak by bylo mozne videt zabijacke velryby orky!! zastavujeme na malinkou kolonii tucnaku a pote opet na tulene a lachtany! V teto chranene rezervaci nejsou silnice takze ridime po sterkovych cestach, kaminky letaji vsude a tak nase rychlost je minimalni a cesta unavna. Naladu si zlepsujeme u meho kuchynskeho umeni, lahve vina a hrani jakychsi izraelskych karet jmenem TAKI ..!?

Nasledujici den si pronajimaji auto i nasi nemecti prratele a my vyrazime na cestu v 8! Ceka nas 400 km, ale vyplati se! Dojizdime do rezervace Punta Tombo kde se vyskytuje okolo 600.000 tucnaku. Jsou vsude kolem nas, snazici se nekam dojit, kazdy paty krok zakopnou, spadnou, odpocinou si a pak pokracuji zase dalsi 3 metry :-) Ziji na obrovskych plantazich, kde maj sve domecky (jakesi lisci nory) a celkem nas prekvapilo jak daleko jsou vzdalene od more. Nemuzeme se nabazit jejich pozorovani, jsou to nejlegracnejsi tvorove jake jsme kdy videli. (zajimavost - tucnaci zde ziji spolecne s lamami..!?)

Posledni den relaxujeme, ve meste se zastavujeme pozorovat velryby a take navstevujeme tamejsi museum, ve kterem se dovidame vse o velsske kolonii ktera se zde umistila v 18.st, celkem zajimave ze prave lide z Velsu se rozhodli cestovat 3mes na lodi a vybudovat si zde kolonii.A jedno velsske mestecko zde stale je, celkem proslavene pro navstevu princezny Diany! Celkovy pobyt hodnotime jako velice podareny, sbirame spostu novych nezapomenutelnych zazitku a uz se tesime na dalsi ktere si budeme uzivat ve meste Bariloche!!