Hello our lovely followers!

Sorry we haven't blogged in a couple of days, but the real interesting part of our stop here in Puerto Madryn didn't occur until yesterday...

We arrived around 11am on Saturday to the Puerto Madryn bus station, extremely tired..our bus ride from El Calafate was 24 hours! Chris was in the beginning stage of fighting a sinus infection, so as soon as we checked into the hostel we took a quick nap. Thereafter, we had to figure out what day we wanted to travel to Peninsula Valdes, a UNESCO World Hertiage site that is home to thousands of marine species. We figured a full day of relaxing and resting would be best for Chris to fight his sickness, so we booked a full day excursion (7am-8pm!) for Monday. After settling our plans we visited the "banco," "supermarcado," and "farnacia," (see my spanish is improving ha!). Because we were over budget from our excursion in El Calafate, as well as from booking the trip to Peninsula Valdes, we knew it would be best if we didn't eat any lunches out, and only one dinner. We picked up some bread, ham and cheese for the lunch meals, along with chorizo, spinach stuffed pasta, tomato sauce and peas for dinner! At the pharmacy Chris was lucky and was able to acquire some medicine for his congestion and headache. It apparently worked really well and he is feeling much better now. After returning from errands, we wanted to check out the beach and pier that Puerto Madryn faces. Our hostel was only 3 blocks from the beach, and 3 blocks from the main square, so it was very centrally located. As soon as we stepped out, the sky had turned to black and a thunderstorm threatened our stroll. However, we figured a little rain wouldn't be so bad so we continued on anyways. It happened that it actually didn't rain over Puerto Madryn (only over the ocean), but instead made for a beautiful sunset and rainbows in the sky- great photo ops! When we returned to the hostel we headed to the kitchen to make our dinner. To our surprise, there were over 10 people in there, either cooking already or waiting to cook. We went back to our room and figured we would try again in an hour (it would be 10pm at that point) but once we were in bed and waiting, we both were too tired (and probably a bit lazy) to get up again to cook dinner..so we went to bed!

Next day we awoke to the wind whipping our windows (the wind in this place is severe and very strong). At breakfast- which consisted of the general bread, butter, jam and coffee- we overheard the group behind us that Peninsula Valdes had been closed for the day because of the wind. We felt lucky that we hadn't booked our trip for that day. Chris was still not feeling well, and the weather outside was not going to help him get better, so we took a quick walk in the morning down to the beach (along the boardwalk and out the pier) and than headed back to hang out and watch a movie for the day. He ended up sleeping a majority of the time we were at the hostel, which was great, because it absolutely helped him get better faster. Chris made our pasta and chorizo for lunch (delicious), and we started to search for a restaurant to eat at that night. We settled on "El Club Nautico" a tacky looking restaurant that apparently had amazing seafood. It's funny because even though we are staying in a predominately "seafood" area, Argentineans mainly export it rather than consume it. In fact, our tour guide yesterday even said that she doesn't know many Argentineans that eat ANY seafood, solely meat. When we arrived at the restaurant it was packed, and more people just kept coming in behind us. We waited 45 minutes for a table in the tiny front area (it was freezing outside because of the wind) continually having to move of shift for the busy waiters running around us. We actually had a great time waiting because we were able to see all the dishes coming out. Everything from seafood stews, to pieces of grilled meat, even an extra long skewer with about 15 shrimp; needless to say everything looked delicious and we had certainly built up an appetite before we sat down. We ordered a bottle of Malbec (roughly 10USD) along with a lettuce and tomato salad, and an order of fried calamari. For dinner, we split an "arroza" or a seafood mixture with rice. Everything was truly delicious (a little fishy for me) and very fresh. It was nice to have an evening out after spending almost an entire day inside.

Yesterday morning we woke up at 6:30am, bright and early to get ready for our tour to Peninsula Valdes. We were both very excited for the whole tour, but especially the whale watch. Our guide spoke in both english and spanish (which was very nice because that doesn't always happen) and before we headed out to the Peninsula, we drove around and learned some history on Puerto Madryn. Unlike we assumed, Puerto Madryn's main source of income is not solely tourism. It is actually home to the largest aluminum factory in all of Argentina, as well as it is a main shipping port for seafood. Apparently, those that work in the factories and those that work in the tourism industry don't often "mix" within town. Essentially meaning there are certain restaurants and bars that are separated. Our tour guide called these factory workers "the others." A very interesting dynamic. After the short lesson, we started our 90 minute drive to Peninsula Valdes. Because I knew we would be on a very curvy road, and extremely rocky boat, I took two dramamine to prevent motion sickness. The main side effect being drowsiness, the dramamine put me right to sleep and I awoke only when we had arrived at our first stopping point; the introduction center. Very small, but rather informative, we took 20 minutes here to read up on the various species we would be seeing, the high seasons of each, and how to spot such species. Hopping back in the van, we started toward Puerto Piramades, the docking port for all whale watching boats. Upon arriving, we were quickly shuffled in to one of the store fronts, to be dressed in "proper" attire. This included a large, heavy waterproof cape, and an obnoxiously uncomfortable orange life vest. When all were set, we headed down to the beach. There we saw about five boats hitched to trailers driven by tractors! Such a strange sight to see a tractor driving in the water. Settled on the boat, we were steered out to sea and ready to spot some whales. At this time of the year, the only whales still left in these warmer waters are the South Right Whale females and their new calfs. All the males have already left for their trek back to Antarctica. The mothers stay here to teach their calfs how to swim, and most importantly to feed them so they get very fat (for the colder water in Antarctica of course). On average, a baby calf will drink between 50-100 gallons/day of milk, which from the mother is a butter like consistency. They then will travel between Antarctica and Penisula Valdes multiple times so that the baby can learn the way, truly incredible. As soon as we left the shore, we spotted our first set of whales. They were playing near the surface, not jumping or diving, but to see their size so close was unbelievable, the mother was bigger than our 30 meter boat! In the distance, there was a whale that was jumping over and over, making huge splashes each time. We then navigated to a different spot and got even closer to a mother and her baby calf. They were approximately 10 ft away from us on the boat! I tried so hard to get some great pictures, but it was so hard to catch them at the right time, and I really wanted to just enjoy the sight. I did end up getting some neat shots, but nothing monumental. After about 1.5 hour on the water, we headed in to have some lunch before continuing on our journey. Chris and I both agree though that the whale sighting were our favorite part. To be so close to such giant sea creatures was a once in a lifetime experience.

After making and eating our lunch, we got back on the bus and headed to Punte Norte, home of the sea lions and Orca Whales. Unfortunately, we didn't see any Orcas (they are more visible in February and March when the baby sea lions are on their own) but we did see many sea lions, including some that were mating! Our guide said we were very lucky to see this, because normally they just lay there and don't do much. It was..well it was nature at its best. We also caught sight of an armadillo here. I never really knew what an armadillo looked like, and it definatley surprised me. It is a funky looking animal (see pictures) and moves VERY fast. It didn't seem to be afraid of humans at all, and even came on the path a couple of times to "pose". It was pretty cute though.

Leaving Punto Norte, we headed to Punta Cantor where we would see nesting penguins. 5 minutes down the road however, we stopped and were told there was another tour bus behind us that had broken down and we needed help them. After 20 minutes of hooking the two bus together, we were off again and started toward a ranch where the drivers would have the proper tools to fix the bus. Obviously this was not part of the tour, but the ranch was actually very beautiful and it wasn't bad to spend the hour we did there. Overlooking the water, this ranch houses people during the months of December and March that come SOLELY to see the Orca Whales. Every high tide, they go together from the ranch to see if they spot any. The ranch was home to a llama, a fleet of dogs, horses, sheep, and beautiful peacocks. Finally, the bus was fixed and we were on our way to the penguins. We were unaware of how close we would be able to get to the nesting penguins, but we were pleasantly surprised when there were some only an arms length away. You could even see right into the nest, and sometimes when the penguin would shift, the egg! They were very cute and fun to watch. Sometimes, when big gusts of wind would come, they would stand up, arch their backs, and flap their wings, looking as if they were trying to fly. I, of course, got a kick out of this.

Finally, our last stop was to another colony of sea lions. This stop however allowed us to get much closer to the resting animals. An interesting fact I didn't know about sea lions is the majority of their life is spent in the water. They have to dive very deep to catch the food they eat, and therefore, it would take too much time to live on land and have to continually swim our so far just for food. There wasn't much activity this time, except for one male that kept raising his head and making loud barking noises. The view from this stop was breathtaking though, and was a good panoramic shot of Peninsula Valdes. As we were boarding the bus, we also saw a small grey fox hunting around for food snacks.

It 6:00pm by the time our tour was complete, and we had over a 2 hour drive home. It was a great trip, and besides all the animals I mentioned, we also saw some wildlife on the side of the road such as Mara (large guinea/rabbit types animals) and Guanaco (deer/llama types). It was more than worth the money, and we were so happy we invested the time to see Peninsula Valdes.

Returning to the hostel we were both exhausted from the day, so we simply heated our leftovers and called it a day.

Today we leave for Bariloche (the last of the Patagonia towns we will visit) at around 8pm this evening. This bus ride is significantly shorter (only 15 hours) and we will arrive in Bariloche tomorrow afternoon. We plan on visiting the EcoCenter museum today, and having a big lunch out since we won't be eating on the bus until 10pm tonight. Of course when we have some stories from Bariloche we will update again.

Miss you all and look forward to your messages!! Be on the lookout for the pictures from Puerto Madryn!

xoxo, CIAO Sarah and Chris